Supporters of California Attorney General Rob Bonta are paying for advertisements on conservative talk radio stations in the state on behalf of Republican Eric Early, hoping that his pro-life stance makes him the easiest opponent to beat in November.
Early, who challenged Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) for Congress in 2020, is a familiar presence in local conservative media. Under California’s “top two” or “jungle” system, the top two finishers in the June 7 primary will face off in November.
In a state whose electoral politics are dominated by the Democratic Party, few statewide races are competitive. But the race for Attorney General promised to be closer, as Californians struggle with a crime wave and homelessness across the state.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that Bonta’s supporters seized on last week’s leaked Supreme Court draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade to help Bonta by boosting Early over conservatives challengers thought to be tougher:
It wouldn’t be enough to stress Bonta’s abortion stance. Two of Bonta’s conservative (and best-funded) challengers in attorney general’s race — Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who was endorsed by the California Republican Party and Republican-turned-independent Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert — support Roe.
So pro-Bonta forces are playing some three-dimensional political chess. The two pro-Bonta ads they created are now running on conservative talk radio stations throughout California also feature — sometimes in a kind of oddly neutral way — the most conservative candidate in the attorney general’s race, Eric Early.
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The pro-Bonta group hopes its ads convey Early’s vision of conservatism, which Early described to The Chronicle as being “part of the Reagan/Trump wing of the California Republican Party.” He was also an attorney for some of the lead proponents behind Newsom’s recall.
The Chronicle notes that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) took a similar approach in last year’s recall election, focusing on conservative radio host Larry Elder as his likely opponent. With help from the media, Newsom demonized Elder as California’s own version of Donald Trump, thus rallying skeptical Democratic voters to keep the governor in office.
Early also ran for Attorney General in 2018, but did not finish in the top two in that year’s “jungle” primary election.
Bonta took over from Xavier Becerra, who was appointed to be President Joe Biden’s Secretary for Health and Human Services (despite having no background in health care). Since taking office, Bonta has paid homage to the left’s ideological priorities, announcing last May that he was establishing a “Racial Justice Bureau.” But he also led state attorneys general in pursuing the Black Lives Matter organization for failing to file annual fundraising reports, threatening its charitable status.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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