Democrat Betty Yee exits California governor's race

SACRAMENTO - Former state Controller Betty Yee dropped out of the governor's race Monday, bringing the number of leading Democrats down to six.

Yee, a longtime fixture in California politics, ran on her decades in public service and her budget expertise as the state's top accountant and former state budget director. But she failed to gain traction with her candidacy for the state's highest office in a crowded field.

"I feel very proud of the fact that we ran a campaign where our values and our vision never changed," she told the Chronicle on Monday morning. "We just thought that experience and competence would poll much higher than what it's been polling."

Yee said that she had not discussed her exit from the race with any of her rivals and that she plans to endorse one of them in the coming days but has not decided which one.

Yee's exit will boost her party's chances of having at least one candidate make it through to the general election. So many Democrats had entered the race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom that party leaders worried they might divide the liberal vote into so many pieces that two Republicans made it through to the general election.

California has an unusual "jungle primary" system in which the top two vote-getters in the primary, regardless of party, advance to the general election. Even though liberals far outnumber conservatives in California, the unique situation in recent weeks with two leading Republican candidates but many more Democrats could have spelled disaster for the Democratic Party.

But then President Donald Trump endorsed one of the Republicans - former Fox News host Steve Hilton - making it less likely that his leading Republican rival - Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco - will shore up enough votes to make the top two.

On the Democratic side, former Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race and resigned his congressional seat last week after the Chronicle reported allegations that he sexually assaulted a former staffer. Four more women have since come forward with allegations he harassed or assaulted them.

Because they dropped out after the deadline, Swalwell's and Yee's names will both still appear on the ballot.

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