Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin, state Sen. Steve Glazer and Board of Equalization member Malia Cohen are all looking for a new job. They want to be state controller.

The problem, for them, though, is that they’re all Democrats and will be splitting the vote, giving Republican Lanhee Chen an easier path to making it to November.

They’re fighting to be the Democrat on the November ballot. And, to be sure, they all have their strengths and weaknesses as candidates.

Galperin has done a solid job calling out Los Angeles City Hall’s fiscal failings, though that is like shooting fish in a barrel. He also got caught trying to mislead voters in his candidate statement by attributing a glowing quote about him from the Los Angeles Times that the Times didn’t actually say about him.

Steve Glazer has opposed things like the gas tax increase a few years back and single-payer, though in an editorial board meeting with us he had the odd quirk of referring to himself as an outsider when he’s  a state senator after being a key advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown.

I don’t know much about Malia Cohen, but she does have the backing of the California Democratic Party and is a member of the State Board of Equalization. The BOE is, at this point, though, just a shell of what it once was and is best understood as a gig for career politicians waiting for their next office.

All three are now taking the same approach as all other Democratic politicians across the country and hoping that hyperventilating about abortion powers them to victory.

To level-set: The United States Supreme Court has not yet ruled on abortion. But even if the February draft is an indication of things to come, abortion rights are not under any threat in California.

Even before Roe v. Wade, the state Supreme Court protected abortion rights and subsequent decisions have reinforced that. California is also not Mississippi; it has a supermajority Democratic legislature and full Democratic control of every statewide office.

Yet, Cohen, Galperin and Glazer are now trying to go after Chen — who not only received the endorsement of the editorial board of this newspaper but even that of the lefty Los Angeles Times — on abortion.

Galperin, for example, sent out a bloviating email saying, “Chen has spent a career as a Republican operative and has served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Anti-Choice National Republican Senatorial Committee where his work successfully secured a Republican majority to confirm Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.”

This is giving Chen an excruciatingly disproportionate amount of culpability to the point of needing a remedial civics lesson or a holding period in a drunk tank.

Cohen and Glazer are likewise getting in on the action, trying to cast Chen as being terribly secretive.

In response, Chen told Gil Duran at the San Francisco Examiner, “In that role, I would have neither the power or interest to change current California laws regarding abortion, nor to restrict access to abortion in our state.”

Related Articles

Instead, Chen wants to focus on the actual powers of the office, like bringing to light the fiscal malpractice committed by the political establishment on everything from homelessness to the scandal at the Employment Development Department.

In other words, Chen is being the adult in the room while his chief opponents are engaging in full-blown partisan hackery.

It reinforces the notion that neither Cohen, Galperin nor Glazer should be tasked with a critical watchdog role like heading the state controller’s office. With literally billions of dollars at stake, the state of California needs an independent set of eyes on state spending and fiscal transparency. Cohen, Galperin and Cohen may have their strengths, but they can’t be counted on to be anything more than creatures of the failing political establishment.

Sal Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected]