Another poll released Tuesday showed the percentage of undecided voters in the gubernatorial primary was growing, and another statewide debate tonight wasn’t likely to add any clarity.
The playing field was confused enough as the campaign closed in on five weeks before the official June 2 primary election day and a week before ballots start landing in mailboxes of more than 23 million registered voters.
Then tonight’s CBS News debate at Pomona College in Los Angeles County added two candidates, and used five moderators plus student questions in a confusing three-section format, culminating in a predictably confusing outcome.
Before the candidates’ presentations – not really a debate, but rather another 90 minutes of questions and answers – CBS commentators called California’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign “a wide-open field,” and “a fractured field.”
Aired on CBS stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, the televised event aimed to highlight candidates’ positions on the top issues identified by prospective voters in a poll conducted April 23-27 by CBN News – affordability, gas prices, health care costs, education, homelessness, wildfires, ICE and Donald Trump.
The evening was more rough-and-tumble than last Wednesday’s event in San Francisco, but again, no candidate broke away from the scrum, and the playing field just got muddier.
None of the eight candidates voiced any substantially new campaign messages tonight, as they all followed their same game plans. What did change was the heightened energy level, perhaps an indication of a growing sense of urgency.
The first major poll since the April 22 Inside California Politics governor’s “debate” released today showed the percentage of undecided prospective voters has grown, to 26 percent.
Trailing that number in the poll released today were Republicans Steve Hilton at 16% and Chad Bianco at 10%, and Democrats Tom Steyer at 15%, Xavier Becerra at 13%, Katie Porter at 9%, Matt Mahan and Antonio Villaraigosa at 4% and Tony Thurmond at 1%.
The number of players, mixed signals and ambiguous rules weren’t the only factors that muddled the messaging. The CBS moderators used different questioning strategies, and directed questions in an uneven manner that seemed to give higher polling candidates more opportunities – and more air time.
Unlike last week, and in contrast to typical methods used in most political debates, each candidate did not get a chance to answer each of the moderators’ and students’ questions.
Moderators turned to front-running Democrat Steyer and Republican Bianco 11 times each, while front-running Republican Hilton was asked nine questions.
Becerra, the next highest polling candidate in Tuesday’s poll, answered eight questions, as did Villaraigosa.
Mahan, in a last-ditch effort to boost his long-shot candidacy, was nearly shut out, receiving only six questions, one fewer than Thurmond. Mahan’s support in Tuesday’s poll results was 4%, compared to Thurmond’s 1%.
Mahan was able to repeat the themes of his “Back to Basics” campaign and tout his successes as mayor of San Jose, especially with regard to homelessness.
He was more aggressive in going after Becerra and the other candidates. When he criticized Becerra for lax oversight of California insurance companies when he was attorney general, Mahan was praised by Hilton and Villagairosa.
Here are some key soundbites from each candidate:
Hilton: “In my first budget, there will be $3 gas, I’ll cut electric costs in half, and make everyone’s first $100,000 tax free.”
Steyer: “I’m the person who is the change agent. I am against repealing the gas tax. We should have a windfall profits tax instead.”
Becerra: “The governor’s office is not a place for training wheels. I’ll fight for the hardest working and the lowest paid workers. We need to keep the gas tax – you have to fund roads, bridges, and quality infrastructure.”
Bianco: "We have to blame the absolutely failed Democrat-Progressive agenda. Regulations and taxes have to go. Don’t worry about what Trump is doing.”
Porter: “We need housing to grow jobs. We should provide two free years at CSU, and free child care. I’m the only candidate who refuses corporate donations – I am not for sale at any price.”
Mahan: “I’m the only candidate who will suspend, then reform the gas tax, and remove barriers to building new housing. Education changed my life. We need to cut administrative overhead in our schools…and reward teachers whose students grow faster.”
Villaraigosa: “Let’s provide first-time buyer assistance, and build 150,000 new housing units. I want to be transformational.”
Thurmond: “A better California is possible. We can build two million housing units by 2030, taxing billionaires and fighting back for working people.”
