Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’s totally checked out of the race to succeed him as California governor — claiming the public doesn’t seem to care much either about the underwhelming field of contenders.
The governor has refused to weigh in on the race even amid Democratic panic that two Republicans at the top of the field — former Fox News Steve Hilton and former Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco — could wind up winning the top-two primary in June, locking Dems out of the race entirely.
“It’s been hard to focus on that race,” Newsom admitted at a Monday press conference in Hayward about funding for CARE Court, his much-criticized plan to help mentally ill criminal defendants.
“I honestly haven’t taken a look, nor do I think the public has.”
A recent poll showed Hilton with 14% support among likely voters, followed by former Rep. Katie Porter with 13% and Bianco at 12%. Democratic support is heavily splintered among Rep. Eric Swalwell, billionaire activist Tom Steyer and a handful of others, including former Attorney General Xavier Becerra and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
Nonetheless, Newsom said he is “not as directly engaged as perhaps I might need to be” in the race.
He claimed he was more focused on CARE court, energy supply and other issues and pinned some of the apathy on President Donald Trump’s constant media distractions and a focus on other issues in the state, like Prop. 50, that dominated political talk last year.
There was a “series of circumstances that have shifted attention … Prop. 50, whether Padilla was going to get in, Kamala was going to get in,” he continued.
“When I’m out in the community people aren’t talking to me about it, which is interesting this late,” he said.
Newsom’s office announced $291 million in funding for CARE court, which lets family members and others ask a court to compel an individual into treatment.
Newsom hyped the program as a “paradigm shift” in 2023, but it has since been described as a failure by people involved and failed to make a significant dent in street conditions, according to a CalMatters investigation.
The governor appeared to blame counties such as San Francisco and Santa Clara for not properly implementing the program, placing ten counties on an “Improvement list.”
