Jack Butler called our attention to the efforts to recruit Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to run for governor of Michigan in 2026, and now CNN informs us, “top aides and people close to Kamala Harris have divided over whether she should head home to run for California governor in 2026 — and it all comes down to whether they believe she could win the Democratic nomination for president in an expected competitive primary in 2028.”

My first thought was that it’s just a crying shame that neither Michigan nor California have any Democrats who could serve as governor starting in January 2027. (Actually they do, but apparently some are willing to step aside and put their ambitions on hold for years if the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee wants the job; the CNN report states, “when asked by CNN, several major candidates made clear either directly or through aides that they would likely step aside if she got in.”)

Buttigieg has owned a house in Michigan since 2020, and Harris obviously spent most of her adult life in California and represented the state in the U.S. Senate. But both have spent most of the past four years living in either Washington, D.C. or on the road.

By virtue of their day jobs since January 2021, neither Buttigieg nor Harris have had much time to focus on the sorts of issues that preoccupy a governor of a state. Sure, they would both have two years to get up to speed, and Buttigieg could read up on the Detroit Lions schedule. And the Senate careers of figures like Hillary Clinton and to a certain extent, Mitt Romney, demonstrate that certain electorates are just fine with electing a senator who has spent much or most of their life in other states.

But it seems that Harris needs a role in California’s state government a lot more than the people of California need her there, and Buttigieg needs a role that will keep him in the public eye and his presidential ambitions alive more than the people of Michigan need him stepping into Gretchen Whitmer’s office.

That CNN article mentions: “Some connected to other gubernatorial candidates are already seeding the words consolation prize in trying to talk down her possible entry, arguing that’s how California voters would see it.”

Why would any Democratic gubernatorial primary voter sign on to their state’s gubernatorial mansion becoming a consolation prize?