Gov Gavin Newsom conspicuously sidestepped a question about his former colleague Xavier Becerra— a longtime California Democrat who’s now the frontrunner to succeed him.
Newsom was tight-lipped when asked about the gubernatorial favorite, who’s rapidly racked up endorsements and support in recent weeks — including from Newsom allies — despite reservations about his record in former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“I’m focused on diapers,” Newsom said in response to the The Post’s question about Becerra, a longtime Democrat who was California attorney general for the first two years of Newsom’s term.
Fellow government officials and hospital executives, including San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson, and Sutter Health reps, broke into thunderous applause as he dodged the question.
“You’d almost think this was ‘phone a friend’ or something, one of those games,” Newsom continued as he guided a doula up to the podium to discuss the benefits of free diapers for pregnant mom.
The Friday event in San Francisco was focused on a first-in-the-nation program to provide 400 free diapers to California families, alleviating costs for parents with newborns.
The state will work with hospitals and a nonprofit called Babyt2Baby to supply the diapers to anyone who has a child in a participating hospital in California, starting this summer. The program is part of CalRX, Newsom’s prescription affordability plan announced last year with reduced-cost insulin.
Newsom later said he’s shown “deep consistency” in his refusal to discuss the California governor’s race — which devolved into chaos last month after former congressman Eric Swalwell was accused of sexual harassment and rape by multiple women.
Newsom said little about the sex abuse bombshell that took out Swalwell, once a powerful East Bay rep and leading anti-Trump Democrat.
Becerra’ is allegedly the butt of jokes for some former Biden admin staffers who have trashed his handling of Covid and a migrant child crisis in which his department reportedly lost contact with 85,000 minors, some of whom later turned up in factories and other dangerous environments.
“It’s like: ‘We need to figure out a candidate who can win!’ But then…him? Really?’” one told Politico. “It’s amazing.”
Many of the governor’s allies have coalesced around Becerra, the site reported.
“[The race] seems to be coming more and more into focus … it’s my intention to do everything that needs to be done to prevent a Democratic lockout,” Newsom said.
He alluded to “prior relationships” in his refusal to endorse in the primary.
The former state AG and congressman was tied with Republican frontrunner Steve Hilton in a recent poll, both with 20% support.
The two candidates with the most votes will advance to the November general election.