California governor's debate sees more substance — KTVU

[0:00] This is the 10 o'clock news on KTVU Fox 2. [0:03] Now at 10, the stakes are high and the stage is full. [0:06] Seven candidates competing to be California's next governor clash in tonight's debate, [0:11] sparring on a number of issues from housing to health care, immigration, and President Trump. [0:16] I have the experience to take on the toughest challenges, [0:19] whether it's Donald Trump in his first term or whether it was COVID. [0:22] The decisions that I make have life and death consequences, [0:26] and those decisions are made on a daily basis. [0:29] And I'm going to be relentless, absolutely relentless, [0:32] in fighting the nonsense that makes life so difficult for each and every one of you. [0:38] When people said we couldn't build housing, I fought to speed up permitting and reduce fees, [0:42] and now we have homes under construction. [0:44] Working people are supporting me, environmentalists are supporting me, [0:47] progressives are supporting me. I'm the change agent on this stage. [0:50] I have shown time and time again that I am willing to push for politics to be better, [0:56] for government to be better. [0:58] I think character matters, and I have the character to be governor of this state. [1:02] I'm willing to take on my friends. [1:06] The seven candidates making their pitch to you, the voters in this latest debate, [1:09] and ballots are now in the mail. [1:11] Good evening, everyone. I'm Mike Meebeck. [1:13] And I'm Christina Rendon. [1:14] Tonight, we are less than one month away from the June primary, [1:17] and only two candidates will move on to the November midterms. [1:20] KTVU's Greg Lee live here in studio. [1:22] Greg, the gloves coming off at times on that stage tonight. [1:24] Yeah, Mike, Christina, good evening to you. [1:25] Attacks ramped up for sure, and there was more substance from tonight's debate. [1:28] No question candidates on stage used this national spotlight to target the frontrunners [1:33] who have started to solidify in this race. [1:35] Some clear policy differences were drawn tonight, and with ballots now out, [1:39] the campaign's feeling the heat to stand out. [1:42] Another week, another debate in the race for California governor. [1:46] Five Democrats and two Republicans sparring on a national stage hosted by CNN. [1:50] The candidates speaking to a national audience, invoking President Trump's name early and often. [1:55] When Donald Trump hurts California, as he has again and again, then I will absolutely stand up to him, 100%. [2:05] I can also challenge Donald Trump and say very clearly that he lost the election in 2020. [2:12] You can't, Mr. Hilton. [2:14] Donald Trump is the president in all the other states of America where the cost of living is way lower than in California. [2:20] This week, ballots began to arrive in voters' mailboxes, adding to the urgency for these candidates to make an impact. [2:26] New polls show Javier Becerra and Steve Hilton leading the pack in the top two primary, [2:31] and with that in mind, candidates sharpening their attacks. [2:34] Everything will be higher with Steyer. [2:37] Okay, we'll go to Steyer, then we'll go back to Becerra, Mr. Steyer. [2:40] I do think it's rich to hear someone talk about $3 gas who is owned by Donald Trump. [2:45] What have those 30 years of experience gotten us? [2:48] More Americans insured than ever. [2:50] No, hold on, let me finish, let me finish. [2:51] I would like to get one complete answer for you to interrupt. [2:54] And it's forcing us to be less safe. [2:59] On policy, heated moments in disagreement over the issue of single-payer health care. [3:03] I am absolutely for Medicare for all, and we will get there, we'll build towards it, [3:08] because that's the way you get folks covered. [3:10] Covering everyone with something is not single-payer. [3:16] It's not even federal Medicare for all. [3:18] All the candidates who are fighting for single-payer don't know how to pay for it, [3:22] and they're not being honest about it. [3:24] The reality is, our health care system is broken. [3:27] Sparks also flew on the topic of immigration enforcement and sanctuary policies. [3:32] I've answered the question, which is, I will work with... [3:34] Will you deport them? [3:35] That was the question. [3:36] Well, would you, Antonio, because the governor of California, as you know, doesn't make that [3:42] decision. [3:43] It is the