We recommend voting for Xavier Becerra for Governor.

Becerra has spent his career in government: more than two decades representing Los Angeles in Congress, then California Attorney General, then U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. As Attorney General he sued the first Trump administration 120 times and filed the state's first lawsuit against a city for refusing to plan for the homes state law required. He broke with Governor Newsom to vote for Prop 36, the 2024 measure we supported that restored felony charges for repeat theft and drug offenses, and he says he would fully fund it. He opposes the billionaire tax on this ballot, and he says people who are offered shelter should not be allowed to stay on the street. On housing, he says he would declare a state of emergency on his first day, fund the nearly 40,000 subsidized homes that are approved and waiting on a last piece of financing, and end exclusionary zoning near transit.

What he has not done is campaign. Becerra finished first in June, 28% to Hilton's 25%, leads 55% to 37% in the latest Berkeley IGS poll, and has treated that lead as a reason to say as little as possible. Asked onstage what voters could expect from him as governor, he declined to name a single commitment: "I would prefer not to run on inflated promises. I will run on my record." By the end of July, Hilton had accepted six debate invitations and Becerra had accepted none. The one debate now on the calendar is September 30, five weeks before Election Day. Menlo College political scientist Melissa Michelson called this "textbook political science," and she is right, but a candidate who won't say what he will do is asking voters to take a lot on faith. We hope Becerra has spent the quiet months building a strong bench of advisors and agency heads. The governor's real job is choosing the people who run the state, and that is exactly where his experience should pay off.

Steve Hilton has a couple good ideas, like stopping people from using CEQA (the state's environmental review law) to sue new homes out of existence, but has many more bad ones. He called for an audit of the 2020 election and promoted the conspiracy theory that Dr. Anthony Fauci was responsible for the pandemic on the Fox News show he hosted for six years. President Trump endorsed him in April. He calls California's sanctuary law "a ridiculous policy" and would repeal it, a law Becerra defended in court as Attorney General. His tax plan would end state income tax on the first $150,000 of income and charge a flat 8% above that, and he has not said what he would cut to pay for it, a gap a Chapman University economist put at almost a third of the state budget. He would also roll back California's climate rules, including the requirement that utilities buy solar and wind power. And he's never held elected office before.

Becerra has the experience for the job and a record on housing and public safety that lines up with ours. Hilton has a talk show and Trump's endorsement. We hope Becerra has used the quiet campaign to build the team that will actually run the state, because that is the job.