Candidates in the gubernatorial race are targeting Becerra on the national stage

from Dan WaltersCalMatters

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As California voters receive their primary ballots and begin returning them to be counted, the seven leading candidates for governor on Tuesday night engaged in a sometimes sharp, two-hour debate that reflected a race that is too close to call.

the event, staged by CNN in Monterey Parkdiffered from previous forums with a looser format that allowed the five Democrats and two Republicans to weigh in on a series of contentious issues and throw personal jabs at each other.

In other words, it felt more like a real debate than a glorified panel discussion, and it allowed observers from around the country, as well as Californians, to weigh in on how they cope with stress.

The pecking order was obvious, with Xavier Becerrathe former attorney general and member of Biden’s cabinet, a frequent target of candidates in both parties. He saw a sudden surge in the polls after former Rep. Eric Swawell’s campaign collapsed amid accusations of sexual harassment and violence.

Before Swalwell left, Becerra was mired in the second tier of the field, with low, single-digit support in the polls. He has ever since jump to the top layerand in the latest Democratic poll released this week, it was tied with the Republican Steve Hilton for first place.

Becerra jump over billionaire Tom Steyerprompted a series of anti-Becerra media spots and messages from Steyer. They cited a scandal involving Becerra campaign aides accused of diverting money from one of his accounts and charge that he lost track of millions of migrant children when serving as Health and Social Care Secretary.

Known for his quiet demeanor, Becerra showed a livelier side to his persona in response to the critical comments, saying at one point that “everybody’s calling my name” while insisting he was a victim in the campaign fund case and that the “lost children” criticism was untrue.

Some of Becerra’s sharpest shots came from a former mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosawhich stood at just 2 percent in the latest party poll, reflecting a long-standing rivalry dating back to Villaraigosa’s mayoralty and Becerra’s time as a Los Angeles congressman.

None of what happened Tuesday night, as the candidates talked about the cost of living, gas prices, homelessness, immigration and other issues, seemed to change the game.

The differences between Democrats on the points raised by the two CNN moderators were not particularly large. All the candidates boasted their disdain for President Donald Trump and vowed to protect California from his wrath, which is standard Democratic rhetoric these days.

There has been little dust-up around single-payer health care — reflecting the priority of the issue among progressive activists. Steyer, who has cast himself as the most progressive candidate and boasts the support of the California Nurses Association, the main promoter of single-payer, blasted Becerra for allegedly opposing single-payer to win approval from the California Medical Association, saying the CMA was “maximizing for Becerra.”

Becerra has refused to support single-payer, while saying he supports “Medicare for all” as the answer to health care disparities. Porter was the only other Democrat to unreservedly support single-payer.

The two Republicans, Hilton and Riverside Sheriff Chad Biancolargely stuck to the standard GOP line that California’s long list of problems — such as high poverty, unemployment, housing shortages and high costs of living — are to be blamed on Democratic control of state government and can only be fixed by electing one of them governor.

That’s virtually impossible unless they finish 1-2 in the June 2 primary and thus both appear on the November ballot. Democratic leaders have been wary of that possibility, but as the field has stacked up recently, a Republican could enter the runoff. Given California’s voter demographics, the Democrat who survives will almost certainly be the next governor.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.