California voters: a foregone ending

At this town's icon of California-grown Americana - the Galleria Mall - the masses are chowing down on three-bean salads and low-carb subs but not exactly sinking their teeth into the fat of politics.

"I don't know much about [Democratic front-runner] John Kerry," says Robert Hall, an engineering consultant jawing a cheeseburger outside Fuddrucker's. "But if he can beat Bush, he's the man for me."

"Kerry just strikes me as more of a leader than Bush," says pharmacist Vina Sayre, at an adjoining table, spooning Ben & Jerry's ice cream to her two toddlers.

"Remind me ... our primary is when?" says her companion Rene Gallagher, insurance broker and mother of two.

The three comments echo what political observers are finding just days before California's March 2 presidential primary: With Senator Kerry of Massachusetts holding a big lead over Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina (60 percent to 19 percent) - and with George W. Bush experiencing his lowest ranking in California since the 2000 election - the state's foregone- conclusion election has cast a pall of sleepy inevitability over the vote. And despite the recent gubernatorial win by the Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's steady list toward the left in recent years is not likely to change before the November election.

"This is the quietest primary in California in as long as I can remember," says Joe Cerrell, a veteran Democratic strategist.

For the most part, candidates are focusing on crucial battleground states and so far are paying limited attention to the biggest prize of all - the 370 delegates of California come November. Those delegates are considered safe in the "win" column for Democrats. "Considering how many voters we have, how many delegates, electoral votes, and the long-term strategic importance of California nationally," says Mr. Cerrell, "it's a real anomaly."

Cerrell and other political strategists say the overwhelming edge by Kerry at the moment is based less on platform agenda than by the momentum he has generated and the Democrats' desire to keep a unified front to win the White House.

That's the thinking of dark-haired Dawn Paxson, slipping coins into a meter along Piedmont Avenue on a blustery afternoon in Oakland. She's not sold on Kerry when it comes to issues she values - civil rights, abortion, education, healthcare - but she says, "We need to not have George Bush in the White House."

The sentiment is not lost on others in the state. "Democrats here are mostly unified behind ousting Bush and seem convinced that Kerry's wins in other state primaries prove he is the Democrat best positioned to do so," says Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican strategist.

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