Takeaways from the CBS News/San Francisco Examiner California governor's debate: Affordability, climate and more
California gubernatorial candidates faced questions about the economy, healthcare, public education and more during Thursday's CBS News California and San Francisco Examiner debate.
On the debate stage were Democrats Xavier Becerra, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, and Antonio Villaraigosa, and Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton.
With the June primary nearing, moderators pressed candidates to clarify previous statements and expand on how they would make their vision for a better California a reality.
The candidates also faced quick-fire, yes-or-no questions such as whether they would allow Louisiana to extradite a California OBGYN for sending abortion pills across state lines and if they support overriding local zoning rules if cities fail to meet housing goals.
Here are their answers and other key takeaways from the 90-minute debate.
How candidates would address California's lack of affordability
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."
Porter said she would prioritize lowering housing costs, which she said, "take's the biggest bite out of most people's paychecks." Porter said she would also seek free childcare and free tuition at state universities. Lastly, she also said 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."
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, 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.
Asked about businesses and residents to leaving the Golden State because of high costs, Villaraigosa alluded to the need for wholesale policy changes, and noted state's high gas prices are not just because of the Iran War.
"The fact is, it's Sacramento policies," Villaraigosa said. "You know, we made it impossible for refineries to exist. Some of you know Valero, just down the way. They're closing. They're all closing. A dozen of them have closed. They produce the cleanest fuel in the United States of America. The fact is, we've got to address this affordability issue and look in the mirror and say what have we done wrong, and what do we need to do to address this affordability."
Bianco said everyone on the stage was seeking solutions because of the policy decisions his rivals have supported through the years, and took note of other candidates' promises when making his argument about affordability.
"You're listening to 30 years of more tax, regulation, and free stuff," Bianco said. "When you eliminate the regulation, when you eliminate the excessive business taxes that are forcing people out of this state, then you can fix government. You do not fix government with the same tired, old policies of bribing you with free things for an election, and four years later we're going through the same conversation because nothing changes."
Mahan says Steyer's affordability proposals sound "like socialism"
When discussing affordability, Mahan claimed 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, 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."
Candidates on climate change, energy policies
When asked if climate change is real, 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."
Villaraigosa said balancing the state's environmental and 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."
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.
Porter added that 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.
Becerra wants to speed up homebuilding; Hilton won't strong-arm cities
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 outward, not just upward.
"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.
Villaraigosa touts education record; Bianco wants more teachers; Porter discusses benchmarks
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."
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.
When asked about reading and math scores falling during the pandemic, Porter said that at the state level, California should focus on key benchmarks. She said if students don't get to the benchmarks by a certain point, they fall behind permanently.
She said a benchmark should include reading fluently by age 7 or 8. She said it's also important for students to make the jump from Algebra 1 to Algebra 2, saying failing to make this jump cuts students off from many careers.
Debate analysts: Lack of "knock-out blow" favored Becerra
The efforts by other candidates to take their shots at Becerra Thursday night, including trying to link him to his former staffer's corruption charges, may not have had the desired effect, according to political analysts who spoke with CBS News Bay Area following the debate.
"This pile-on for Becerra may have backfired for one reason that every time he was attacked, he got another 30 seconds to respond, so by my count, he actually got more screen time than anyone else," said Caroline Heldman, professor at Occidental College. "In terms of that particular attack [about the former staffer] … I think he did he did a good job of defending it, because then it went to Katie Porter and some others and they were very much in the weeds. So, unless you know the insider baseball, I just don't see this affecting Xavier Becerra."
Lanhee Chen, analyst and fellow at the Hoover Institution, agreed, adding he "didn't see a knock-out blow," which is what the other candidates were after.
"They were after a soundbite, they were after something that could be used against Becerra in a campaign ad, some slip-up, and I just don't think that was there," said Chen. "If we believe the polling and believe that he is, in fact, ahead of the rest of the field, I think if you're him, you're feeling pretty good about the performance and about your relative standing with the rest of the candidates.
Heldman added that with the lack of a knock-out blow or major slip-up during the debate, "Xavier Becerra really walked away with this looking like he was the leading candidate."