Fresno– Four of the top Democrats running for California governor told a farm-friendly Central Valley audience on Wednesday that the left-leaning state’s restrictions on business and the environment have made life more difficult for farmers and should be rolled back.
Candidates, including two Republicans, at the Fresno State political stage tried their best to appeal to voters in the central part of California, who often feel neglected by a state government dominated by big-city politicians from Southern California and the Bay Area.
“I’m here today because for too long, the interests of our agricultural economy and our rural towns and cities and communities have been second-tier, if they’ve even been on the agenda in Sacramento,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a moderate Democrat whose campaign has yet to live up to the high expectations it initially received.
Mahan and five others invited to the stage focused on the state’s affordability crisis, water, government regulations and other issues facing the agriculture center — all while trying their best to build any connections they can with the farmers and farmworkers who are so essential to providing food to California and the nation.
Mahan recalled growing up in Watsonville, a farming community that is home to Driscoll’s blackberries and Martinelli’s apple cider. Fellow Democrat and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra noted his family’s personal ties to the valley. His father grew crops along State Route 99 as a young man, 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 because of communism. Former Democratic Orange County Representative Katie Porter, who grew up in Iowa during the farm crisis of the 1980s, talked about being the descendant of generations of farmers and being a member of 4-H as well as Future Farmers of America.
Porter echoed the FFA philosophy, saying, “I’m not a farmer today, but I thought I would be. …I believe in the future of agriculture with a confidence born not by words, but by deeds.”
The event was the first gathering of gubernatorial candidates after USC halted its debate last week. USC officials canceled the program less than 24 hours before it was to start after facing criticism for excluding top candidates of color. The university said it used opinion polling and financial feasibility to determine which candidates were invited.
Organizers of the Fresno State event invited candidates who have earned an average of at least 3% in recent surveys compiled by RealClearPolitics. Along with Mahan, Becerra, Hilton and Porter, invited candidates included former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former State Comptroller Betty Yee, both Democrats, were not invited.
Two major Democratic candidates were not at the Fresno State forum: Billionaire Tom Steyer was scheduled to tour the polluted Tijuana River Valley in San Diego County. Representative Eric Swalwell’s campaign cited a scheduling conflict but did not elaborate. Swalwell (D-Dublin) was seen giving a media interview in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Cut Gas Taxes and Other Ways to Save
The high cost of living in California is one of the most visible and pressing issues in the race to replace ousted Governor Gavin Newsom, and candidates have made their plans to address it primarily by reducing housing and energy costs.
Bianco, Hilton, Villaraigosa and Mahan plan to cut oil industry regulations and suspend the state’s 61-cent-per-gallon gas tax. Bianco further said he would eliminate the gas tax entirely. Hilton said he would cap vehicle registration at $71 a year, no matter what type of car. Porter said his top priority is “building housing faster, building more housing, changing the way housing is permitted, and reducing housing costs by innovating construction and design and materials.”
Republican candidates blamed Democratic policies for the state’s high cost of living and argued that it would not be solved under a new governor of the same party. Both Bianco and Hilton promised to dismantle state agencies responsible for regulating air and water quality.
“We’re not going to lower the cost of groceries or anything else until we abandon the climate dogma that got us to this point,” Hilton said, citing the state’s goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2045 as a major cost driver.
according to a Recent UC Berkeley IGS/LA Times PollLowering the state’s cost of living was the top issue that potential voters want the state’s next governor to address. This was followed by reducing government waste and corruption – a top priority for Republican voters – and addressing homelessness.
republicans take their shots
Wednesday’s stage was one of the rare instances when Hilton and Bianco appeared in front of the same crowd. Republicans have led the polls for months, raising fears that two Republicans and no Democrats will appear on the November general election ballot under California’s top-two primary system.
On Wednesday, they each tried to appeal to a more conservative-leaning audience than many other gubernatorial forums by criticizing their Democratic opponents and statewide leaders.
“I think every single Democrat on this stage today should start with an apology,” Hilton said. “Apologize for what his party has done to this region and this industry, stealing your water, flouting regulations – 1,000% growth in the last decade, cutting farm workers wages, etc.”
Democrats were repeatedly challenged on the stage and at times interrupted by Republican candidates, who argued that electing another Democratic governor would bring similar problems to the region.
“You can’t believe what’s on this platform,” Bianco said. “You have to listen to what they say to groups that don’t think like you, because everything they’re saying here is the opposite of what they say in groups where there’s more cap-and-trade, more regulation, more everything.”
Democrat talks about his experience
Democrats largely agreed on issues such as reducing regulations and increasing water supplies for farmers. So he tried to differentiate himself based on his experience and record in office.
Mahan portrayed himself as a pragmatist, leading San Jose to be declared the safest large city in the country, reducing homelessness by one-third and accelerating housing construction by reducing regulatory restrictions and fees.
Mahan said, “I am accountable every day to making people’s lives better. I don’t get to make excuses and blame another party.” “You deserve better from Sacramento, and I will work with you to make sure we deliver it.”
Villaraigosa pointed to his eight-year tenure as mayor of Los Angeles, saying that when he took office the city was the most violent large city in the country, but after he left the city became the safest city. He also said that he took on the teachers union he once worked for, resulting in a 60% increase in graduation rates.
Becerra pointed to his experiences leading the sprawling federal health agency in the Biden administration, including handling the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires that devastated Maui, Hawaii, avian flu and monkey pox.
“We don’t need someone who needs training wheels,” he said.
Porter highlighted that she was the only candidate on the platform who refused to take money from corporations and corporate PACs. The former congresswoman, who gained notoriety for her aggressive questioning of chief executives and Trump administration officials while in Congress, also pointed to her longtime focus on oversight.
“There are a lot of regulations that we’re passing,” he said. “That’s why I’m running for governor, to make sure that when things come to my desk, the first question is why do we need this?”
water is for fighting
Nearly half of the forum was devoted to questions about water policy, a complex and politically thorny issue for Central Valley farmers and all of California. Most agree the state should fast-track new reservoirs, enlarge some existing dams and increase water recycling to boost supply.
“We need an ‘all of the above’ solution,” Villaraigosa said. “That means we need recycling, we need (groundwater) recharge. We need dams. We need underground aquifers.”
Some Democrats, including Hilton, continued to distance themselves from the proposed Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Tunnel, a massive project to deliver water to the Central Valley and Southern California that has been tied up by legal challenges.
Bianco criticized “environmental regulation(s) that make weeds and insects more important than your life” and Hilton criticized the “ridiculous bureaucracy” created by environmental laws such as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014.
Brianna Giampaoli, a fourth-generation tomato and pepper farmer, described herself as a liberal and said she had not yet decided who to support for governor, but she was impressed by the candidates’ extensive knowledge of water and the regulatory hurdles facing farmers, especially Hilton.
“It was really surprising, and I’m glad that both parties understand that change needs to happen in California, that something is not working,” she said. “The industry is completely changing across the country, and the regulations here are making farming more difficult.”
democrats on immigration
The Democratic candidates faced a friendly audience at the Fresno City College Forum later in the day, where they unanimously expressed support for immigrant communities and said the state should fully fund Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented people. To cover the budget deficit, 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, in addition, the state should oversee federal agency operations in the state to protect civil liberties. Other candidates agreed; Villaraigosa pledged to ensure that federal detention centers comply with all health and safety regulations.
