00:00On Wednesday, September 30th, at 6 p.m., CNN will host a debate between the two remaining candidates for governor
00:06of California.
00:07Republican Steve Hilton will take on Democrat Javier Becerra, who has a huge lead in the polls.
00:12Becerra's strategy will be to say and do as little as possible and not to make any mistakes that could
00:17cost him his wide lead.
00:20Steve Hilton, by contrast, will try to poke holes in Becerra's record and draw attention to some of the flaws
00:25in Becerra's policies,
00:26which don't really differ from those of outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom. In fact, they're even more radical.
00:31Hilton, however, has a challenge that has nothing to do with him. It is the Republican label.
00:36While Californians believe that Democrats aren't doing a great job, in fact, the majority of California voters believe the state's
00:42heading in the wrong direction,
00:43they don't trust Republicans to fix the state.
00:46And that has to do with history, as well as anything in the present or in the Trump administration or
00:52even in the present Republican representation in Sacramento.
00:55Back in the 1990s, Republicans took a strong stand against illegal immigration, just as Republicans are taking that stand today.
01:03At the time, that did turn off a generation of Latino voters that was coming of age and many Latino
01:09voters who were voting for the first time having just been legalized by President Ronald Reagan in the Simpson-Mazzoli
01:14Act.
01:15Later, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger ran on a platform of reform and he won the 2003 recall.
01:21But he folded at the first sign of opposition from the state's all-powerful unions, and when he was re
01:26-elected to a second term, it was basically as a liberal.
01:29That took the wind out of the sails of the Republican Party in California, and after that, Republicans tended to
01:34vote with their feet rather than with their ballots.
01:37But Hilton has run a very energetic campaign, and there's no telling what might happen on the debate stage.
01:42In addition, the debate will be important for establishing certain promises and commitments that Becerra will be held to, even
01:49if he does coast to victory in November.
01:51For that reason, I'll be watching closely.
Comments