Primary summary

For weeks, Democrats had warned they were on the brink of electoral disaster, thanks to California's top-two primary system. If the party's bevy of candidates divided the electorate to a sufficient degree, Democrats warned, they could be shut out of races key to their chances of reclaiming control of Congress.

Those fears did not come to pass Tuesday, as Democrats appear to have secured at least a second-place finish in every race they targeted. With plenty of votes left to count, Democrats felt confident about their chances of claiming a spot in the November runoff in districts held by Reps. Ed Royce (R) and Darrell Issa (R), who are retiring, and Reps. Mimi Walters (R) and Dana Rohrabacher (R), who are seeking another term.

[...]

Democrats were closest to being locked out in Denham's Modesto-based district, where venture capitalist Josh Harder (D) held a lead of just 700 votes over conservative Republican Ted Howze for the second runoff slot. But California observers know late absentee ballots tend to favor Democrats, giving the party reason to be confident it had dodged what could have been a disastrous blow.

[...]

The one caveat Democrats now face: They might not always have gotten the candidates they preferred. In several districts, the national party's chosen candidate fell behind more progressive candidates.

  The Hill

Now that's encouraging.

And I may be misinterpreting - or overinterpreting - but it seems to me that if the Democrats managed to get on the ballot in all these districts where there were many Demorats running, potentially splitting the Dem vote and allowing Republicans to win, that amounts a rout of the GOP.

Republicans had their own worst-case scenario in mind: A top-two primary that left the GOP entirely out of races for the governorship and Dianne Feinstein's (D) Senate seat.

Feinstein will likely face a fellow Democrat, former state Senate President Kevin de Leon, in November, though plenty of votes are left to be counted. But in the race for governor, businessman John Cox (R) secured a spot in November's general election against Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

And that one may indeed be a case where the Democrats split enough between Newsome and Antonio Villaraigosa to give the Republican a ranking spot. At any rate, I'm glad to see Newsom, the more progressive of the two Dems, will be the candidate to take on Cox.

And, again, if we all used ranked choice voting, there would never be this kind of an issue.  It would eliminate several problems with our electoral system.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.