So, this is all pretty hysterical, late-breaking news last night out of California.
What makes it so hilarious is that it vindicates the chin-stroking in my last post about the state Democratic Party forcing the University of Southern California (USC) to cancel their gubernatorial debate, scheduled for months for last night, at the last minute. The woke excuse was that the complicated – but blind – formula the political science majors had come up with had left candidates of color (COC) off the stage completely, and where would Democrats be without their virtue-signaling tokens? The hue and cry arising from that is what ostensibly got the debate canxed with less than 24 hours to airtime.
That’s if one was willing to fall for the noise and not peek under the covers.
A more cynical take was that the university math involved gave the panicked state Democratic machine the opportunity to pull the plug on an event that was very likely to be a showcase for the two Republicans who have been steadily maintaining a presence in the top three poll spots. Neither Steve Hilton nor Chad Bianco has slipped further than third place for months – the lone Democrat in the top 3 has changed several times – which is a terrifying prospect for Democrats in a jungle primary where only the top two finishers advance to the main event.
State Democrats have spent months begging the lesserlight candidates to drop out to avoid diluting the primary ballot, but egos will reign, and they have been summarily rebuffed by all but one or two in their efforts to trim the Dem detritus.
Oh, it’s going to be a scrum.
The last thing they wanted to see was Hilton and Bianco onstage, wiping the floor with Swalwell, Porter, or whoever, or worse – the Dems churlishly snarking at each other, which is about all they do with aplomb.
So the brain trust pooled their resources, cried ‘RACIST!’ and tanked the whole show before it could tank them.
Or so they thought.
This morning’s Orange County Register headline is a bad news exercise for state Dems, exposing that transparently obvious ploy.
Democrats’ own polling has the two Republicans well ahead of the crowded Dem field.
Someone has to be chugging the Maalox.
In the California governor’s race, two Republicans land at top of the state Democratic Party’s poll
The survey had Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco in the top two spots with Democrats Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter and Tom Steyer in virtual tie for third place
If voters were to cast their ballots today in the race for California’s next governor, two Republicans would land in the top-two spots while three Democrats would essentially be in a dead heat for third place, if new polling data released by the state’s Democratic Party is any indicator.
Political commentator Steve Hilton led the pack in the poll released Tuesday with 16% voter support, followed by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco at 14%.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter and billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer each had about 10% voter support, though there were nuances.
For Swalwell, 9% of voters surveyed said they backed the lawmaker, with another 1% leaning toward voting for him. In Porter’s case, 8% said they’d vote for her, while another 2% leaned her way. Steyer had 7% support plus another 3% leaning his way.
The poll identified each candidate by their ballot designation title and party affiliation.
I can’t stop grinning.
The results have reportedly ‘stunned’ the party, and the state chair is once again quoted plaintively begging people to drop out. And I was wrong earlier – only one candidate has heeded his call to leave the race.
The rest of the gaggle are stickin’ like glue.
You go, guys! We want your names attached to those ballots like lichen.
…It follows an open letter Hicks penned earlier this month, urging long-shot Democrats to drop out due to concerns that having too many Democrats on the ballot would split Democrats’ votes and allow two Republicans to advance to the general election.
Such an outcome would be stunning in a deep-blue state where voters last elected a Republican governor two decades ago when Arnold Schwarzenegger won a second term.
Only one candidate heeded Hicks’ call to drop out, while most of the lower-polling Democrats who have held, or are currently in, elected office have remained in the race.
Hicks was asked Tuesday to define what he meant by a “viable” candidate.
“If you’re polling at 1 to 2%, do you have a path to get to 20 (percent)? That’s the question. Do you have a path to put you in a position to win the primary election, that puts you into the general election?” Hicks asked.
The next poll in their series is due out on April 7. Can’t wait.
Now, the other wrinkle in the Democrats’ crazy quilt has been Riverside County Sheriff and candidate Chad Bianco’s seizure and recount of the 650,000 ballots cast in the Proposition 50 referendum.
This is a quick breakdown of the case and what Bianco did.
They told you the counts are verified. The systems are secure. The people demanding answers are the threat.
Riverside County logged 611,428 ballots cast.
Certified count: 657,322.
45,896 votes. No matching ballots. Public record.
Sheriff Bianco pulled the logs. Got the… pic.twitter.com/iKZM6TF0OG
— Jake (@JakeCan72) March 21, 2026
…Riverside County logged 611,428 ballots cast.
Certified count: 657,322.
45,896 votes. No matching ballots. Public record.
Sheriff Bianco pulled the logs. Got the warrants. Seized the materials…
There was an almost 46,000 votes descrepancy between the total ballots cast and the votes counted. Bianco took the vote logs evidence to a judge, properly got the warrants, and seized the boxes full of paper ballots, some 1000 of them, in order for a recount to commence.
