Steve Hilton: could this British former Fox News host be California’s next governor?

F ew political aspirations have proved more futile over the past two decades than running as a Republican for statewide office in California . Yet Steve Hilton – transplanted Brit, erstwhile business entrepreneur, a former Downing Street adviser to David Cameron and a former Fox News host who says he is friends with half of Donald Trump’s cabinet – is having a remarkably good time of it. With less than six weeks to go before a primary election that has proved to be both dramatic and wildly unpredictable, most polls put Hilton narrowly ahead of a fractured field of Democrats in the race to succeed Gavin Newsom as governor. It is an astonishing turn of events in a state where Democrats enjoy supermajorities in the state legislature and a two-to-one advantage over the Republicans in voter registration. Hilton and a second Republican polling in the top tier, Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco, have been boosted in part by disarray in the Democratic ranks, where no candidate has emerged as a clear frontrunner in a crowded field and one leading contender, Eric Swalwell, was drummed out of the race and out of politics last month following sexual assault and misconduct allegations. Swallwell has strongly denied the claims. But Hilton also has the largest number of individual campaign donors and ranks third in fundraising behind the free-spending, self-financing Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer and the Silicon Valley backed centrist Matt Mahan. …