Mark Barabak reports for the LA Times that Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief over the choice of the more moderate candidate over the tea party candidate in the CA governor’s race, to face incumbent Democratic governor Jerry Brown in the fall.

I will be very interested to see exit polling if available on this race.  One of the reasons moderate Republicans wanted top two in California was precisely to get results like this, and avoid hard line Republicans winning the party primary and then getting crushed in CA.

Many Democrats, knowing that Brown would easily make it to the second round of voting, could have voted for the more moderate Kashkari to insure that there would be at least a moderate in the governor’s office in the fall.  Or strategic Democrats could have voted for Donnelly, which not only would ensure a Democratic victory in the fall in the governor’s race: it could have motivated more Democrats to turn out and vote against Donnelly and for other races and measures in the general election.

What did Democrats do?  And were they strategically voting?