Steve Hilton is running against everything the Democrats have done

Halfway through the first candidates’ debate in the race for California governor, one thing was clear.

The emperor has no clothes.

As in the story of the emperor’s new clothes, there was one person on the stage who could see it. And once he said it, it seemed that the whole state could see it. That’s what was evident in an instant poll of viewers conducted by the two television stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles that broadcast the live event.

Political commentator Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host and first-time candidate, made the argument to viewers that California’s problems have been caused by the disastrous policies of the people who have been in power during 16 years of one-party – Democratic party – rule.

That’s not unusual, but this is: When the poll asked who made the best impression and who won the debate, as well as asking for reaction to answers on specific topics, Hilton crushed the six Democrats on the stage with winning percentages as high as 75%.

Hilton came out swinging against “the Democrats’ climate crusade,” vowing to “end the inane regulations that make it so expensive to own your own home.” He said his own policies would result in $3 per gallon gasoline and “cut your electric bills in half,” and he vowed to “end the fraud and waste in government so we can cut taxes.” Hilton’s platform calls for no income tax on earnings up to $100,000. Currently, the tax rate on $100,000 of taxable income is 9.3%.

Hilton also promised to “end the war on single-family homes.” He slammed Democrats for deriding the “California dream” of home ownership as “sprawl” that must be prevented.

This may resonate with voters in a state where the far-left legislature and ambitious governor just enacted Senate Bill 79, a law that rezones single-family homes within one-half mile of a transit stop for high-density housing, giving developers the right to buy up homes and convert them into high-rise apartment buildings with no parking spaces.

The Democrats were numbingly similar in their agreement with the general direction of the policies the state has been pursuing for two decades or more. Acknowledging persistent challenges on housing, homelessness, affordability and other issues, all of them offered some version of “This time it will be different, because it’s me.”

Xavier Becerra, who has a long resume in public life as the former California Attorney General and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services,  said he’d “move to freeze utility rates and home insurance costs, the premiums you pay, until we find out why they keep going up by so much money.” But we already know. We also know that the state’s effort to control insurance pricing caused insurers to cancel policies and leave California, and they only came back when they were allowed to raise rates. Where has he been?

Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer talked about the need for affordability but never acknowledged the role of climate activism in raising the cost of energy, and the cost of living. Steyer promised to bring in billions of dollars in new revenue for schools and healthcare by closing “a real estate loophole.” His “loophole” turns out to be Proposition 13, which is no loophole. It’s in the state constitution. Steyer recently sent a letter to the Board of Equalization (which oversees property tax assessment) proposing to destroy Proposition 13 so commercial property can be reassessed to market value every year. Voters already rejected that proposal in 2020, and – you may not know this – also in June 1978. That’s when Proposition 13 passed with nearly two-thirds of the vote and a competing measure on the same ballot, Proposition 8, which would have allowed higher taxes on commercial property, was solidly defeated.

Imagine what would happen to “affordability” in California if Proposition 13 was dismantled.

Betty Yee said she’d address high electricity prices by demanding audits of investor-owned utilities regulated by the CPUC. She was the State Controller from 2015 to 2023. Where was her call for audits as electricity rates doubled in the last ten years? During the debate she promised transparency and “dashboards” to monitor spending and prevent fraud, but under her management as controller, the billion-dollar statewide accounting system known as FI$Cal ran wildly over budget and over schedule. It finally had to be scaled back to do less than originally authorized. Meanwhile, California’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports, the state’s audited financial statements, were late by as much as a year during Yee’s tenure.

Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose who entered the race recently with support from wealthy tech executives, scored the best of any of the Democrats in the TV stations’ instant poll of viewers, with support of approximately 12% to 17%. He presented himself as a truth-telling Democrat who would level with the voters about tough choices. So far as mayor, his “tough choice” was pivoting to support a tax increase that hits lower income residents harder than wealthy tech executives. Mahan backed Proposition A, a sales tax increase. It was heavily promoted as necessary to fund public hospitals but actually was a general tax that can be spent on anything. San Jose has a budget shortfall in the neighborhood of $60 million and is considering raising the hotel tax next.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond talked less about his record on education than how he would build apartments on surplus school properties and prevent the enforcement of federal immigration law. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa cited accomplishments from his long-ago administration. He empathized with the plight of renters in California by saying he was once a renter and didn’t buy his first home until he was 25 years old. That may have reminded viewers just how much the quality of life in California has declined in less than one lifetime.

The problem for Democrats is that Steve Hilton is running against everything they’ve done. And it looks like voters agree with him.

Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley