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 Seven candidates vying for California’s governorship squared off Thursday in their fifth and final debate, with frontrunner Xavier Becerra facing down an onslaught of attacks from the right and the left over his policy record, a campaign fraud scandal, and what rivals described as a deceptive flip-flop on healthcare policy.

“This is what happens when you take the lead in polls,” remarked the former Biden Health and Human Services secretary after several heated attacks from his rivals.

Becerra’s recent surge to the top of the pack and his record spanning more than three decades in office made him a top target, continuing a theme from the last few debates over the last month.

An Emerson College poll released Wednesday showed Becerra as the top choice of just 19% of voters, compared to 17% each for Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Tom Steyer – a razor-thin margin that underscores just how volatile and wide open this race remains with just a few weeks of voting left in the primary. Another 12.1% of respondents still remain undecided.

The debate, co-hosted by the San Francisco Examiner and CBS News California, focused largely on affordability as poll after poll shows Californians sounding the alarm and voting with their feet. UC Berkeley researchers recently found that California lost a net 150,000 residents in 2025, concluding that the state's affordability crisis is likely responsible for the exodus.

Fraud Scandal Clouds Campaign

The debate came on the same day Becerra’s former political adviser, Dana Williamson, pleaded guilty to three felonies tied to a scheme to steal $225,000 from one of his campaign accounts. The connection runs deep in California Democratic circles – Williamson most recently served as Gov. Gavin Newsom's chief of staff. Two other Becerra associates – former chief of staff Sean McCluskie and Sacramento lobbyist Greg Campbell – pleaded guilty last year.

Republican candidate Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, did not mince words, pointing to reports that new evidence shows McCluskie informed Williamson that he had told Becerra about the scheme to use funds from a dormant campaign account to pay for his wife's employment.

“You shouldn’t be in this race; you should be preparing your criminal defense,” Hilton told Becerra as the audience erupted in gasps.

Becerra took issue with Hilton’s assertion that the talk show host lacks a law degree – at which point Rep. Katie Porter interjected that she is a lawyer and backs her GOP rival’s legal analysis. Just because Becerra isn’t implicated in the charging document doesn’t mean he won’t be in the future, she argued.

“You know that does not preclude an indictment from being issued against you,” Porter said. “We do not know what Dana Williamson said about your involvement.”

Steyer also posted on X.com Thursday that Becerra “likely broke state law, and now he’s at the center of an ongoing criminal investigation.”

Becerra pushed back, insisting he “did nothing wrong” while repeatedly citing a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson who stated that “no candidate running for governor has been implicated” in the scheme.

Becerra’s Single-Payer........

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