Final California gubernatorial debate: Becerra takes the heat

from Jeanne KuangCalMatters

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When you’re leading in the polls, everyone takes their shots. Xavier Becerra found that out Thursday night, when six gubernatorial rivals lashed out at him in the final debate before California’s primary — attacking everything from his ethics to his ideas to his choice of political consultants.

It was their last chance to make a personal appeal to California voters before the June 2 election to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.

While the San Francisco debate was more subdued than brawling in the last few meetingseveryone’s target was Democratic Party favorite Becerra.

Here are five takeaways:

Becerra was the one to beat:

Opponents piled on anything that could stick, from his acceptance of a campaign contribution from Chevron to his refusal to answer questions in housing forum last week for fraud in the hospice system while Becerra was secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration.

But Becerra’s weakness du jour was the guilty plea earlier Thursday to his former political strategist Dana Williamsonwho admitted conspiring with Becerra’s former longtime chief of staff to steal money from his campaign account.

Opponents were united in their skepticism about Becerra’s repeated claims that he was not involved. Despite the plea agreement that did not charge him, his Democratic challenger, Katie Porter, went so far as to say he could still be involved in the case.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a moderate backed by tech leaders, went out of his way to call Becerra “the embodiment of the status quo” in Sacramento.

Several candidates attacked Becerra for his lack of a funding plan for his ideas, including Porter, who pulled out a makeshift whiteboard in a backlash to her landmark move in Congress.

“What is Mr. Becerra’s revenue plan?” she pressed.

The former health secretary took a page out of Newsom’s book, pointing to an idea to limit the use of tax credits by some corporations.

Newsom suggested that earlier in the day as part of its state budget.

Once a trailblazer in research and fundraising, Becerra rose to prominence after former Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped in early April on sexual assault charges, offering Democratic voters a familiar face who has held public office for decades and who often talks about a fight with Trump.

And he made the most of it:

Becerra seemed pleased with the attention.

“This is what happens when you lead in the polls,” he said. “Everybody comes to you.”

Republican front-runner Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, quickly stepped in to correct him: Hilton leads, according to some polls. (Within the margins of error, both candidates are essentially a tie.)

But Becerra used the moment to try to close the door on the Williamson scandal, touting a statement from prosecutors Thursday that “no candidate, candidate for governor, is involved” in the case.

Earlier in the week he refused to answer when a reporter asked if he was sure Williamson couldn’t connect him to the case. Asked Thursday if he could guarantee the case would not be a “distraction” if it continued into November, he said: “I can.”

Mahan wants to break away from the Republicans:

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has made a name for himself as a moderate Democrat willing to take on his own party. That includes his early support for Proposition 36, the tough-on-crime ballot measure that Newsom and the party opposed in 2024 but which voters overwhelmingly passed, and his campaign proposals to tie pay to performance in the public sector, which calls into question organized labor.

But on television in a state where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans and Trump is anathema, he tried to make it clear he was not a Republican.

“I’m going to offer something different,” he said. “No MAGA and no more of the same.”

Mahan seemed to enjoy his arguments with Hilton, making sure to point out Hilton’s connection to Trump and his former employer Fox News. Mahan criticized the Republican’s plan to expand California’s suburbs by building on undeveloped land as likely to increase carbon emissions, and attacked rumors that he had been ousted by British Prime Minister David Cameron’s government.

“I attacked the extremes on both sides,” Mahan said after the debate.

Mahan was the only Democrat who did not say on stage that he would support one of the other Democrats if they advanced to November, and he did not, instead naming fellow moderate former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa because “mayors get things done.”

He later hesitated, first saying “it depends” when asked if he would support another Democrat, clarifying, “I would vote for another Democrat over a Republican.”

All but Hilton would restrict chatbots:

When moderators asked a quick yes-or-no question about whether the state should more strictly regulate AI chatbots that interact with children, the candidates seemed united across party lines.

Democrats in the Capitol this year are already pursuing tougher regulations on chatbots after advocates decried the law Newsom signed last year as too weak. Steyer promoted his brother’s influential work on the subject.

By contrast, Hilton hesitated, then declined to answer yes or no, saying it was “not that simple” and expressing a desire not to over-regulate the industry.

“This is not the right way to discuss a very important and serious issue,” he said as opponents and moderators tried to pin him down. “It causes problems that are not intended.”

Hilton moved to California from the UK in Silicon Valley in 2012 to join his wife Rachel Whetstone, a prominent technology executive.

Republicans encourage each other:

Even before the moderators asked the candidates who else they would support if they didn’t make it to the November ballot, the two Republicans were already practically high-fiving.

In previous debates, interviews and TV commercials, the two attacked each otherbut by Thursday, they often matched each other.

“Just the two of us actually making a real difference,” Hilton said of himself and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

With a host of Democrats vying for liberal support, Hilton has consistently led in the polls. While he and Bianco have previously declined to specifically endorse the other, the only realistic way for a Republican to win in blue California is for both Republicans to take Nos. 1 and 2 and shut Democrats out of the general election.

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