president of the United States. [3:46] Immigrants built this state. [3:47] Immigrants make this state run. [3:49] The fact of the matter is, we had a broken immigration system, and now you want to victimize [3:54] the people who are working here. [3:56] Sanctuary state policy, Democrats forced ice into our cities and streets and neighborhoods [4:04] to find these criminals. [4:05] Immigrants, if we took them all out, including the undocumented, it would be a $274 billion [4:12] hit to the California economy. [4:16] The candidates tussled over other issues like cost of living, housing, the billionaire's [4:20] tax, and AI. [4:21] All of them did align on one issue, their belief the state needs change. [4:26] And if three debates in three weeks was enough for you, candidates will get another chance [4:30] at a debate tomorrow and another one next week. [4:32] So no shortage of an opportunity to get their points across at this point. [4:35] Okay, Greg Lee, thank you. [4:37] All right, we'll see you at 11, too. [4:38] And just ahead of tonight's debate, Tom Steyer did receive a big endorsement from former San [4:43] Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. [4:45] Other Democrats were hoping to get the nod. [4:46] Katie Porter recently sat down with Willie Brown, posting a photo of their meeting just [4:51] a week ago. [4:52] And Javier Becerra announcing that he has been endorsed by labor leader Dolores Huerta Becerra [4:57] said the endorsement is an honor, calling Huerta a relentless champion for working people [5:03] and justice. [5:04] The United Farm Workers Union, co-founded by Huerta, represents thousands of workers across [5:08] California. [5:09] For more on the governor's race and tonight's debate, we're joined by David McKeown, professor [5:13] of political science at Sonoma State University. [5:15] David, thanks for being here. [5:16] Let's talk standouts and stumbles. [5:18] Who had the big night and who took a hit? [5:20] All right. [5:21] So a lot of this debate was about temperament. [5:24] Katie Porter obviously kept trying to talk about temperament and bring that forward as the [5:28] only woman in the race pushing back on the ability to at least complete a thought. [5:32] But all of them were talking and placing their role, if you will, that they had the temperament, [5:38] whether that was to be governor of California, whether that was to push back against Donald [5:42] Trump. [5:43] And as Greg highlighted on the piece there, immigration that happened about 630 around [5:47] that time is when the immigration debate started. [5:49] That led to some fireworks. [5:51] Matt Mahan was more aggressive than we've seen him in the past. [5:54] Javier Becerra tried to kind of float above this, but took some zingers, had some zingers [6:00] himself, and I'm not sure that that Sacramento insider scandal really cuts too much for voters. [6:05] So voters just paying attention to what's going on here, and as that's starting to happen [6:10] with these debates, it is going to lead them to a place where they're going to have to [6:14] decide on a candidate or two. [6:15] But it doesn't, if you will, lead to deep support. [6:18] So voters are still searching for what's going on there, which is why you saw Tom Steyer [6:23] staking out a stronger position on the left as a progressive, Chad Bianco going to those [6:28] core conservatives. [6:29] But as long as Mahan stays in this race, it helps elevate one Republican and one Democrat [6:34] out of that primary in June. [6:37] So it's a two-hour debate. [6:38] David, do you think the undecideds out there, and there are a lot of them in California, [6:42] actually benefited from this? [6:45] Nah, I'm not sure. [6:46] I mean, look, there's a lot going back and forth here, Mike, in terms of kind of pitching [6:50] and hitting back and forth on one another. [6:53] Voters are going to turn off from that. [6:54] You are going to get some fisticuffs on some things, but health care was an important area [6:59] of debate. [7:00] And that was a place where Javier Becerra looked a little bit sketchy in terms of his Medicare [7:05] for all kind of position. [7:06] He didn't handle that very well. [7:08] That came on the heels of what was discussed in terms of immigration earlier. [7:11] So he had only an okay debate. [7:13] He clearly is surging here. [7:15] But his discussion of what the discussion that happened in immigration about ICE and [7:20] the role of ICE, what happens