WHEN YOU’RE LEADING the polls, everyone takes their shots. Xavier Becerra found that out last week as six gubernatorial rivals ganged up on 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 ahead of the June 2 election to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.
While the San Francisco debate was calmer than the brawls in the last few meet-ups, everyone’s target was the Democratic frontrunner Becerra.
These are five takeaways:
Becerra was the one to beat:
Opponents piled on with anything that might stick, from his acceptance of a campaign contribution from Chevron to his failure to answer questions at a housing forum last week to fraud in the hospice system while Becerra was secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration.
But the Becerra weakness du jour was the guilty plea earlier Thursday of his former political strategist Dana Williamson, who admitted to conspiring with Becerra’s former longtime chief of staff to steal money from his campaign account.
Opponents were unified in their skepticism about Becerra’s repeated claims that he wasn’t involved. Despite the plea deal that did not accuse him, Democratic rival Katie Porter went so far as to say he could still be implicated 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 over his lack of a funding plan for his ideas, including Porter, who pulled out a makeshift whiteboard in a callback to her signature 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 restrict some corporations’ use of tax credits.
Newsom proposed that earlier in the day as part of his state budget.
Once lagging in polls and fundraising, Becerra has surged since ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out in early April over sexual assault allegations, offering Democratic voters a familiar face who’s held public office for decades and who frequently talks about fighting with Trump.
And he made the most of it:
Becerra appeared pleased with the attention.
“This is what happens when you take the lead in the polls,” he said. “They all come at you.”
Republican frontrunner Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, quickly jumped in to correct him: Hilton is leading, per some polls. (Accounting for margins of error, both candidates are essentially tied.)
But Becerra used the moment to try to shut the door on the Williamson scandal, touting a statement from the prosecutor’s office Thursday saying that “no candidate running for governor has been implicated” 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 wouldn’t be a “distraction” if he advances to November, he responded, “I can.”
Mahan looks to separate from Republicans:
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has made a name for himself as a moderate Democrat willing to take on his own party. That has included his early support for Prop. 36, the tough-on-crime ballot measure that Newsom and the party opposed in 2024 but which voters passed overwhelmingly, and his campaign proposals to tie pay to performance in the public sector that rankle organized labor.
But on TV in a state where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans and Trump is anathema, he sought to clarify that he’s not a Republican.
“I’m going to offer something different,” he said. “Not MAGA and not more of the same.”
Mahan appeared to relish his spats with Hilton, taking care to point out Hilton’s association with Trump and his former employer, Fox News. Mahan criticized the Republican’s plan to expand California suburbs by building on undeveloped land as likely to drive up carbon emissions, and attacked him over rumors he was pushed out of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s government.
“I attacked the extremes on both sides,” Mahan said after the debate.
Mahan was the only Democrat not to say on stage that he would support any of the other Democrats if they advanced to November and he didn’t, instead naming fellow moderate former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, because “mayors get things done.”
Later, he wavered, first saying “it depends” when asked if he would support another Democrat, clarifying, “I would vote for a fellow Democrat against a Republican.”
Everyone but Hilton would restrict chatbots:
When moderators asked a lightning-round “yes or no” question on whether the state should more strictly regulate artificial intelligence chatbots that interact with children, the candidates appeared united across party lines.
Democrats in the state Capitol this year are already pursuing stricter chatbot regulations after advocates decried a law Newsom signed last year as too weak. Steyer promoted his brother’s influential work on the topic.
In contrast, Hilton hesitated, then refused to answer yes or no, saying “it’s not as simple as that” and expressing a desire not to over-regulate the industry.
“It’s 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 unintended.”
Hilton moved to California from the United Kingdom to Silicon Valley in 2012 to join his wife Rachel Whetstone, a prominent tech executive.
Republicans boost each other:
Even before the moderators asked the candidates who else they would support if they didn’t make it onto the November ballot, the two Republicans were already practically high-fiving.
In previous debates, interviews and TV ads the two have attacked each other, but by Thursday they were often referencing each other’s points.
“Only two of us actually represent real change,” Hilton said of himself and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
With numerous Democrats competing 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 come in Nos. 1 and 2 and shut Democrats out of the general election.
This story originally appeared in CalMatters.