This caused the activist Democratic state attorney general, Rob Bonta, to have an epic hissy fit. This morning, David had an excellent rundown of all Bonta’s machinations to date.
When his intimidation efforts failed, he eventually went to court to have Bianco return everything in an effort to ensure there was no resolution to the massive discrepancy in the ballot count.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a leading 2026 Republican gubernatorial candidate, held a press conference Friday morning to expose what he described as repeated attempts by Attorney General Rob Bonta to intimidate and derail his office’s investigation into a massive 45,896-ballot discrepancy in the November 2025 Proposition 50 special election.
Bianco detailed a stunning mismatch uncovered through an audit of handwritten logs maintained by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters: county records show just 611,428 ballots cast. Yet Secretary of State Shirley Weber certified 657,322 votes to the state — a gap neither Bonta nor Weber has ever publicly questioned or investigated.
“This investigation is very simple,” Bianco stated. “Our investigation will determine the validity of that alleged discrepancy… We will do that by physically counting the ballots. This is not a recount to determine how many votes were for or against Prop 50.”
The sheriff revealed that weeks ago, a representative from Bonta’s office contacted him directly and demanded the probe be halted until after March 6. Follow-up letters from the attorney general on February 26 and March 4 reiterated the order to stop. No legal justification was provided.
“Instead of addressing the discrepancy, Bonta has tried multiple times to shut down our investigation,” Bianco said, accusing the state’s top law enforcement officer of intimidation tactics aimed at protecting the integrity of a controversial measure critics have long labeled an election-rigging power grab.
Proposition 50 — Governor Gavin Newsom’s so-called “Election Rigging Response Act” — amended the state constitution to allow the Democrat-controlled Legislature to redraw congressional districts mid-decade, bypassing the independent redistricting commission. The measure passed amid widespread concerns it was designed to entrench one-party power in Washington, D.C. and in California.
This is the official Democrat take on Bianco, as expressed by the always elegantly phrased and articulate Eric Swalwell.
CHEATER PANTS!
The only way MAGA knows how to win is by cheating.https://t.co/1BWm7k97DU
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) March 21, 2026
Yesterday evening, CBS News in Los Angeles reported that, contrary to all expectations, the court blocked Bonta’s effort to stop the recount.
WOOF
This has to be the rudest shock.
▫ Court blocks California effort to stop Republican sheriff’s ballot recount
▫Panel denies attorney general’s bid after Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco seized 650,000 special-election ballots
▫Coral Murphy Marcos
▫https://t.co/zWS0rLEK2L#GuradianUS #digital… pic.twitter.com/9b99GxO4cD— 𝙵𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚝 𝙿𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚜 𝚃𝚘𝚍𝚊𝚢 📰 (@ukpapers) March 25, 2026
A three-judge panel denied Bonta’s filing and told him to take his problems to a lower court.
Will he do it? Are they desperate enough to prevent a recount? Bonta and the registrar there in Riverside insist there’s only 100 vote difference.
…Bianco said his recounting efforts stemmed from claims the results were off by 45,800 votes, but Bonta and Art Tinoco, the registrar of voters for the Riverside county board of supervisors, have assured the tallies differed by about 100 votes.
Well, if that’s true, there should be no skin off of anyone’s nose but Bianco’s, right? Why not go ahead and count to prove him wrong?
Bonta’s answer so far is ‘WAAH!’
Ruling is blow to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s efforts to halt what he calls a “fishing expedition”
…In an emailed statement, Bonta’s office said: “The facts have not changed. The Riverside County Sheriff continues to directly defy the Attorney General’s instructions, in violation of the California Constitution and state law.”
It added: “The Court of Appeal’s decision was based solely on where we filed the case and is not a ruling on the underlying merits of the petition. We are evaluating next steps to ensure a swift and appropriate resolution to this matter.”
Bianco says his investigators had already begun counting and would resume this morning.
This huge fight over what Bonta says is 100 votes is what lends itself to the ‘distrust in elections’ that Bonta is using as the excuse to quash Bianco’s legitimate inquiry. I say legitimate because Bianco has another court’s legal blessing to do what he’s doing, which includes telling the state attorney general to suck a stone.
…A Riverside Superior Court judge issued a decisive ruling on Thursday, appointing a special master to oversee the resumption of the sheriff’s ballot counting and investigation under the court’s jurisdiction. The order explicitly rebuffed Bonta’s interference, citing separation of powers.
“AG Bonta is part of the executive branch of this state,” Bianco emphasized. “Under the separation of powers principle, AG Bonta does not have authority over the court or evidence. I will carry out my constitutional duty to pursue justice impartially.”
And, obviously, someone at the courthouse saw an issue when the sheriff initially presented what he had.
It has not been a good morning for the Democrat machine in California, and I can only hope it continues to decline.
It feels good.
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