There have been plenty of dramatic story lines in the contest to choose a successor to term-limited California governor Gavin Newsom, from the sudden implosion of Eric Swalwell’s once-robust candidacy to the gradually subsiding fear that the very Democratic electorate would be forced to choose between two Republicans in November. But things settled down as the race came to a close (registered voters received a mail ballot in early May, and they must be turned in or postmarked by Tuesday, June 2). Now the main source of mystery is the gubernatorial candidate whose ads have dominated airwaves for months: reformed hedge-fund billionaire and latter-day progressive Tom Steyer.

Until this campaign cycle, it was assumed that no one would ever match the expensive futility of Meg Whitman’s self-funded 2010 California gubernatorial campaign, which ended in her decisive loss to Jerry Brown. But in inflation-adjusted dollars, Steyer has outspent even Whitman. And if he finishes third or lower in this race, his electoral career will probably come to an end (he ran a brief 2020 presidential campaign that ended with a poor third-place finish in South Carolina). The polls show that’s a real possibility: The polling averages at RealClearPolitics show Steyer with 21.5 percent of the vote, behind former state attorney general Xavier Becerra with 23.8 percent and former Fox News gabber and British political operative Steve Hilton with 23.3 percent, though the very latest survey from Emerson College has Steyer edging ahead of Hilton for second place. Under California’s nonpartisan top-two primary system, two of these three candidates are likely to proceed to the general election (fourth-place candidate Chad Bianco is far behind with 10.8 percent in the RCP averages).

Steyer’s pitch all along has been that his unimaginable wealth makes him........

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