Highlights from the CBS News California/San Francisco Examiner Governor's Debate

In a lightning round, candidates were asked to respond to yes or no to the question: Would you extradite a California-based physician for sending abortion pills across state lines. 

The candidates were split around party lines, with Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton saying they would, and Democrats Antonio Villaraigosa, Xavier Becerra, Matt Mahan, Tom Steyer and Katie Porter saying they would not.

The question stemmed from Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision in January to block Louisiana's attempt to extradite a doctor in California accused of mailing abortion pills. 

The candidates' responses at the debate followed a ruling Thursday by the U.S. Supreme Court that maintained mail order access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

When asked about the state's biggest environmental challenge, Antonio Villaraigosa discussed his time both as California Assembly speaker and Los Angeles mayor, arguing he was successful in shepherding environmental and green policies. 

He said addressing the state's energy needs requires a combined approach.

"Folks, anybody that thinks that the climate deniers have a policy that works — or the ones that believe we're just going to go all renewables — that's not gonna work," Villaraigosa said. "We need an all-of-the-above energy policy, almost anyone who knows anything about this knows that, and we haven't spoken to it."

Villaraigosa noted that while the state has built 167,000 EV charging stations in the last 10 years, he believed California will need two million additional charging stations within the next decade. He added that California currently does not have the electric grid to support such a buildout.

Antonio Villaraigosa turned to his track record as Los Angeles mayor when asked how he would improve outcomes in education.

"I authored the largest school bond in U.S. history at the time, a $9 billion bond to modernize and build new schools," Villaraigosa said. "When I was mayor, one out of three schools were failing. By the time I left, it was one out of 10, a 60% increase in the graduation rate."

Villaraigosa argued that he has "a record of turning around schools in the largest school district in this state."

For his part, Bianco said the public education system needs to be revamped from the top down, and specifically took aim at administrators. 

"We have teachers that are buying things for their classroom because the school won't buy it. We're laying teachers off. Do you know who is not being laid off? Do you know who's not getting pay cuts? It's administrators," Bianco said. 

He said that the state needs to put money toward hiring more teachers and noted he believes students learn from people and not computers. 

"If we do not start investing in more teachers and putting those classrooms to less kids and getting bad kids out of the class so they can learn, we're going to fail another generation of kids," he said.

Moderator Ryan Yamamoto pointed out data to Bianco showing that Riverside County — which Bianco serves as sheriff — has seen the number of unhoused people drop 19% through a collaboration between the county and nonprofits. Despite that statistic, Yamamoto said, Bianco has been quoted as vowing to defund any NGOs or nonprofits "on the day I take over."

"How would that impact your county?" Yamamoto asked.

"It will impact them for a few minutes while they reach out and say, 'This is what we're doing, and you're going to cause all of these people to be put back on the street.' And then we will give them their money back," Bianco said. "And then the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of NGOs and nonprofits that don't come asking for their money back and showing us how many people are going to be affected, we'll arrest all of those [people]. Because that's where the waste, fraud and abuse is happening in the homeless industrial complex."

Bianco added that his county also provides services to the homeless population.

"We actually offer them the mental health and the drug treatment that they need, and the alcohol treatment that they need. We do it very different, and that involves arrests," Bianco said. "So we can help them get rid of their addiction, get rid of their mental illness state, so we can get them to the homes and family that they already have."

When asked if California should have climate impact standards for artificial intelligence, Porter was unequivocal. 

"We should have climate standards for everything we build," she said. 

She said building green energy projects impacts the climate, but she believes it nets a positive impact. 

"We need to be putting more green energy and more battery storage and grid transmission in the ground," Porter said. 

When asked if climate change is real, Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said: "Of course, we can say that temperatures are increasing." But he added that he doesn't believe warnings of California "disappearing" due to a receding coastline affected by rising sea levels, noting that he is not "naive enough to believe human beings will affect it."

"We have to be realistic about what we are doing, how we are going to compensate for the Earth's environment changing, and stop destroying California with unbelievable excessive regulations that are truly environmental activist-related, that are destroying our state's ability to do everything, including housing," Bianco said.

Hilton said he is an "environmentalist." But, he said, the state should "have common sense on climate change, not ideology that ends up being counterproductive. And exactly, as Chad said, hurting every small business and family and everyone in California."

As he had in prior debates, Steve Hilton again tried to implicate Becerra in a corruption probe involving political consultant Dana Williamson, Gov. Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff who also served as an aide to Becerra. Williamson pleaded guilty Thursday morning to three felony charges in connection with an alleged scheme to siphon funds to a dormant campaign account belonging to Becerra when he was U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services.

"Honestly — and it pains me to say, because I like you personally, Xavier — you shouldn't be on this stage," Hilton said. "You should not be in this race. You should be preparing your criminal defense."

"With friends like that, who needs enemies?" quipped Becerra, who has noted that he was not named in the indictment and again stressed that he was not involved in any wrongdoing.

"Don't take my word for it. Take the words of the U.S. Attorney who said, 'No candidate running for governor has been implicated in this particular matter,'" Becerra said.

Becerra said he would declare a state of emergency to speed homebuilding and accelerate homeownership in the state. 

