If you’re in California and sitting near a TV, you may have seen a very worried woman staring into the camera and discussing her support for abortion rights.
“You can call me Eleni,” she says.
That would be the state’s lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis.
Kounalakis I want to be the next governor of California, And his irritating appearance in the 30-second ad is part of his strategy to do just that in November 2026.
There is no threat to legal abortion in California. A woman’s right to abortion is enshrined in the state constitution and is reinforced by the Democratic Party’s hegemonic grip on Sacramento.
But abortion is a very burning issue, The Democrats’ Hopeful Redemption It’s a major move against Republicans in November, and a timely way for someone like Konalaki, who has no specific role in the election, to make his way into the political conversation.
The Democrats are emulating a strategy that was used successfully by Governor Gavin Newsom And Arnold Schwarzenegger, who elevated his gubernatorial ambitions to a campaign issue as a means of boosting his electoral prospects.
Kounalaki is also the latest in a long line of wealthy women and men with plenty of cash to run for California’s top political office.
Most of them – Meg Whitman, Jane Harman, Al Checchi, etc. – were massive failures.
Konalaki’s stated mission this campaign season is pretty straightforward. formed a political action committee Organizing “pro” voters in the presidential election Arizona And Nevada and to boost Democrats in many places Competitive House Races in California.
As part of this mission, she appears in a campaign-style ad filled with haunting images of the many right-wing avatars — Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Clarence Thomas — that give Democrats sweats at night.
Despite its focus on abortion rights, this is clearly a gubernatorial campaign venue.
“This ad is promoting Eleni,” said Sherry Babich Jeffe, a retired USC professor and longtime student of California politics.
Of course, it’s largely up to Konalaki how she spends her own money, or whatever campaign contributions she collects. If she wants to have a bonfire on the Capitol lawn and burn $100 bills — provided, of course, she’s got the necessary permits to do so — then bring the marshmallows!
It is not good or healthy for Konalaki to make his way to the governor’s office the way he did in 2018, using a bigger purse to vanquish opponents and win the lieutenant governor’s seat.
At the time, Konalaki’s main political credential was giving a lot of money to Democratic candidates and political causes. So much money that President Obama appointed him as the US ambassador to Hungary.
When Konalaki turned his attention to elected office, lots of money again came his way.
He benefited greatly from the millions of dollars his father — a wealthy Sacramento developer — poured into Konalacki’s candidacy Through a Political Action Committee To promote your campaign. (There are legal limits on how much an individual can donate to a candidate. Not so for political action committees.)
Konalaki contributed several million dollars in personal expenditures.
That makes her one of several wealthy candidates who have secured low-level positions in California — state controller, insurance commissioner, lieutenant governor — by investing some of their wealth into the election.
“Nobody knows much about those candidates,” Jeffe said, so it’s easier to “recognize their name, shape their image,” which is much more difficult in a gubernatorial contest.
Since taking office, Kounalakis hasn’t really impacted Sacramento, though he won reelection in 2022. George Skelton, My columnist colleague who has covered the capital for more than half a century, once Kounalakis pointed out “The most obscure lieutenant governor I’ve ever seen.”
His campaign team says that approach unfairly ignores his many accomplishments. Maybe so. With the presidential campaign over and attention focused on the race for California’s open seat to succeed Newsom, Konalaki will have more than a year to make his case to voters.
Voters will be presented with an unusually large and diverse field — and a chance to make some kind of political history.
Tony Atkins, First woman to lead both the Assembly and State Senate and former Comptroller Betty Yee Kounalakis is running for re-election, giving Californians the opportunity to elect the state’s first female governor.
Attorney General Rob Bonta would be California’s first Filipino American governor if he runs and is elected. State school chief Tony Thurmond Seeking to become California’s first Black and Latino governor, Atkins would also be the state’s first openly LGBTQ+ governor.
Whoever wins the job should win it based on their merit, not their race or gender.
And it’s definitely not because of his family fortune.
