California gubernatorial election guide: Immigration, homelessness, affordability

Democratic and Republican candidates seeking to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom have been appearing on televised debates and trading campaign attacks since April to gain the attention of voters across the country.

Candidates include the sheriff of Riverside County, a former senior adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, a former mayor of Los Angeles, a billionaire hedge fund founder and two former members of the US House of Representatives.

Recent polls have shown that the front-runner in the Democratic Alliance election is Xavier Becerra, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services in the US whose campaign is focused on buying and buying homes for what he calls “working Californians.” Contending for one of the top two spots in the June 2 primary are Republican incumbent Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator endorsed by President Trump, and Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer, a hedge fund founder turned environmental activist.

Here’s what the top nominees have to say on key topics like immigration, housing and homelessness, affordability and the entertainment industry.

Immigration and ICE

The crackdown by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement that began in California last summer has been hotly debated by both the Democratic and Republican candidates.

Here’s what the candidates said during the May debate or on their websites, and the criticism they faced during the campaign.

• Xavier Becerra he vowed to protect and lead the country against the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants and marginalized communities. Becerra’s opponents have accused him of failing to protect immigrant children when he served as secretary of Health and Human Services under the Biden administration.
• Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco opposes “sanctuary city” laws that prevent local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration agents, calls for illegal deportation of gangs and says the border should be secured. But he has also faced criticism from fellow Republicans for supporting a path to legal citizenship, working for undocumented immigrants and telling his constituents that his deputies don’t participate in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
• Former Fox News host Steve Hiltonwho immigrated to the United States legally from the United Kingdom, opposes state and sanctuary policies in California, and said the state should cooperate with the federal government because the governor’s job is to enforce laws, regardless of whether the governor agrees with the job of immigration law or not.
• San José Mayor Matt Mahan plans to demand that ICE officials be exposed, vow to go after agents and immigration leadership when they violate the constitution and protect communities from unnecessary abuse.
• Former Congresswoman Katie Porter he said California should implement its sanctuary laws statewide, “so we don’t have crazy guys taking the law into their own hands.”
• Billionaire hedge fund founder Tom Steyer seeks to strengthen California laws to ensure that law enforcement agents cannot profile Californians based on their race, nationality, language, occupation or location. He also wants legislation that would give the state attorney general the authority to arrest ICE agents for violent and illegal acts on the job. He supports the abolition of ICE. But he faced heat for his hedge fund’s investment campaign in Corrections Corp. of America, now known as CoreCivic, which runs private prisons across the country that house people picked up by federal immigration agents. Steyer has repeatedly expressed regret about his former company’s relationship with the company and said he personally ordered the release of private prisons before he sold his hedge fund stake.
• State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond he says he plans to impose new taxes on companies that use ICE detention centers, fight to end ICE, protect California’s sanctuary laws and work with Congress to create a path to citizenship.
• Former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa supports helping law-abiding immigrants and has said violent criminals are deported under national sanctuary laws, despite claims to the contrary by Republican candidates.

Housing and homelessness

Here’s what each person has to say about the need to address the state’s housing shortage and its persistent homelessness problem:

• Cerra he said he plans to cut “unnecessary redtape” and speed up “approval of projects that meet cost-effectiveness and environmental standards.” Regarding homelessness, Becerra said he wants to establish a $150 million annual homelessness prevention fund to pay rent and fight evictions or foreclosures.
• Bianco he said he wants to end “overregulation of our construction industry” and abolish the California Environmental Quality Act, the California Coastal Commission and the California Air Resources Board. As for homelessness, he wants cities to eliminate encampments and prioritize mental health and substance abuse treatment. He wants to force people to accept drug treatment “when necessary.”
• Hilton proposes to change California’s Environmental Quality Act so that only federal prosecutors can sue, preventing private individuals and organizations from stopping or delaying new housing projects. He also said he believes rent control measures are reducing the incentive to build houses and wants to restructure or eliminate them. Regarding homelessness, Hilton wants to build low-cost group shelters instead of permanent housing.
• Mahan he said he wants to lower developer fees and delinquent property taxes. Mahan also said that more homes should be built off-site at factories in California, making them cheaper than building on-site. On homelessness, Mahan wants to make the federal Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention grant permanent and fund it by $1 billion a year.
• Porter he said he will “light new construction techniques, remove unnecessary red tape and create incentives” to build the necessary housing. On homelessness, Porter calls for more temporary housing, emergency rental assistance and rapid housing rehabilitation programs.
• Steyer he promises to make it harder for big companies to buy the government’s housing stock and wants to promote cheaper ways to build houses. Regarding homelessness, Steyer wants to expand temporary housing options and services for the homeless.
• Thurmond he said he wants to build 2 million new homes for “working Californians,” on 75,000 acres of surplus land for local school districts. Regarding homelessness, Thurmond wants to increase the number of housing units that include mental health and substance abuse services.
• Villaraigosa he said he wants to reduce development funding and change CEQA to speed up housing development, especially housing that is not full. On homelessness, Villaraigosa wants to double the state’s investment in Newsom’s Homekey program to build an additional 10,000 units of permanent supportive housing over five years.

A comprehensive guide to the candidate’s full views on housing and homelessness is here.

What students say about affordability

The candidates offered their ideas for making California more affordable during debates in April and May and on their websites.

• Cerra he said he would resist price cuts and unreasonable price increases and use the government’s power to lower prices “where the market has failed.”
• Bianco he says he wants to cut taxes for working families and businesses, end “overregulation of the California economy,” support job growth and free up state energy utilities to lower gas and utility prices.
• Hilton he said he wants to eliminate the income tax on people earning less than $100,000 and the first $100,000 of Californians earning more than that. He also wants to end California’s current tax on tips to ensure tipped workers keep more of their money.
• Mahan he said he wants to establish a “Gas Tax Holiday” that eliminates or reduces the gas tax. He also wants to remove barriers to affordable housing by putting a cap on the amount charged for new housing.
• Porter supports individual health care, providing free childcare and college tuition and making wealthy corporations pay their “fair share” in taxes. To pay for it, Porter would impose a progressive corporate tax, meaning more profitable businesses and corporations would pay a higher rate. He also supports eliminating the income tax for those earning less than $100,000.
• Steyer he called himself the only candidate “willing to take on special corporate interests” that are raising the cost of living in the state. He said he would like to lower gas prices and ease permits, rezoning and enforce more affordable housing laws. He also supports individual health care.
• Thurmond wants to offer tax credits to make it easier for Californians to pay for rising gas, grocery and housing costs. He plans to establish a universal childcare program and provide cheap loans to help small businesses develop their factories.
• Villaraigosa plans to support the California Fuel Affordability Guarantee to end high gas prices for working families.

The entertainment industry

Here’s what some candidates have written on their campaign websites about their ideas for supporting California’s entertainment industry.

• Cerra supports the country’s requirements that the production of the authority disclose how AI is used, cuts through the “bureaucratic conflict” of obtaining the permission of the filming location and vows to comply with the country’s requirement that ensures that digital platforms share meaningful performance data with actors, writers and directors.
• Hilton seeks to restore California’s competitive edge as a production location by creating financial incentives for film production, covering initial and operational costs associated with the development of a film or television project and maintaining funding for independent and mid-budget projects.
• Mahan he said he plans to expand and modernize production incentives, make them more competitive and ensure protections for everyone working on a film or television project from the technical team to writers, directors and actors.
• Steyer he said he would like to prevent corporate mergers in entertainment, protect and expand film tax credits and eliminate licensing and use restrictions that “slow down production.”

Times staff writers Seema Mehta, Nicole Nixon and Andrew Khouri contributed to this report.