He said he wants to implement new statewide housing policy, helping developers build homes at a quicker pace and working with local governments to impose fewer environmental impact fees. He also noted that he wants to build up in high-density areas and near public transit.

Meanwhile, Hilton said he would not punish cities that failed to meet housing production targets set by the state's housing element law. He said he wants to build housing outwards, not just upwards.

"Did you know that just 6% of our land is developed in California? We can increase that to just 7% and there would be room for 10 million households and single-family homes," Hilton said. 

As they had in prior debates, the candidates onstage attempted to buttonhole Xavier Becerra to articulate his stance on single-payer healthcare. Becerra responded by saying that he has always been a proponent of it. He noted that he supports Medicare for All, which he stressed was a form of single-payer. 

Hilton said Californians should not have to pay for the healthcare of citizens of other countries. He criticized Becerra's time as U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, arguing that Becerra dismantled the unit responsible for cracking down on fraud. 

In response, Becerra said he would go after President Trump for his administration's decision to enact a six-month moratorium on new Medicare enrollments by hospice and home health agencies. The administration said it was doing so to target fraud in California.

When discussing affordability, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan claimed Tom Steyer's proposals would double the size of the state government.  

"Tom Steyer's structural change sounds like socialism," Mahan said. 

Steyer responded by saying he's been fighting oil companies that are "taking advantage and ripping us off at the pump as a result of this war in Iran."

In a testy exchange, Steve Hilton then threw a jab at Mahan, saying that San Jose was recently rated as the most expensive city in the world for housing. 

"I love the way Matt talks about how he's going to lower costs, when his city was recently rated the most expensive, the least affordable for housing, in the world," Hilton said.

"That's why we're fixing it," Mahan replied. "That's why we're building housing, Steve, that's how it works."

Hilton went on to argue that Mahan supports policies that have made housing and gas expensive.

At the outside of the debate, candidates provided their views on the economy and how they'd help the state's residents afford "the California Dream." 

Katie Porter said she would prioritize lowering housing costs, offering free childcare and free tuition at state universities.

She noted that she would eliminate state income taxes on people earning less than $100,000 a year, noting it was "an idea I took from Republican Steve Hilton."

Tom Steyer said special interests are driving up costs across the board in the state. He reiterated his position that he would tax billionaires and corporations to pay for healthcare and education.

When asked how he'd lower the cost of childcare, Matt Mahan said the key instead was working to cut costs across the board. Mahan said he was in favor of suspending the state gas tax so EV owners pay their share for maintaining roads; removing fees that make housing more expensive; and reforming permitting as he noted he has done in San Jose.

Following a new Emerson College poll showing Xavier Becerra at the top of the field of candidates for California governor, Occidental College professor Caroline Heldman told CBS News Bay Area's Juliette Goodrich that she expects this debate to be the most fiery so far, with other candidates "piling on" Becerra.

"It's the last debate [before the June 2 election], and time is short and the fact that only 3% of the ballots have been mailed in really speaks to the fact that this race is still wide open," Heldman said.

Lanhee Chen, analyst and fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said there will be more scrutiny of Becerra now that he has emerged as a front-runner.

"There is going to be a real pressure testing of Becerra and that's going to come from his Democratic opponents, all of whom are looking to claw their way into the top two."

CBS News California launched an interactive tool to help voters navigate this year's gubernatorial race. The California Governor's Race Candidate Guide features 20 hours of interviews with top-polling candidates to provide voters the opportunity to compare each candidate's responses side-by-side on the issues that matter most to them.

Those running to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom as California's next chief executive offered their thoughts on more than a dozen issues, including homelessness, housing affordability, gas prices and environmental policy, immigration, healthcare, crime and public safety funding, and the state's ongoing insurance crisis.

The format of the CBS News California and San Francisco Examiner Governor's Debate on Thursday will allow candidates to question each other directly. 

Candidates will also participate in segments in which they address real-world issues California voters may face in their daily lives. The Californians who will be featured include a working single mother pursuing education; a couple struggling to achieve homeownership; and a scientist warning of the long-term consequences of inaction on climate change.

This structure for Thursday's debate differs from the previous face-off hosted by CBS News California stations, which comprised three segments focused on affordability, accountability and social issues that lasted roughly half an hour each.

An Emerson College poll released the day before the CBS News California and San Francisco Examiner Governor's Debate showed Xavier Becerra leading the field with likely voters surveyed at 19%, followed by Steve Hilton and Tom Steyer both receiving 17%. Chad Bianco came in at 11%, followed by Katie Porter at 10%, Matt Mahan at 8%, Antonio Villaraigosa at 4% and Tony Thurmond at 1%. Twelve percent said they remained undecided.

In a CBS News/YouGov poll last month conducted before the April 28 CBS California Governor's Debate, Hilton received support from 16% of likely voters polled, with Steyer and Becerra following at 15% and 13% respectively. Bianco came in at 10%, Porter received 9%, Matt Mahan and Antonio Villaraigosa both received 4%, and Tony Thurmond received 1%. The survey also found that a significant 26% of those polled were undecided.

California's June 2 primary is an open primary where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to face off in the November general election.