Last Night's Debate

You are forgiven if you did not know there was one, I did not even remember...

Finally, we are done. Six Gubernatorial debates. Six times seeing the eight or so Candidates on the stage.

Spit.

Scratching.

Bluster.

Scripted “take downs.”

Some organic moments. A sort of pas de deux developing between Chad Bianco and Katie Porter. We got to know the Candidates beyond their public social media. Consistency was shown. It is over. The debates move to Twitter and Instagram but the hour is getting late. Votes are going in every day. June 2nd is our Primary. Who wins and gives us the next stage of this thing? TBD.

“Why is Steyer wearing Air Forces” my son who watched many with me said. I replied, “Mamdani’s people think he looks ‘cool,’ so why not?” He rolled his eyes. Authenticity right?

Becerra was in the middle of the stage and the middle of every barrage. Besides our erstwhile President who was mentioned as much as California, especially by Becerra, he was the one everyone talked about.

The desperation was there for Porter and Steyer. They needed to get this done. Porter is not going to align with Steyer. She takes his votes right now. She is arresting the Two D’s. Could it be she is doing her part for the Machine to atone for the messy primary she caused with Adam Schiff and the $25 million D’s committed to her seat before she up and left in the next cycle?

Steyer is so close, but so far away. He can taste it. You see it. You can see him getting tired but $150 million and an ego wanting something in history. He lit up when talking about Climate. That is his passion. It is clear.

Hilton was going to win the R’s and is likely one of the top two. Bianco is fading, his 5 minutes coming to an end. I am going to miss him and Katie sparring like an odd couple.

Antonio, well, it was nice but your days of politics were already eight years older than they should have been.

Mahan is trying to show he has a future beyond Mayor of San Jose, but he cannot get out of his trap of “being Mayor of San Jose” (more on that below).

Since Swalwell’s fall scrambled the race, the “also ran” nature of the candidates was more clear. Steyer’s tactics were shown with Katie Porter’s video leak. Did he do Swalwell too? You know my thoughts on that one. His lawsuit is the indication for me. You do not spend $150 million to be a nice guy- you take them down.

Becerra’s team felt “they had answers to the questions about him.” Sure. Dana Williamson pleaded, and Becerra has the US Attorney’s quote about him ready for everyone. There is speculation about the plea agreement, but as it stands now, Becerra is not implicated in anything related to the crimes. Read Anita Chabria’s piece in the Times if you want more information. She is not convinced it is over.

For Williamson, do not forget the true scandal- we are talking about Becerra because of the Gubernatorial, but the whole thing unraveled why? It goes back to Gavin Newsom’s Administration, the true Power behind Becerra’s rise and his Administration’s “pay to play” allegations. Remember the name Activision. All the focus on Becerra deflects the Newsom implications, a pattern we have seen over the last year with his Administration. SCE and the Wildfire Fund anyone? Planned Parenthood and their support of Prop 50 and their ability to get 50% more than the “proposed $100 million” Altadena AND the Palisades are proposed to get? Theirs is a grant, ours? It is directly to the banks. Friends of the Governor?

Back to the debate. My parents are visiting from out of the Country (well the 51st State, but do not tell that to Canadians). They are American ex-pats. They follow our politics, and yes get the California version from their son’s Substack (wondering sometimes, “why do you do it?”) The answer? Someone has to tell the story the Media won’t. I digress.

They shook their heads. They know bad politics. Canada is a mess. They have their opinions (and I will not publish them here as to potentially feed a trope being said about me in the community). “This is the best California can offer,” they asked? I said, “yup.” Of course, “where is Kamala?” “Toying with running for President,” I said. “She lost,” they replied. “Yup, but even so, she is leading Newsom in almost every poll right now,” I said. We smile. Newsom. He looks good by comparison in California as the Gubernatorial shows.

“So who wins,” they asked. “Becerra,” I said. “He has the Machine, like Bass,” I continued. “Bass wins,” they questioned. “She has done a horrible job,” they continued.

“Yes,” I said. “Pratt is channeling the anger, but he does not have the policy chops to take her on. He is not real enough for the job. She at least can govern. He will get attention but ultimately, his protest vote is pretty isolated and people will opt for her instead of a ‘bro’ from MTV. He is too Huntington Beach for LA.”

I continue. “Becerra is the best of the bunch. The people behind him are Gavin’s people. He will limp into the General, maxing out around 25%, but as long as he is going up against Hilton, he wins, like Bass. It is California. We anointed our Governor, we did not elect him. These are the same people who were going to get Swalwell there, they just moved to Becerra.”

They shook their heads. I will say there was one highlight I enjoyed on the attacks on Becerra, which were stale and warmed over leftovers again as the Wall Street Journal called the race. Again, I think he should have done the presser, but that is me.

Mahan said something I think many missed. He mentioned the COVID era fraud- the billions of dollars flowing to prisoners while Becerra was AG as an example of his lack of fraud prosecution. It was something we mentioned here back a month ago on April 20. $30 million is all Becerra investigated over the entire time he was AG for a budget of over $300 billion a year, and he was AG for over 4 years.

$30 million out of $1.2 billion in spend?

$30 million is almost the LAUSD fraud. They just found over $200 million by scraping the surface on hospice fraud here. And, he was the AG during COVID people! Glad to see Mahan sees things like we did…but a little late. Again, it is not indicting Becerra as a fraud participant, but it does go to the heart of his ability to treat fraud seriously.

We wrote on April 20:

“Honestly, if he gets through, he is far more competent than Steyer, cleaner than Swalwell, and a lot less arrogant than both. I just think the media, now that he is surging, needs to be much more focused on the answers to the question of how and why he was taken. Fraud is a huge deal, especially now, and we need people laser focused on it.

Becerra can counter with his record on prosecuting fraud, which should be significant considering the size of California. According to AI (which is not a deep dive), the amounts prosecuted were less than $30 million total during his tenure. Moreover, he was the AG when the unemployment fraud cluster during COVID-19 occurred (2020 and he left to the Administration in 2021). Prisoners getting unemployment people. Come on. The AG should be on top of at least that right?

Is there a vulnerability? I don’t know. Someone needs to test it, and not the dodgy answers we got last week from the Powers that Be related to Swalwell, and no, I am not done with that yet (emphasis added).”

Considering he could not manage the $10,000 in fees going out of a dormant account monthly, nor he could see prisoners all of a sudden were “flush with cash” one wonders what his capabilities of being a watch dog for fraud, waste, and abuse could be. Too little too late Matt. We told you to attack back then. Ballots are out now. Votes are being sent in daily.

Lastly, in discussions this week, people supporting Mahan said, “he will be back.” I scoffed.

Here is the thing- he missed.

He was “green,” and that is forgivable. Many on the stage were also “green,” so he should look good by comparison or at least “part of the pack.”

He missed because he did not have the instinct, the killer instinct, the intuition, to go after the lane presented to him. The lane was obvious to “naturals.” You have to take it when it shows. You do not hesitate. If you do not see it, you do not run again.

You are not temperamentally disposed to being more than a Mayor, as good as you think the potential is. It was a special moment in a winnable election to see what everyone is really made of. Mahan showed it. He answered the question with his actions.

There are certain skills, whether in athletics, business, or politics, where you have to go with your gut, and just do it. He did not. Hesitancy shows the difference between the “good” and the “great.” Becerra did not hesitate. When given the opportunity, he took it, warts and all. He has the instinct- give him that. He understood the moment and took the challenge.

We are blessed to be done with the debates.

We are now able to vote and see what we get.

The choices are not what we would want, but there is another election in four years.

Let’s see what the winners are capable of doing to justify the moment they have, showing us they are more than what they “promise” on the stage.