on the billionaire's tax. [7:23] Voters are going to look for a couple of inflections, a couple of cues, but you're going to have [7:27] to stay tuned to this for all two hours. [7:29] And that is just flat out exhausting. [7:32] And you wouldn't expect that. [7:33] You'd expect viewers to hold on for 30, 35 minutes, 40 minutes, but not much past that. [7:38] And so viewership would go down. [7:40] David, President Trump was a frequent topic of discussion at tonight's debate. [7:45] And for Republican Steve Hilton, he does have the endorsement of President Trump. [7:48] Donald Trump was running for governor of California. [7:51] He was mentioned so much tonight. [7:52] And if you're Steve Hilton, Republicans believe it helps buoy one particular candidate, Steve [7:58] Hilton. [7:58] But because of his unpopularity, as you mentioned there, President Trump's, that's a real hard [8:03] pivot in the midterm election. [8:05] Democrats are going to show up early and often in November because they see the midterm as [8:10] an existential crisis. [8:11] And so you know Democratic turnout is going to be high. [8:15] The thing about Steve Hilton, though, is his delivery, kind of everything's three points. [8:19] The way he does that is very well practiced, comes across evenly, especially when he's trying [8:24] to talk about Democrats who've been around for a long time. [8:27] If Javier Becerra ends up being that candidate, for Democrats, you would expect that we had [8:33] a preview of this for what the fight is coming over the next couple of months if these two [8:38] end up coming out of the top two system. [8:40] Let me ask you about the two Republicans. [8:42] For a long time, there's been this storyline amongst many Democrats across California about [8:47] being locked out of the June 2nd primary. [8:51] Does that storyline still exist after tonight? [8:53] No, and it hasn't existed in reality at all, Mike, and here's why. [8:58] California's a deeply blue state. [8:59] This is a narrative that's been run, I think, principally by Republicans out of the East, [9:04] hoping that something would happen where two Republicans would rise. [9:07] Chad Bianco has a core constituency. [9:09] It's a hard conservative constituency. [9:12] It's a law and order constituency. [9:13] But it's not a constituency that elects you governor of California. [9:17] That's why Republicans have been locked out. [9:19] But it is a constituency that he can stay in the race and be in a place that's 8, 9, 10, [9:23] 11, 12 points, but not in that magic 15 or 16 number. [9:27] And so he was never going to be in a place that Steve Hilton was going to be a little [9:31] bit higher with about 35, 36 percent of the vote. [9:34] They're not going to split that vote evenly. [9:36] And that's where the Mahan candidacy kind of comes in. [9:39] But so Steyer and Porter have to cut into this while Javier Becerra tries to float above [9:44] that. [9:44] That's a little bit of a tough gig. [9:46] Let's see if Becerra can stay there the next week or so, because this race rapidly gets [9:51] intense after we see this debate tomorrow and the next week as well. [9:55] Things are turned up. [9:56] OK, before we let you go, one more question here, and that's ballots are already in the [9:59] mail. [10:00] Do you think affordability is going to be the biggest issue for voters? [10:03] I think it's a softer notion than that, Christina. [10:07] What I mean by that is it's about temperament. [10:09] It's about approach. [10:09] Voters are looking for someone who is not just a sage and has all the right policy answers. [10:14] They're looking for someone who's capable and has the right temperament or approach to [10:17] being governor. [10:18] And you don't often see that sometimes on stage in these types of debates. [10:22] So it's more about approach. [10:24] This is not the Matt Mahan vanilla kind of approach. [10:27] This is somebody who has verve, who has a little bit of kind of a kick behind them. [10:31] And that means voters are going to give a look to someone who's surging in the race. [10:35] That's why Becerra gets a little bit longer look, even though he's had two debates back [10:39] to back that were just kind of mezza-mezza. [10:41] The top two, we'll know in just about a month. [10:43] David McEwen, political science professor at Sonoma State. [10:45] Always appreciate the conversation, David. [10:47] Thank you. [10:48] Nice to see you both. [10:49] People gathered.