‘A bit of a mess’: 8 candidates spar in chaotic governor’s race debate
Eight candidates in the race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom struggled to rise above the din of cross-talk, accusations and rebuttals at a 90-minute Tuesday evening debate hosted by CBS News.
The event included two Republicans, six Democrats and five moderators in what organizers billed as the largest and most inclusive debate ahead of the June 2 primary. The sprawling event at Pomona College in Claremont, California, in part reflects the lack of frontrunners in the race.
A CBS News/YouGov poll released on Monday showed roughly a quarter of likely primary voters remain undecided, a total larger than any of the highest polling candidates. Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, drew support from 16% of those polled, trailed by billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer with 15% support, and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra with 13% support.
The thin margins and packed stage led to a debate where no candidate was safe from interruptions — including from the moderators. The event was at times so chaotic that even the college students in the audience took note of it.
“Wow, that was a bit of a mess,” said one Pomona College student told the candidates after a particularly unruly exchange.
Becerra was a frequent target. The former state attorney general shot up in the polls after former Rep. Eric Swalwell suspended his campaign earlier this month in the face of sexual assault allegations that he’s denied.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who polled at 5% in the CBS survey, accused Becerra of bungling the federal government’s response to COVID-19, mpox and the influx in child migrants under former President Joe Biden. He said Becerra had “never met a crisis he couldn’t ignore.” Those attacks echoed ones from Steyer, who has launched ads focused on a New York Times investigation that found thousands of children had been trafficked into child labor under Becerra’s watch.
Becerra pitched his tenure at HHS as a success.
“You’re not wearing a mask,” he told Mahan. “Are you mad?”
Becerra described himself as the field’s most battle-tested candidate who’d taken on President Donald Trump repeatedly in court. At one point he referred to the president as “Steve Hilton’s daddy” in a nod to Trump’s endorsement of the British TV commentator.
Hilton and his Republican rival, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, accused Democrats of trying to pin their failures in California on Trump. At one point, Bianco claimed the state’s misspending and fraud were so rampant that it dwarfed any single action by Trump, including his signing of a Republican megabill that experts say will cause millions of Californians to lose health insurance.
“Hundreds of billions of dollars and we’re worried about President Trump taking away that?” Bianco said.
Former Rep. Katie Porter clashed with Steyer, both of whom cast themselves as stalwart progressives. Porter called the environmental activist a “profiteer” for his past investments in fossil fuels and touted her campaign’s refusal of corporate funds. Steyer said some of the state’s business interests, including the California Chamber and PG&E, are funding a multimillion dollar effort to keep him from winning because, he said, “they’re scared of me.”
There were moments of substantial policy discussion. Mahan, Bianco, Hilton and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, a low-polling Democrat, all said the state should suspend its gas tax, while Becerra and the other Democrats said that move would imperil transportation funding.
The candidates all said they would support a hypothetical plan that forces people who repeatedly refuse “a pathway out of homelessness” to accept treatment at a facility. Porter qualified her answer by saying there would need to be safeguards and Bianco suggested drug treatment should be handled through the criminal justice system.
