In California’s one-party system, political family feuds fill competitive vacuum – Orange County Register

Aristotle is said to have coined the phrase “nature abhors a vacuum” — or “horror vacui” in Latin — as a principle in the physical world. However it applies equally well to politics, particularly in a one-party state such as California.

For many decades, the state’s politics were marked by competition between the two major parties.

California was largely a Republican state for its first century, but after World War II, as its population expanded rapidly, Democrats gained parity.

For several decades, voters switched back and forth, sometimes favoring Republicans in high-profile contests for president, governor and U.S. senator but often switching to Democrats.

Eventually, for several reasons, Republican strength waned, and today Democrats hold all statewide offices, own presidential electoral votes and have super-majorities in the Legislature and congressional delegation.

One-party dominance creates a vacuum, so in the absence of inter-party competition, Democrats have developed factions or quasi-parties defined by ideology, gender, ethnicity, personality or, sometimes, geography. The fault lines are often exploited by interest group lobbyists.

What’s true in the Capitol is also true elsewhere in the state, as an incident in Los Angeles two years ago demonstrates.

Out of the blue, an audio recording of four prominent Latino political figures surfaced. They were discussing how Latinos could displace Black politicians and become more powerful. It was a touchy subject, and the conversation included racist remarks not only about Black figures but Jewish, Armenian, Indigenous and gay people as well.

Nury Martinez, president of the Los Angeles City Council, immediately resigned her position and eventually left the council. Council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León retained their seats, but all three were formally censured. The fourth person in the room, Los Angeles County Labor Federation president Ron Herrera, also resigned.

The incident brought public attention to long-simmering ethnic friction, triggered by the rapid growth of the county’s Latino residents vis-a-vis its relatively tiny Black population.

Four hundred miles to the north, San Francisco’s politicians, Democrats all, duel incessantly over the mayoralty, seats in the Legislature and Congress and spots on the city’s 11-member Board of Supervisors.

Mayor London Breed, who has positioned herself as a moderate in the notoriously left-leaning city, faces what seems to be an uphill re-election campaign this year, with homelessness and a spike in street crime the driving issues.

Meanwhile, what’s been described as a shadow campaign is underway over who will succeed Nancy Pelosi, the long-serving speaker of the House of Representatives.

State Sen. Scott Wiener clearly wants to claim the seat whenever Pelosi steps down, but Wiener supporters believe that she is trying to anoint her daughter, Christine, thus continuing a tradition.