Show Notes
Noting that Republican candidates for California governor and Los Angeles mayor are currently leading in state polls, investigative journalist Susan Crabtree welcomes Steve Hilton, the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate, to discuss “a bizarre year in California politics.”
Crabtree covers California for RealClearPolitics and is the co-author of the 2024 book, Fool’s Gold. She has for years covered issues of fraud and corruption in the state’s govedrnment. Hilton has made fraud, waste of taxpayer dollars, and corruption within the non-governmental nonprofit organizations a key plank of his campaign, and his message is resonating with voters who are increasingly frustrated with the state’s political control of all statewide offices by the Democrats.
“Steve Hilton is leading in the race for governor, and Spencer Pratt is shaking up the LA mayor’s race,” Crabtree says in introducing former Fox News host Hilton to the most recent episode of the On Background podcast.
“Yes,” Hilton says of his current lead. “But people still have to vote.”
Hilton’s campaign, he says, speaks to California voters’ frustrations. “This is what you get when the Dems get everything they want for the last 16 years. There is no excuse. There is no hiding place. And the results are a complete catastrophe. It’s just astonishing,” he tells Crabtree and her co-host, Eric Eggers of the Government Accountability Institute.
“What have they messed up in California? Everything, everywhere, and all at once,” Hilton adds. “We have the highest poverty rate in the country, the highest unemployment rate, and the highest cost of living by far,” he says. “California ranks 50th out of 50 for opportunity. Finally, this is catching up with the people who have been in charge. Californians are desperate for change. I see it in their eyes.”
Eggers asks about pushback Hilton has gotten from California’s current governor, Gavin Newsom, questioning his program to provide free diapers to low-income mothers of newborns. Hilton shrugs off the criticism, pointing out that he quoted the governor’s own figures that said the program would cost state taxpayers $20 million.
“The government is buying diapers at a massively inflated cost to put into some bureaucratic scheme to hand them out to make themselves look good and make this nonprofit group [Baby2Baby] seem like Lady Bountiful,” Hilton fires back. “What they should be doing is taking less money in taxes so that people could afford their own diapers. This whole story is just an illustration of what is going wrong in California – this endless desire to grow the government.”
Crabtree asks about the Newsom policy of granting massive amounts of money to a “proliferation of nonprofits,” such as a $1 billion deal to a group known as CHIRLA, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, to provide attorneys for illegal aliens up on charges of committing violent crimes in the state.
Hilton noted that his review of CHIRLA’s finances showed the group gets 80 percent of its funding from the government, making it essentially a part of the government. Furthermore, the group endorsed his Democratic opponent Xavier Becerra in April, pledging to work hard to get him elected through canvassing and ballot “harvesting” by paid employees of the group, even including “undocumented workers.”
“In other words, we the taxpayers are paying for illegal immigrants to campaign for Xavier Becerra,” Hilton said. “It’s illegal. And it’s our money. Every single aspect of that story shows you the corruption going on.”
He cites another example – a $1 billion measure by the state (over 10 years) that is supposed to pay for putting solar panels on the roofs of low-income apartment buildings across the state.
“We found that only $72 million was spent on that. Almost all of it — $928 million — had gone to Democrat political organizing through this network of nonprofit groups – for voter registration, environmental justice campaigns, all the usual things,” Hilton says. “And that’s how they operate.”
Eggers asks if any of the Democrats running for governor have been willing to speak out on this.
“No. Within the Democrat field, there are gradations of insanity,” Hilton quips. “Becerra represents ‘continuity,’ while Tom Steyer is further to the left. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan does criticize on policy areas, and Antonio Villaraigosa fought the teacher unions, but generally, I think, they believe this word ‘fraud’ has something to do with Trump, so they can’t go near it,” Hilton tells the hosts.
Hilton’s Republican opponent in the race, Chad Bianco, trails him in the polls, so Crabtree asks if there have been any talks between the two campaigns about Bianco dropping out to clear a path for Hilton to get into the top two finishers in the state’s “jungle primary” system.
“No formal negotiations, and we have a good relationship, but it’s something we need to think about,” Hilton says. “The idea you can get two Republicans in the top two is a fantasy.”
The real risk, he says, is instead that ”you’ll get Becerra and Steyer” as the top two finishers in the primary.
Polls are showing, Hilton says, that nearly all Republicans in the state have made up their minds, while on the Democratic side only 15 to 20 percent have. “If we don’t focus on that, we could be locked out,” he says, adding there are many important down-ballot races and ballot questions that require a strong Republican turnout.
“It’s time for the party to get behind the leading candidate,” Hilton says, “and by every measure, that is me.”
