Eight candidates for California governor vigorously sparred during a debate in Claremont, Calif., on Tuesday night as each tried to break out of a field that remains tightly bunched.
The event at Pomona College, in front of a student audience, came just one week before California voters will begin receiving mailed ballots and start voting in the June primary.
Five of the eight candidates are polling close to each other, and the televised debate, sponsored by CBS California and Asian Pacific American Public Affairs, was an opportunity to try to seize momentum in the turbulent race. The candidates are running to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who cannot seek re-election because of term limits.
Among the five leaders are three Democrats: Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager; Xavier Becerra, a former California attorney general and Biden administration cabinet secretary; and Katie Porter, a former congresswoman. Two Republicans are also near the front of the pack: Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host; and Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County.
But there is still time for one or two candidates to rise above the rest, as polls show that many voters remain undecided. In California’s nonpartisan primary, the two candidates who receive the most votes will advance to the November election, regardless of their party affiliation.
Here are five takeaways from the debate.
Becerra was the biggest target of the night.
Mr. Becerra has surged in the race since Eric Swalwell, a Democratic congressman, dropped out earlier this month amid accusations of sexual assault. For months before that, most candidates barely paid much attention to Mr. Becerra, who was polling so poorly that he wasn’t invited to a debate in March.
That has since changed.
Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, was answering a question about wildfire response when he suddenly pivoted to attacking Mr. Becerra on a completely different topic. He said that Mr. Becerra had bungled his role as the health and human services secretary under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., with poor responses to monkeypox, Covid-19 and the wave of migrant children who had crossed the southern border.
Steve Hilton went on the attack when Mr. Becerra said he would prevent homeowners from losing their insurance by declaring a state of emergency and freezing insurance policies.
“Have you read the statute that sets out the governor’s emergency powers?” Mr. Hilton asked, waving an arm at Mr. Becerra, who was standing next to him in the middle of the stage.
Mr. Becerra said he had.
“Then you would know that what you’re proposing is not in there. You can’t do it,” Mr. Hilton said.
“That’s not correct,” Mr. Becerra replied.
In a brief interview after the debate, Mr. Becerra defended his record as health secretary, saying he had helped fix problems created by the first Trump administration.
He was unfazed by the incoming fire from his opponents. “That’s what happens when you shoot to the top,” Mr. Becerra said.
The format made for lively chaos.
It was the largest debate so far, with eight candidates crowding onto the stage. They often talked over each other during the 90-minute event — so much so that the moderators repeatedly threatened to cut their microphones.
In some cases, the moderators gave candidates mere seconds to answer a question, and they did not always allow them to respond to attacks made by other candidates.
The format made for a livelier, but also more chaotic, scene than in the last debate.
“Wow, that was a bit of a mess,” said Ryan Kossarian, a politics student at Pomona College, delivering what was perhaps the best one-liner of the night right before he asked the first student question of the debate.
The higher energy levels were noticeable.
“Thank you all of you for having coffee before you came out here tonight,” said Pat Harvey, one of the CBS moderators. “This has been electric.”
After the debate, Sara Sadhwani, another moderator, said that she felt voters had learned not only about policy proposals but also about the temperament of the candidates.
“I think that’s what a lot of folks are looking for in this moment and with such a crowded race,” she said.
Porter addressed parental anxieties head-on.
For years, Ms. Porter’s political persona has leaned heavily on her identity as a minivan-driving single mother. She frequently talks about pushing a grocery cart and worrying that her teenagers will never be able to afford to leave home.
On Tuesday, she brought more of that energy to the debate stage with her proposals and her barbs alike. She pitched her plan to make child care free and create a tuition-free path for earning a college diploma.
“Those are all real affordability solutions,” she said.
Ms. Porter, the only female candidate on the stage, sometimes gave the vibe that she was floating above the fray while the others interrupted one another.
At one point, as several of her opponents talked over each other and the moderator struggled to control the discussion, Ms. Porter theatrically slammed her head in her hands and quipped, “This is worse than my teenagers at dinner.”
Most ran away from taxes. Steyer embraced them.
At one point in the debate, each candidate was asked if they supported suspending the gas tax given high prices at the pump. The two Republicans said yes and the six Democrats said no.
That was nearly the extent to which the candidates talked about raising taxes. Tony Thurmond, the state schools chief, did mention that he supported the billionaire tax initiative that appears to have enough signatures to reach the November ballot.
But none of the candidates leaned into taxes like Mr. Steyer, a progressive billionaire who has made increasing them a central part of his platform, and who has said he thinks he should be taxed more.
During the debate, Mr. Steyer said he supported a windfall profits tax on oil companies that have raised the price of gasoline.
He also said that he would remove a property tax protection for corporate real estate that he said would deliver $22 billion to the state of California every year. He said the money would help fund single-payer health care, as well as salaries and training for teachers.
“The truth is, no one else on this stage wants to talk about revenue,” he said.
What went unsaid, however, was that those proposals have been tossed around the State Capitol for years, and they have been politically impossible to pass so far. Voters even rejected the corporate property tax idea in 2020.
One Republican was angrier than the other.
In the debate last week, the two Republicans — Mr. Bianco and Mr. Hilton — agreed on nearly everything. It was expected that they would try to differentiate themselves this time around.
Mr. Bianco instead focused on attacking every Democrat on stage as well as those that are currently in office. He said that “failed Democrat policies” had made the state unaffordable, pushed out insurance companies, encouraged homelessness and drug use and allowed giant wildfires to wipe out entire neighborhoods.
“I’m not afraid of anything. I’m truly not. But actually I’m terrified that one of these people are going to be your next governor, and these kids are all going to have to move. This is absolutely ridiculous,” he said, referring to college students in the audience.
He still didn’t disagree with Mr. Hilton on much. But the two men did appear very different, at least in terms of temperament, with Mr. Bianco the angrier of the two.
When Ms. Porter mentioned single-payer health care, Mr. Bianco told her, “If you want socialism, go somewhere else.”
In his closing comments to the audience at Pomona College, many of them students, Mr. Bianco referred to the debate as an “hour and a half that you’re never going to get back.”
Laurel Rosenhall is a Sacramento-based reporter covering California politics and government for The Times.
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