California drivers paid an average of $5.89 for a gallon of regular gas on Election Day, according to AAA. That is the highest in the country and $1.74 above the national average of $4.15. Californians responded by going to the polls and telling pollsters that gas is not really their main thing.

I have audited a lot of household budgets. I have never seen one this committed to ignoring the biggest line item.

Let's open the ledger.

The final UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll before the election found Democrat Xavier Becerra leading Republican Steve Hilton 61 percent to 34 percent in the race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom. A Public Policy Institute of California survey had it 61 to 37. Either way, it's not a race. It's a formality with lawn signs.

Here's the line that caught my eye. More than six in ten Becerra supporters, 62 percent, said "fighting Trump administration policies" was one of their main concerns. The poll's own write-up says that far outdistanced a host of other concerns, including the high cost of living.

Read that again with your gas receipt in your hand.

To be fair to the facts, gas went up everywhere this year. Forbes notes the national average jumped after the Iran war broke out in February and hit $4.15 on Tuesday, the highest Election Day average on record. Nobody in Sacramento started that. But the national price doesn't explain the extra $1.74. That part is made in California. State fuel taxes and fees come to about 73.6 cents a gallon, according to Tax Foundation figures, before you add the state's special fuel blend and its refinery rules. The federal government is charging you for the gas. Sacramento is charging you for the privilege of buying it in California.

Federal energy data puts California regular at $5.748 in the week of Nov. 2, up 31.9 percent from a year ago. A third more for the same gallon. If your landlord did that, you'd call a lawyer. When your state does it, you call it climate leadership.

Diesel, which moves every head of lettuce and every box of diapers in the state, is averaging $8.34 a gallon. That cost doesn't stay at the truck stop. It shows up at the register, in small amounts, every week, forever.

Hilton has promised to bring gas down to $3 a gallon. Whether that's possible is a fair debate. But only 16 percent of voters in the Berkeley poll even expect him to win. Seventy-one percent expect Becerra to. So the state's plan for $5.89 gas is the same as it was at $4.89 gas: keep the people who set the policy, and send the anger to Washington by mail.

I'm an accountant, not a philosopher. I don't care who you vote for. I care that the math balances. And the math here says a family filling up a 15-gallon tank twice a week is spending about $177 a week on gas. A family in Texas with the same tank is spending about $109. That's roughly $68 a week, or about $3,500 a year, for living somewhere with a nicer view of the problem.

California's voters have decided their top concern is the man in the White House. Fair enough. He doesn't fill their tanks either.

And here's the closing balance: $5.89 at the pump, 62 percent focused elsewhere, and one more year of paying extra to be angry at someone else.

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The Demorat is a satire publication. This article is parody and commentary based on real news reports; jokes, exaggerations and fictional elements are not factual claims. Quotes attributed to real people are drawn from published reporting.

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