John Phillips: California gained very little moving up primary from June to March

In September of 2017, then California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that moved California’s presidential primary elections to the beginning of March, three months ahead of when they were held in 2016.

The motivation behind the move was to increase the state’s influence in deciding who would be the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. By the June California primary elections in 2016, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had already wrapped up their parties’ nominations.

At the time, then California Secretary of State Alex Padilla celebrated the move by saying in a statement, ”Candidates will not be able to ignore the largest, most diverse state in the nation as they seek our country’s highest office…California has been a leader time and time again on the most important issues facing our country—including immigration, education, and the environment. The Prime Time Primary Act will help ensure that issues important to Californians are prioritized by presidential candidates from all political parties.”

But here’s the problem: even though we moved our primary up to Super Tuesday, California will still not get to decide who the party nominees will be.  According to the Real Clear Politics average of polls, President Joe Biden is polling at approximately 50 points ahead of his nearest rival, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and former President Trump is leading Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by almost 40 points.

As it turns out, moving up the primary was a pretty dumb idea, even by Governor Moonbeam standards.

Frankly, Joe Biden couldn’t lose to RFK, Jr. right now if Joe drove off a bridge in Chappaquiddick with a campaign aide sleeping in the back seat of the car.

Not that anything like that could ever happen.

And Trump couldn’t lose the GOP nomination right now if he shot a guy on Fifth Avenue, although he might be indicted on a simple gun charge like Hunter.

Let’s face it:  This presidential election was over the day they released Trump’s awesome mug shot photo.  That image put him back in the White House.  It’s like the Farrah Fawcett majors poster of the 2020s.

The only suspense remaining about the 2024 election is which federal prison will host Trump’s campaign headquarters…and which will host Joe Biden’s?

But now we get the worst of all worlds: our voice in the presidential race is meaningless and everyone appearing in down-ballot races has to speed everything up – including qualifying for the ballot, fundraising, and securing endorsements.

The moved-up primary will become especially tricky if an incumbent in any given office doesn’t finish in the top two, and make it to the November ballot.

They now have three additional months to create mischief. And that brings me to the next horrifying scenario. It’s pretty common that when you get fired from a job that as soon as you walk back to your cubicle from the boss’ office, there’s a  rent-a-cop perched at your desk with a cardboard box full of your stuff.

What you don’t get are nine extra months to sit there and stew in your juices.  Heck, even if you quit and leave on good terms, they usually only give you 2 weeks.  Why? That last day of school isn’t good for productivity.

In the year 2000, then El Monte Congressman Matthew G. Martinez, a reliable Democratic vote in a heavily Democratic district, lost his primary to then state Senator Hilda Solis.

After losing, Martínez began to vote overwhelmingly with Republicans. On July 27, 2000, Martínez switched to the Republican Party, arguing that the Democrats had abandoned him.

Martinez told CNN at the time, “My Democratic colleagues have just lost sight of what’s fair for the American people..I really believe the Republican agenda stands up for what the American values are and what most people in this country really want their government to do for them.

He also said he was “disappointed” with but not “bitter” toward his former Democratic colleagues.

The primary that year was in March, giving him nearly nine months to stick-it to his former Democratic colleagues.

The race that worries me the most this time is for LA County District Attorney.

Deeply unpopular incumbent DA, and George Soros sugar baby, George Gascón, finds himself running against a slew of credible candidates — all of whose primary qualification is that their name is not George Gascón.

While it’s true that Gascón’s base of support is sizable – because it includes every criminal he refused to prosecute as Los Angeles County DA – it is entirely within the realm of possibilities that Gascón doesn’t make it to the November ballot.

If that happens, he will have nine additional months, as a lame-duck, to destroy public safety (more than he already has), knowing that he will never have to face the voters again.

That possibility is downright frightening…and surely reason enough to not have the primary in March.