Gubernatorial debate

California Democrats vie for anti-Trump mantle in gubernatorial debate

By 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.

In California, “the biggest issue is leadership,’’ said Villaraigosa, who has repeatly raised the issue of “two Californias’’’ — with one wracked by poverty, homelessness and a crisis of housing affordability — as a problem that will define the state’s future. His sales pitch: In Los Angeles, one of the nation's largest cities, he compiled a record of tackling many of “the challenges the next governor will face.”

The candidates also attempted to make the case that they were best positioned to push back against the White House efforts to punish California for “sanctuary state” legislation.

“Do I think it’s right to do it in the face of the Trump Administration? Absolutely,’’ said Newsom of the state legislature’s recent passage of SB1, a so-called “sanctuary state” bill aiming to challenge the White House and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on their efforts to pressure local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration officials in the deportation of some undocumented immigrants.

“It’s about our values...It’s incumbent upon the next governor to maintain our sanctuary status,’’ he insisted. “I was mayor of a sanctuary city -- and it was a point of pride for us to promote it.”

The Chronicle debate marked the second time in three days that the Democratic gubernatorial candidates have appeared together, unusual in a state with at least eight major media markets, where such political events are rare. The four also met on Sunday before the 14,000 member National Union of Health Care workers in Anaheim, a forum at which the two Republican candidates — wealthy businessman John Cox and Assemblyman Travis Allen declined to attend.

Both forums underscored how the gubernatorial race is increasingly being played out amid a growing Democratic divide in the grassroots. As with the U.S. Senate race, where centrist Democratic incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been challenged by a progressive state Sen. Kevin de Leon, candidates for virtually every statewide office reflect the tug-of-war between the progressive Berniecrat wing and more centrist party members.

California Democratic Party Chair Eric Bauman gamely tried to downplay the divisions, handicapping the governor’s contest as “an exciting race of contrasts.”

“You have Gavin (Newsom), who’s a big, splashy guy who’s done a lot of big things,’’ and Villaraigosa, who “has proven time after time that he can motivate Latino voters and turnout,’’ Bauman said.

Bauman described Chiang is “kind of like the tortoise ..he’s always very quiet, nobody has expectations for him — and yet he’s always won every election he’s run from board of equalization to controller to treasurer.”

Bauman said of Eastin that as "the only woman in the race, she has the issue of education. And nothing is probably more important to California right now than making sure our education system improves.”

The intra-party divisions were most vividly on display on single payer health care.

Eastin alone said she unabashedly endorsed SB652, a measure to provide single payer in California, which some analysts say could cost as much as $400 billion. Newsom, though insisting he is strongly supportive of the concept of single payer, has stopped short of full-blown endorsement of the measure, instead urging the state to “lean in” and marshal the political and financial forces to make it happen.

Villaraigosa has sniped at Newsom’s position as “snake oil,’’ and said that while he backs universal health care, the costs and lack of details in the bill make the plan unrealistic. Chiang has also sharply questioned the feasibility of implementing single payer.

Both Eastin and Villaraigosa addressed the proposed revision of an issue that has been considered a “third rail” in California politics, and a linchpin of GOP values in the state — Proposition 13, the landmark tax measure passed in 1978 which enacted a dramatic overhaul of property taxes on businesses, homes and farms.

“We’ve got to fix Prop. 13,’’ said Villaraigosa, who characterized the measure — especially with regard to commercial and business property taxation — as “broken.”

Chiang, the state treasurer, argued that he is the only candidate who has been elected to three statewide financial offices — and insisted his fiscally responsible record gives him the best shot to pick up Democrats, Republicans and independents in California’s “top two” primary.

“You hear up here people not saying no to anything,’’ he told POLITICO following the Anaheim debate. “That costs a fortune." On issues like single payer and housing, he said his competitors were asked "how are you going to pay for it? And no one had any answers."

With the first major forums of the campaign now concluded, a winnowing of the field may come in the near-future.

Newsom has amassed a campaign war chest of $16 million — more than all other candidates in the race combined. And in another sign of strength, the lieutenant governor has already racked up the endorsements of four diverse, powerhouse unions in California — the women-dominated California Nurses Association; the Latino-dominated Laborers’ International Union of North America known as LiUNA; the California Teachers Association and the Southern California National Union of Health Care workers, which officially backed him earlier this week.

Two Republicans are also vying to be governor — multi-millionaire businessman John Cox, who is largely self-funding his campaign, and conservative Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach — but with virtually no name recognition, both will have an uphill battle making it though the June contest to advance to the general election.

Now, the Democrats predict, the gubernatorial race could get nastier as they'll be pressed to come up with some detailed solutions to California's problems.

“We have so many people that want to be governor,’’ said Eastin, “but when push comes to shove — there’s a lot of wishy-washy going on.’’