What if Sanders Wins California?

SAN DIEGO -- The best way for California Democrats to make their voices heard in this election is to vote for Bernie Sanders.

I'm not endorsing the Vermont senator. Columnists should not be in that line of work. And it's not that I believe that Sanders would be a better president than Hillary Clinton. Quite the opposite.

But as voters go, if you're predictable, you're forgettable. If you want to matter, shake things up. And, for Californians, on June 7, this means voting for Sanders. If Clinton wins the state, it'll be almost anti-climactic.

While New Hampshire and Iowa like to throw their weight around as early voting states, that's not the California way. In fact, the nation's most populous state is also -- with regard to national politics -- one of the most insecure. It's never quite sure of its own power and influence.

When it comes to presidential elections, California often feels ignored and neglected. And it's not dreaming. The Golden State always seems to get the short end of the stick.

For one thing, because its primary isn't until June, California usually doesn't get to participate in any meaningful way in the lead-up to the general election. The contests for both the Republican and Democratic nominations are usually settled long before the candidates make their way out west.

Also, California is a deep blue state that Democrats tend to take for granted at election time and Republicans typically write off. Democrats will usually come here only to raise money, in the liberal strongholds of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Then they turn around and spend it on television ads in more competitive "battleground" states such as Ohio or Virginia.

Lastly, because they're in the Pacific time zone, California voters have learned to go to the polls in the early morning. If they wait to go after work, on election night in November, they might hear the race called one way or another on the car radio on their way to the polling station.

Come to think of it, California has a lot in common with Bernie Sanders. Neither gets much respect.

The Democratic establishment -- i.e., Bill and Hillary Clinton, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as well as Democratic governors, senators, members of Congress and other elected officials who are going to the national democratic convention in Philadelphia as Clinton-leaning "superdelegates" -- has been trying to pressure Sanders to drop out of the race for months. This, despite the fact that the senator has won primaries and caucuses in 20 states, raised more than $200 million and performed so well in delegate-rich California that he is now -- according to a number of polls -- locked in a virtual tie with Clinton.

...continued

swipe to next page