The top candidates for California governor tonight finally showed the frustration – perhaps even desperation – of failing to break out of the pack as the finish line approaches.
After weeks of street campaigning, social media posts, spending millions and politely sharing stages across California, five Democrats and two Republicans sharpened their messaging and focused their attacks in a San Francisco debate.
Polls released earlier this week showed some separation of three candidates – Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton – from the others, and the trio were on the receiving end of most of the barbs at the CBS/San Francisco Examiner event televised statewide from the historic Julia Morgan Ballroom.
Hilton and fellow Republican Chad Bianco continued to avoid criticizing each other. The Democrats – who need at least one champion to be on the November ballot – didn’t hesitate to go after each other.
“I guess this is what happens when you are leading in the polls,” shrugged a smiling Becerra, who spent nearly 10 minutes deflecting criticism from both sides, stemming from a breaking news story this afternoon.
Katie Porter, Anthony Villagairosa, Matt Mahan and Steyer didn’t hesitate to pile on when Hilton questioned Becerra’s role in the case connected to today’s guilty plea by Dana Williamson, former campaign manager for Gov. Gavin Newsom to charges that she assisted in a scheme to divert money from dormant Becerra campaign accounts to pay Becerra’s former chief of staff. Becerra, who has admitted to approving the transfers, was cleared of any wrongdoing in the case.
That didn’t stop Hilton, who accused Becerra of being “implicated in a corruption scandal.”
“You shouldn’t be on this stage, you shouldn’t be in this race, you should be preparing for your criminal defense,” Hilton told Becerra.
“I was not involved in any wrongdoing,” countered the former state attorney general. “The U.S. attorney said no candidate running for governor has been implicated.”
Mahan added accusations that Becerra ignored a giant unemployment scandal as attorney general, and that he “wasn’t minding the shop…and was sidelined by the Biden Administration” during the COVID pandemic.
The debate came at a pivotal moment in the top-two primary campaign – as mail ballots are returned and new polls show the number of undecided voters are dwindling with less than three weeks until the official June 2 Election Day.
The pressure leading up to the debate couldn’t have been greater, especially after likely voters told Emerson College pollsters that their support for the candidates, even after four months of campaigning, could still be fickle: 40% of voters who favored a candidate said they were open to changing their minds before sending in their ballots.
Unlike previous debates, tonight’s format announced by sponsors CBS and the San Francisco Examiner included opportunities for candidates to ask questions of each other – and candidates took advantage of the rule, often talking over one another, interrupting and shouting questions. No one was spared, and all participated.
Hilton at one point challenged Becerra’s claim to be the “leading candidate,” saying that he, not Becerra, was on top. Becerra was the latest front-runner in the crowded field, according to an Emerson College poll released this week. A Kreate Strategies poll earlier had identified Hilton as the favorite.
The Emerson interviews occurred May 9-10 –the only poll conducted wholly after the May 5 debate in Southern California.
Released three days before tonight’s event, the poll showed Becerra at 19%, followed by billionaire activist Steyer and former Fox News host Hilton at 17%. Republican Riverside County Sheriff Bianco slipped to 11%, followed by former Congress member Porter at 10% and San Jose mayor Mahan at 8%.
Each candidate also had a couple of chances to push their messaging, to attempt to differentiate themselves from the group.
Porter said she is the only candidate to reject any corporate contributions. “I’m not a billionaire,” she said. “I push a shopping cart.” She supports free child care, free tuition at state universities and no state income tax for incomes below $100,000 – which was first proposed last month by Hilton.
Steyer, who has spent more than $150 million of his own money on this campaign, said, “I’m a billionaire who is fighting for others, who is willing to tax billionaires and myself.” “Healthcare is a right,” he said.
Hilton has been endorsed by Trump, but did not mention him in this debate. “We have had one-party rule for 16 years – no more one-party rule,” he said. “I am not an idealogue.”
Mahan chose to target the three leading candidates in his final statement, without naming them: “We don’t need a career politician, or a divisive MAGA candidate, or billionaires.”
Becerra, looking at Mahan, Hilton and Steyer, said “We don’t need someone who needs training wheels.”
Bianco chose not to repeat his support for Trump at this debate, instead saying “I am the only one up here working every day to solve problems… I know how to work with others.”
The slow pace of returned mail ballots – just 3% at mid-week – also may indicate that voters are holding off on sending in their ballots even as the June 2 final-count day draws closer. More than 22 million ballots were mailed to voters May 4.
One pollster, Kevin Wen, CEO of Kreate Strategies, said before tonight’s debate that “the [California governor] race continues to develop without full consolidation. With multiple candidates remaining competitive and undecided voters still in play, the electorate remains fluid heading into the primary.”
The next set of polls, as early as next week, could reveal whether that is still the case.
Stop voting for the same destructive leadership, it hasn’t worked for nearly two decades. Stop voting for more taxes, bonds, etc., anything that takes more money out of taxpayers’ pockets. There is already enough money in this state. Taxpayers have already given enough money to create and fix whatever it is these incompetent, corrupt, destructive leaders claim they need more money for. We have the worst of every “bad” thing this state has ever had; homelessness, addiction, crime, blight, etc. These leaders can’t even keep our roads in decent condition, our parks clean and safe for children, these are just a couple of the most basic things leaders should be able to manage. Schools are failing our children; kids can’t do basic math or read. People need to stop listening to the rhetoric and simply open their eyes. Stop continuously voting for these crooks expecting a change for the better, it’s never going to happen. We have to do better.