In a dark hotel dance room from the airport, a group of California Democrats sought to distinguish himself from the field full of people for governor in 2026.
It was not an easy task, since the alignment of current and previous elected officials who shared the stage in the Sunday forum in the morning agreed almost all the problems, with any difference largely on the margins.
They promised to face President Trump, make the State more affordable, safeguard immigrants and provide them with the medical medical care benefits and keep intact the state's exaggerated bullet trains project.
There is still no clear favorite in the race to direct the most populous state in the nation, although the former representative of Orange County, Katie Porter, has had a small advantage in recent surveys.
In addition to an opaque excavation of former state controller Betty Yee, Porter was not attacked during the debate.
They joined on stage by the former Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States. Xavier Becerra, California Supt. of public instruction Tony Thurmond and the former mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa. The state senator Toni Atkins, who was supposed to participate, retired due to a disease. The rich political candidate for the first time Stephen J. Cloobck retired due to a programming conflict.
The Forum was sponsored by the National Union of Health Workers, in association with Los Angeles Times and Spectrum News. It was held in Los Angeles and moderated by the National Planning editor of Associated Press, Lisa Matthews, with the editor of the Times policy in California, Phil Willon, the news presenter of Spectrum 1, the news presenter Amrit Singh Singh and the senior political reporter of Politico Melanie Mason asking the questions.
Senator Alex Padilla and businessman Rick Caruso have also publicly flirted with an offer for the best state office, but they have not yet made a decision.
Two main republican candidates, the Sheriff of the County of Riverside, Chad Bianco, and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, are also run for the governor of California, but neither of them was invited to the debate because they did not complete a questionnaire of support of the Union.
With Prop. 50 at the forefront, lack of care in the race
The Governor Primary of June 2, California is only eight months away, but the Horde that hopes to replace Governor Gavin Newsom has been competing for the attention against an extraordinarily full landscape of people, with an unexpected special election this November moving the dollars and attention of the career for the governor. Without saying anything about the fact that the race had been frozen for months until the end of July, when former vice president Kamala Harris finally announced that she would not be running.
The candidates reiterated their support for proposition 50, led by the November vote, led by Newsom, to help the Democrats win control of the United States Representatives Chamber next year to draw again the districts of the Congress of California. Newsom pressed for the measure to counteract the efforts of the states led by Republicans to reconfigure their congress districts to ensure that the Republican party maintains the control of the congress.
“This is not a fight we really wanted to have,” said Yee. “This is in response to a clear attempt to silence our representation in Washington. And then we have to defend ourselves.”
An approach to the history of immigrants and appeals to Latin voters
The candidates repeatedly focused on the origins of their families, as well as their efforts to protect immigrants while serving in the elected office.
Thurmond raised his education in his opening comments.
“I know what it is to fight. Do you know that my grandparents were immigrants who came here from Colombia, from Jamaica? Do you know that I am the descendant of slaves who settled in Detroit, Michigan?” said.
Becerra highlighted their support for undocumented people to have access to state medical care coverage, as well as their successful demand that protects undocumented immigrants brought to this nation as young children who arrived at the Supreme Court.
“As the son of immigrants, I know what happens when you feel you are excluded,” he said.
Becerra and Thurmond went to the diverse audience in Spanish.
Yee, who talked about sharing a room with his parents and immigrant brothers. He also raised his background during a ray question about what they planned to disguise candidates as in Halloween.
“My authentic self as daughter of immigrants,” he said.
Different opinions on Criminal Justice and Medical Attention approaches
The debate was overwhelmingly cordial. But there was some dissent when the issue became proposition 36, a vote on the 2024 crime that imposed strictest sanctions for theft and repeated crimes involving fentanyl.
The measure of the ballot, which unbuttoned key parts of proposition 47 of the vote of the 2014 criminal justice vote, sowed the division between the Democrats of California, with news and groups, including the ACLU, opposing it strongly. His approval marked a tidal turn in the Attitudes of the Californians about the reform of criminal justice and the response to the crime, after years of support for progressive policies that moved away from the penitive prison sentences for lower level crimes.
First, Villaraigosa said that he was the only candidate on the stage that had supported proposition 36, although Porter and Becerra quickly jumped to say that they had also supported him.
But Porter also argued that, despite his support, there were “very real problems with him and very real deficiencies.” The measure should also have focused on prevention and imprison people for drug crimes does not make anyone safer, he said.
Thurmond abruptly moved away from the pack on the subject, saying that he voted “no” in proposal 36 and citing his career as a social worker.
“Prop. 36, by design, was established to say that if you have a substance abuse problem, you will receive a treatment in jail,” said Thurmond, suggesting that the amount of drugs present in the penitentiary system will make the result difficult.
As governor, it would be more money in the treatment for abuse programs of substances and diversion programs for those who commit minor crimes, he said.
When the candidates were asked to lift their hand if they supported a single payer, Porter and Villaraigosa, while Becerra, Yee and Thurmond did.
The need to build more homes
The problems of affordability are the most important thing for most Californians, particularly when it comes to housing.
Thurmond said he would build two million housing units in surplus lands in school sites throughout the State and would provide a tax exemption for Californians of work and middle class.
Villaraigosa also focused on the need to build more homes, criticizing bureaucratic bureaucracy and slow permits processes.
Villaraigosa also criticized Ceqa twice, notable because the California Environmental Quality Law was once apparently above the reproach by California Democrats. But the defects of the law have been accepted more and more in recent years as the state housing crisis worsened, with Newsom signing two bills to review the law and relieve the new construction earlier this year.
Porter said that if he were governor, he would sign SB 79, a project of historical housing law that annuls the local zoning laws to expand high density housing near the transit centers. The controversial bill, which potentially replaced single -family neighborhoods within half a mile of transit stops, is waiting for Newsom's signature or veto.
