Opinion: State’s second-highest post brings too much danger for me

Editor’s note: Please read our endorsements in the race for lieutenant governor, interviews with the main candidates and other critical races on Bay Area voters’ June 2 ballots here.

My fellow Californians, I am no longer your best choice for lieutenant governor.

The job which I long coveted, has simply become too important — and frightening.

In this perilous post-republic period of political persecution and violence, the chances are simply too high that the next elect this year will soon become governor.

I first raised my hand for this not-so-distinguished post in 2009, in the Los Angeles Times, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had to appoint a replacement for the departing Lt. Gov. John Garamendi.

I looked into the job requirements and found only three:

Wake up each morning. Check if the governor is alive. Go on with my day.

I’d already been doing those things as a journalist covering Schwarzenegger. So, there’d be no need for on-the-job training.

I could handle the light work associated with office. Breaking tie votes in the state Senate only takes a few minutes. Serving on a few governing boards, as lieutenant governors do, would be useful as a learning experience for this journalist.

But it was my lack of political ambition that made me the best choice. No need to waste a real leader in a nothing job like lieutenant governor. Indeed, someone with real government chops would just get frustrated by the role’s limits, as Gavin Newsom admitted he was when he served from 2011 to 2018.

Any governor would have loved having me, since some lieutenant governors frustrate governors by taking official actions when the governor is out of state and the lieutenant is governor-in-charge.

I just wanted to use the lieutenant governorship as a no-show job to support my writing. Journalism doesn’t pay that much anymore, whereas the 2025 salary for lieutenant governor was $184,447!

Alas, Schwarzenegger gave the job to Abel Maldonado, now best remembered for advancing the top-two election system that plagues California. I expressed my interest again during Brown’s governorship but never got an interview. While reporting, I once asked Newsom to consider me as lieutenant governor, but he seemed to think I was joking.

Yes, Gavin, the lieutenant governor’s job was a joke. But my interest in it was serious.

Now, tragically, the job isn’t a joke. Donald Trump, our president-dictator, has repeatedly threatened Gov. Newsom with arrest. Our next governor will be in more danger. Trump is using the Justice Department to target political opponents. Both right and left are normalizing violence against politicians.

Only two California governors have died in office forcing the lieutenant governor to step in. The last time was in 1934, when Frank Merriam took over after James Rolph’s heart failure. Five other governors have left office for political reasons — most recently in 1953 when Gov. Earl Warren became chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, handing the governorship to Goodwin Knight.

The odds of a forced resignation or worse are much higher now. Which is why I can’t stand for lieutenant governor anymore.

The good news is that Californians do have choices who are more appropriate for the job. There are 16 candidates on the ballot, 11 of whom are unknowns, from a nurse named Ebie Lynch to a doctor named Alice Stek.

Five candidates have significant governing experience. Among these are current State Treasurer Fiona Ma, former Sausalito City Councilmember Janelle Kellman and Democrat-turned-Republican Gloria Romero, a former state Senate majority leader.

Two candidates whom I’ve seen in action might be better governors than anyone running for the governorship. Josh Fryday, a former Novato mayor, has been a creative, nationally respected head of Newsom’s service and community engagement office. Former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, who wrote a brilliant memoir and founded a major anti-poverty group, has more powerful allies than just about anyone in California politics.

These five experienced candidates all seem too eager to jump into the fray and are talking about their readiness to serve as governor.

Better them than me.

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.