From the federal government to the country’s biggest cities, Democrats find themselves grappling with a crisis of incompetence, facing off against voters who feel the party’s leaders have forgotten how to deliver on the government’s basic jobs.
Raging wildfires in California have made Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass the subjects of nationwide derision.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams are both underwater with residents who want just about anyone else to lead them. And in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson is the latest Democrat to leave voters nonplussed with his responses to homelessness, immigration and crime.
Add in President Biden’s hiccups at the national level and it’s a bad moment for Democrats, who have long held themselves out as the champions of how government can deliver solutions for average Americans.
“Democrats, in many ways, have essentially put the spotlight on themselves by advocating for higher taxes and a larger government role in society,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. “So when they fail, in California, Chicago or New York, it is more noticeable and consequential because Democrats have been making the case that is the optimal model.”
Democrats’ struggles come at a tricky time for the party, with members trying to figure out a path forward — and whom best to rally around — after surrendering the Senate back to Republicans and the White House to President-elect Donald Trump.
The cities are a particular worry for Democrats, who hold the mayor’s posts in 18 of the largest cities in the U.S. Republicans have a slight edge in governorships.
Mr. Johnson is now the most unpopular mayor in Chicago history. The city’s v0ters are questioning his competence after he struggled to deliver on a campaign promise to scrap a gunshot detection system that progressives cast as racist, and left others concerned about crime befuddled by the move.
Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools have been gripped by chaos. He broke his campaign promise not to seek a property tax hike, only to have the City Council unanimously reject the proposal. He also is dogged by concerns over taxpayer funds being spent on illegal immigrants.
“Now, you still feel like you have to harbor these illegals, which is not a good idea. Can you do the job, Mr. Brandon Johnson? It’s looking like you cannot do the job!” a resident told him at a council meeting last month.
Momentum is now building behind a bill in the state legislature that would open the door for the Chicago mayor to be recalled.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Bass is facing recall chatter in Los Angeles, and Mr. Adams is scheduled to stand trial on corruption charges in April in New York.
Chicago has not had a Republican mayor since 1913. Los Angeles has not had a Republican mayor since 2001 and New York has not had a Republican mayor since 2007, when then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg switched his party affiliation to independent.
Mr. Bloomberg had switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 2001 to run for mayor. He returned to the Democratic Party in 2018.
Jeanne Sheehan Zaino, a political scientist at Iona University, said local leaders are being tested and, in many cases, failing to come to grips with the basic problems their constituents are facing.
“This is a challenge for all public officials, and particularly today, we see Democratic officials in blue states who are falling short in this area,” she said.
Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic strategist, said his party has to change.
“The last bastion of elitist Democratic Party thinking is in New York and Los Angeles,” Mr. Sheinkopf said. “New York Democrats are under attack by the center and Los Angeles County and that whole portion of Southern California has the potential to flip into the Republican column.”
There are plenty of Democratic cities where things aren’t seen as off the rails. But to have the three largest cities, all controlled by Democrats, struggling is not a good look.
Republicans, watching from the sidelines, say Democrats have let their ideology blind them, particularly on immigration and crime, where deep-blue states and cities attempted lenient policies in recent years, only to see voters recoil.
“It’s about disorder,” Mr. Sheinkopf said. “So the sense that things are out of control is what destroys Democrats and tends to elect Republicans.”
He said the problem for Democrats in New York is they tried a liberal crusader in former Mayor Bill de Blasio to deal with social issues, and now tried a former police officer in Mr. Adams to deal with crime concerns.
“Neither has worked,” he said.
In California, the wildfires are bad enough that Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of The Los Angeles Times, says the paper made a mistake when it endorsed Ms. Bass in the 2021 mayoral race.
“Maybe the lesson we learned out of this catastrophe in California is to now vote not based on left or right or D versus R but perhaps based on competent or no experience in operating a job!!” Mr. Soon-Shiong said on social media. “We have to elect based on competence … yes competence matters.”
Mishandling disasters draw mockery but it doesn’t have to be a political death sentence.
Gov. Gregg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, faced intense scrutiny in 2021 when the state’s power grid collapsed amid severe winter storms and more than 240 people died.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a fellow Republican, drew particular scorn for jetting off to Cancun, Mexico, amid the chaos.
Both men have since won reelection, and they weren’t even close races.
Mr. Jones said one difference is that Texas voters had someone else to blame.
“At the end of the day, the villains in Texas were the natural gas and electric companies with a side critique of the Texas GOP not engaging in significant regulation,” Mr. Jones said. “That is different from managing immigration, providing education, reducing crime levels or having fire departments and emergency services prepared for a predictable natural disaster.”
Plus, Mr. Jones said, there’s the whole issue of Democrats championing government as an answer to problems, even at a higher cost to taxpayers. When big government doesn’t deliver it undercuts one of the party’s core arguments.
“So you have the combination of high taxes, but inefficiency and ineffectual government services,” he said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.