Democratic gubernatorial candidates

California Democratic gubernatorial candidates focus fire on Trump in debate

David Siders and Carla Marinucci

In an expression of the left's anger toward the president, four Democratic gubernatorial candidates vied to seize the anti-Trump mantle Tuesday by portraying themselves as California’s best defense against the White House on issues like health care and immigration.

The second of two debates this week in the state's marquee 2018 political race also saw the candidates confront another looming challenge for the next governor of the nation's most populous state: Filling the shoes of Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown — at 79 years old and in his fourth term, a political institution. Brown represents a moderating force in a state where Democrats hold control of every statewide office and both houses of the state legislature.

On key issues like climate change, “I give Gov. Brown enormous credit for making the point,’’ said Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, widely considered the front-runner, at one point in the 75-minute debate sponsored by The San Francisco Chronicle. “California is a cause. It’s a movement.”

With just eight months until the June direct primary election, the four top Democrats — Newsom, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Treasurer John Chiang, and former Schools Superintendent Delaine Eastin — showed their biggest divisions were over the issue of single payer health care, a matter that has come to top of the agenda with Trump White House efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act.