LOS ANGELES — In most elections, the primary is the season for partisanship and appealing to the party’s most ideological voters. Candidates slide to the center — appealing, in theory, to a broader electorate with a more moderate message — as they shift into a general election. But even before most of the votes were counted, two of the candidates running to be the next governor of California — Gavin Newsom, the Democratic lieutenant governor, and John Cox, a Republican businessman — made clear that they were inclined to stay in their ideological corners. And it comes at a time when California has become the center of Democratic resistance to Republican policies, and after eight years in which the current governor, Jerry Brown, has struck a decidedly more moderate tone in governing. Celebrating on Tuesday night, Mr. Newsom offered a sweeping view of what he wants California’s government to achieve: guaranteed health care for all, a “Marshall Plan” to build affordable housing and an end to childhood poverty.

Source: New York Times June 06, 2018 20:02 UTC