George Skelton, long-time political columnnist for the Los Angeles Times, says this year’s California race for U.S. Senate is very boring. Skelton is a fervent supporter of the California top-two system. At the end of his column, he says that some may blame the top-two system for the boring character of the race. But he says that idea is “nonsense.” What he does not say is that all of California’s races for Governor and U.S. Senator, since top-two started, have been boring.
In 2012, the first top-two year, the U.S. Senate race in November was between Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic incumbent, and Elizabeth Emken, a Republican.
In 2014, the next top-two year, the gubernatorial race was between incumbent Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and Republican Neel Kashkari.
The 2012 Senate race, and the 2014 gubernatorial race, were also unanimously considered by political observers to be boring. One characteristic of an interesting race is that there are more than two candidates in that race.
People like Skelton admitted that the 2012 Senate race and the 2014 gubernatorial race were boring, but said that was only because a popular incumbent was running for re-election. But now 2016 has brought California its first U.S. Senate race since 1992 with no incumbent, and, yes, it is still boring.