Democrats against the law? Highlights from the governor’s race forum in Fresno
FRESNO – The top four Democrats running for California governor on Wednesday told an audience of agriculture enthusiasts in the Central Valley that the state’s left-leaning business and environmental restrictions have made life difficult for farmers and should be rolled back.
Candidates on stage at Fresno State’s political forum, including two Republicans, did their best to appeal to middle-class California voters who often feel neglected by a state government dominated by politicians from the big cities of Southern California and the Bay Area.
“I’m here today because for too long, the interests of our ag economy and our rural towns and cities and communities have been second-tier, if ever to the agenda of Sacramento,” said San José Mayor Matt Mahan, a moderate Democrat whose campaign has fallen short of early expectations.
Mahan and five other invitees to the forum focused on the problem of the country’s inability to buy, water, government regulations and other problems facing the agricultural establishment – all did their best to consolidate any relationship with farmers and farm workers who are so important to the food supply of California and the country.
Mahan remembers growing up in Watsonville, an agricultural community that is home to Driscoll’s berries and Martinelli’s apple cider. Fellow Democrat and former US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra noted his family’s ties to the valley. His father farmed near State Route 99 as a child, he grew up in Sacramento, and his wife is from Hanford and Fresno.
Former Conservative commentator Steve Hilton said his family owned a small farm in Hungary, which they fled to because of Communism. Katie Porter, who grew up in Iowa during the farming crisis of the 1980s, talked about being a descendant of generations of farmers and being a member of 4-H and Future Farmers of America.
“I’m not a farmer today, but I thought I would be … I believe in the future of agriculture with a faith born not in words, but in actions,” said Porter, repeating the FFA creed.
The event marked the first meeting of the management hopefuls since USC pulled the plug on its debate last week. USC officials canceled the event less than 24 hours before it was set to begin after criticism for not including seniors of color. The university said it used opinion polls and financial ability to determine which invitees.
Fresno State event organizers invited candidates who won at least a 3% average in recent polls compiled by RealClearPolitics. Along with Mahan, Becerra, Hilton and Porter, candidates include former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former state governor Betty Yee, both Democrats, were not invited.
Two leading Democratic candidates were absent from the Fresno State forum: billionaire Tom Steyer was scheduled to visit the polluted Tijuana River Valley in San Diego County. Campaign attorney Eric Swalwell cited the scheduling conflict but did not elaborate. Swalwell (D-Dublin) was seen doing interviews with the media in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Reducing the gas tax and other savings
California’s high cost of living is one of the most visible and pressing issues in the race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, and the other candidates are laying out their plans to deal with it, primarily by lowering housing and energy costs.
Bianco, Hilton, Villaraigosa and Mahan pushed ahead with plans to loosen oil industry regulations and end the state’s 61-cent per-gallon gas tax. Bianco continued, saying he would completely eliminate the gas tax. Hilton said it will pay $71 a year for vehicle registration regardless of the type of vehicle. Porter said the most important thing for him is to reduce the cost of housing by “building houses faster, building more houses, changing the way we permit housing and innovating in construction and design and materials.”
Republican candidates blamed Democratic policies for the high cost of living and said they would not be resolved under a new governor of the same party. Both Bianco and Hilton are committed to serving the state agency responsible for regulating air and water quality.
“We’re not going to lower the cost of groceries or anything else until we get rid of the climate doctrine that’s gotten to this point,” Hilton said, citing the federal goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2045 as a major cost driver.
According to a The latest UC Berkeley IGS/LA Times pollLowering the state’s cost of living was the top issue voters likely wanted the next governor to address. It was followed by cutting government waste and corruption — most important to Republican voters — and tackling homelessness.
The Republicans took their guns
Wednesday’s pitch was one of the rare occasions when Hilton and Bianco appeared in front of the same crowd. Republicans have led in the polls for months, sparking anger with two Republicans and no Democrats appearing in the November general election under California’s primary system.
On Wednesday, each tried to appeal to a more focused audience than in other gubernatorial campaigns by blasting their Democratic opponents and state leaders.
“I think every Democrat in this class today should start by apologizing,” Hilton said. “Apologising for what their group has done in this area and in this industry, stealing your water, piling on the rules – 1,000% increase in the last decade or so, cutting wages for agricultural workers, and so on.”
The Democrats’ platform was repeatedly challenged and sometimes disrupted by Republican candidates who argued that electing another Democratic governor would bring similar problems to the district.
“You will not believe what happened on this stage,” said Bianco. “You have to listen to what they say in front of groups that don’t think like you, because everything they say here conflicts with what they say in those groups that have cap-and-trade, more regulations, on top of everything else.
Democrats speak from their experience
Democrats were more in agreement on issues such as reducing regulations and increasing water supply to farmers. So they want to differentiate themselves based on their experience and office records.
Mahan painted himself as a pragmatist who led San José to be named the nation’s safest big city, reduced homelessness by one-third and encouraged housing construction by lowering restrictions and fees.
“I hold myself accountable every day for making people’s lives better. I can’t make excuses and blame the other party,” Mahan said. “You deserve the best from Sacramento, and I will work with you to make sure we get it.”
Villaraigosa pointed to his eight-year tenure as mayor of Los Angeles, saying the city went from the most violent metropolis in the country when he took office to the safest when he left. He also said that he took over the teachers’ union he had worked for, which resulted in a 60% increase in students.
Becerra pointed to his experience leading the executive health agency in the Biden administration, including dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the wildfires that devastated Maui, Hawaii, bird flu and monkey pox.
“We don’t need someone who needs training wheels,” he said.
Porter highlighted that he was the only candidate on stage who refused to take money from corporations and corporate PACs. The former cabinet minister, who gained notoriety for questioning senior officials and Trump administration officials while in Congress, also expressed his focus on the long term.
“There are a lot of regulations that we pass,” he said. “That’s why I’m running for governor, to make sure that when things come to my desk, the first question will be, why did we need this?”
Water is for fighting
About half of the forum was devoted to questions about water policy, a complex and politically thorny issue for farmers in the Central Valley and across California. Most agreed that the state should expedite new dams, upgrade existing dams and increase water recycling to improve water availability.
“We need ‘all of the above’,” Villaraigosa said. “That means we need recycling, we need it [groundwater] refill. We need dams. We need underground water.”
Some Democrats, along with Hilton, have continued to distance themselves from the proposed Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta corridor, a major water transportation project in the Central Valley and Southern California that has been mired in legal challenges.
Bianco criticized “environmental control[s] making weeds and bugs more important than your life,” and Hilton criticized the “absurd management” created by environmental laws like the Groundwater Management Act of 2014.
Fourth-generation tomato and pepper grower Briana Giampaoli described herself as a moderate and said she hasn’t decided who she will support for governor, but was impressed by the breadth of students’ knowledge of water and the regulatory hurdles farmers face, especially Hilton.
“That was surprising, and I’m glad that both parties seem to understand that there has to be change in California, that something is not working,” she said. “The industry is changing across the country, and regulations here continue to make farming difficult.”
Immigrant democrats
The Democratic candidates faced a friendly audience at a Fresno City College forum later, where they unanimously voiced support for immigrant communities and said the state should fully fund Medi-Cal coverage for the undocumented. To close the budget shortfall, Newsom and state lawmakers froze enrollment and raised premiums for undocumented adults in the program.
Porter and Thurmond called for an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement but said, otherwise, the state should monitor the work of federal agencies in the state to protect civil liberties. Some candidates agreed; Villaraigosa promised to ensure that federal detention facilities comply with all health and safety regulations.
