mood

Reporting from Santa Clara, Calif. — Some of the major Republicans vying to become California’s next governor or U.S. senator have more money than others. Some are better known. Some are more in sync with their party’s traditional views.

But what all five have in common as they look toward the June 8 primary is a determination to tap what they see as public fury over the failures of government.

“Our government is out of control and out of touch, and so we will take it back and we will make it work,” U.S. Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina told hundreds of delegates at a weekend convention of Republicans in the Silicon Valley.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) and former Rep. Tom Campbell, her rivals in the race to challenge Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer, took different approaches. But each appealed just as overtly to the large share of California Republicans who identify with the conservative “tea party” movement.

Gubernatorial candidates Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman did the same as they vied to challenge presumptive Democratic nominee Jerry Brown.

For all of the major Republican candidates, capturing the public mood of revolt is key not only to succeeding in the primary but also to carrying momentum through the November general election, where voters have historically sided more with Democrats.

“These are Republican voters who — not only here, but all over the country — are very, very frustrated at what they’re seeing, and they’re treating the state government with the same contempt as they’re treating the Obama administration,” said Wayne Johnson, a Republican strategist and former Poizner advisor.

“People are going to be willing to pull the lever for people who are saying pretty aggressive things this time around.”

Most aggressive over the weekend was Poizner, the state insurance commissioner. Treading on sensitive political territory, he promised to deny all public benefits to undocumented immigrants and to stop any more from crossing the Mexican border into California.

“If I have to, I’ll send the National Guard to the border,” he told Republicans at a dinner Saturday. “If that doesn’t work, I’ll send the California Highway Patrol to the border. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll send the California Republican Party to the border.”

Poizner also promised to curb welfare, an issue — like immigration — that Republicans last pushed hard during the economic downturn of the 1990s.

Whitman, too, has called for scaling back welfare. But by and large, her attempts to ride tea party anger were subtler than Poizner’s.

“Voters are tired of runaway spending,” Whitman, a former chief executive of EBay, said in a dinner speech Friday. “They are tired of bigger government. And they have had it with broken promises.”

Roughly four of five Republicans see California as moving in the wrong direction, a level of discontent not seen since the recession of the early 1990s, according to a recent Public Policy Institute of California survey.

“The candidates are trying to tap into that very deep skepticism and pessimism and cynicism seen among Republican voters today,” said Mark Baldassare, president of the institute.

The large portion of undecided voters in both the gubernatorial and Senate primaries makes it that much more important for candidates to identify with the public anger.

In the Senate race, Fiorina, a former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, applauded signs of a popular uprising, saying millions of Americans feel betrayed by “detached and arrogant leadership” in Washington.

“Whether we are conservatives, moderates, independents, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, tea partiers, we are all now members of one party; we are now members of the Had Enough party,” she told Republicans at a luncheon Saturday.

DeVore, an Irvine assemblyman popular among the party’s conservative rank and file, described Democrats as an ominous threat.

“We are facing statists who have it as their objective to trample the Constitution, to submerge future generations under a mountain of debt and to fundamentally transform America into a state that none of us would recognize,” he said.

He described himself as the candidate best suited to draw support from tea party activists who want “to rescue America and to rescue California.”

As for Campbell, his support of temporary state tax hikes has made it tougher to position himself as a champion of the movement, but he tried nonetheless.

“I am running,” he said, “because our freedom is at risk, threatened by a soft socialism that inserts government into every corner of our lives.”

Poizner strategist Stuart Stevens described the voters’ mood as “hot.”

Alluding to the 1976 film about a TV anchor who builds a following of angry Americans, he said, “This is ‘Network’: Mad as hell, not going to take it anymore.”

michael.finnegan @latimes.com

[email protected]

Rapper Gucci Mane’s newest release might be his most vulnerable yet.

The Atlanta-based musician, promoting his third memoir, “Episode,” revealed to “The Breakfast Club” crew on Monday that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He also went into detail about how he has learned to manage the mental health conditions, with a stern but helping hand from his wife, Keyshia Ka’oir.

The 45-year-old hip-hop star, born Radric Davis, said in a joint interview with Ka’oir that he sought professional help for his mental health after experiencing an episode during the pandemic. “After that I was just like, ‘Man, I gotta really hold myself accountable and take care of my health,’” he said.

“I don’t ever wanna have another episode again. I’m like, I’m gonna see a therapist, if I have to take medicine — I kinda like threw in the towel,” the rapper continued. “Whatever I need to do to get better.”

Schizophrenia is a serious mental health condition that affects how people behave, think and feel, according to the Mayo Clinic. Someone living with schizophrenia — which the clinic says can be managed with medicine and therapy — can experience “a mix of hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking and behavior” and can “lose touch with reality.”

Bipolar disorder is a treatable mental health condition marked by extreme changes in mood, thought, energy and behavior, according to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. A widely known symptom of the illness is manic episodes, which are marked by elevated changes in mood or behavior. But many people with a bipolar disorder diagnosis more commonly experience depressive episodes.

During the hour-long conversation, the “Wake Up in the Sky” rapper and Ka’oir shared details about his various episodes over the years and how it affected their relationship. They married in 2017 and share two kids. Ka’oir recalled witnessing Gucci Mane’s episodes even before they tied the knot.

During the episodes, “you’re seeing someone you don’t know,” said Ka’oir, who was born Keyshia Watson and modeled as Keyshia Dior. She recalled the rapper making “disrespectful” remarks and understood that he didn’t mean it. “I felt like if I left, he wouldn’t have been the same,” she said Monday. “He needed someone to help him.”

“I’m cool with this,” Ka’oir recalled thinking when someone voiced concern for their marriage.

Helping the Grammy-nominated “Exactly How I Feel” rapper manage his conditions proved challenging over the years, Ka’oir said. She said she worked with his inner circle to plan a “kidnapping” to a hospital so he could receive professional help. Ka’oir said she was confident that the rapper would never hurt her, even if other people worried otherwise.

Gucci Mane, who has faced legal woes including a federal prison sentence that ended in 2016, said he was “super embarrassed and hurt by the things I said” during his episodes. After his release from prison, he said, he apologized to a number of rap artists, name-dropping Rick Ross, Drake and Nicki Minaj. The latter had her own thoughts about the pair’s interview, accusing Ka’oir on X of sedating the “I Get the Bag” artist.

“I felt bad. I felt terribly bad,” he said, adding that apologizing to fellow stars felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Ka’oir said she worked to keep her husband’s episodes away from the public eye by controlling his social media presence. She explained that she learned how to identify an episode before it became a full-blown incident, noting that some signs included him making mean comments or odd requests. Gucci Mane said that during episodes of what he called “psychosis,” he would hear voices speaking ill about people in his close circles.

Drug use, stress and a lack of sleep were among his triggers, he said. He added that other musicians did not reach out to support him during his episodes.

Throughout the interview, Gucci Mane made it abundantly clear that he prioritizes his family life, noting he sought professional help to be present and to raise his children with Ka’oir.

“My best decision was to marry her and be with her,” he said. “I got somebody to hold me accountable and I got somebody to watch TV with. Sometimes that’s all you wanna do … I don’t really need a lot.”

Gucci Mane released his memoir and his newest album — both titled “Episodes” — on Friday. This marks the third book from the rapper, who previously released memoirs in 2017 and 2020.