To be perfectly honest, I found Newsom's self-indulgent and very humiliating betrayal of Alex Tourk, his best friend / campaign manager-turned-public cuckold, to be nothing short of despicable. I've known Tourk personally since the late 1990s, when we were both senior political staffers serving on the Council of State Governments-West, and I find him to be a really good guy. So to be just as frank, Newsom's transgression has darkly colored my perception of him ever since.

For that reason, and were I still a California resident, I'd be inclined to support someone else in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary. Another major declared candidate in that race (as of July 2016), State Treasurer John Chiang, is just as progressive as Newsom and in my estimation, just as qualified for the office.

In fact, Chiang actually has much more practical experience in an executive capacity than does Newsom, having also served two full terms each as State Comptroller and member of the State Board of Equalization, respectively. Further, he doesn't have the personal baggage that Newsom carries. What he may lack in political charisma, he more than compensates with quiet grace and humility, personal confidence, competent stewardship, and consistent and effective results.

Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also declared his candidacy yesterday. But in my considered opinion, while he's certainly well-respected, qualified and capable, he's also the sort of insider / wheeler-dealer pol that Democrats would probably be wise to first very closely scrutinize, before considering whether or not to support him in our currently volatile political climate. Of the three major Democratic candidates for CA governor, Villaraigosa has shown enormous potential to be the most polarizing.

That's my take on that race, anyway. And in any event, I'll happily and without reservation support whoever wins the nomination. Any other alternative is inconceivable.

Of other prominent SoCal Democrats, Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles served as Speaker of the California State Assembly (1998-2000), as have his fellow Angelenos who succeeded him in that post -- Robert Hertzberg, Herb Wesson, Fabian Nuñez, John A. Pérez, and Karen Bass. The current Speaker, Anthony Rendon, is from Long Beach. His immediate predecessor, Toni Atkins, represents San Diego.

For the better part of a century, Southern California was primarily Republican territory, which is why Northern Democrats long held sway in Democratic politics. But that has since very much changed as Los Angeles County began to turn into a Democratic stronghold following the election of Mayor Tom Bradley back in 1973.

Today, SoCal Democrats have just as much political influence within the party as their counterparts up north. In the future, they may even come to dominate, as Democrats consolidate their hold in that much more populous region.

Trump, pressed by CNN's Jake Tapper more than 20 times on whether he was invoking racism in his attacks on the judge, continued to point to his plans to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and renegotiate trade agreements between the two countries as justification and validation of his critiques.

The presumptive GOP nominee said U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a federal district judge in the Southern District of California, has made "rulings that people can't even believe."

snip

At the end of a lengthy exchange, Tapper asked: "If you are saying he cannot do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?"

No, what that does is put Trump into the position of claiming that the judge is bigoted towards him because of Trump's position on immigration.

a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.

Racism is:

the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

CNN

So what Trump did was call the judge a bigot. Is he?? I don't think so. I think Trump has a reason to fear that his statements have pi$$ed off the judge and was trying to insulate himself.