“To the Point” host Alex Bell sits down with California’s gubernatorial candidates them about their priorities and what they’d bring to the job.
CALIFORNIA, USA — This June, Californians will head to the polls to help decide who could become the state’s next governor. While the final decision comes in November — for now, nine leading Democratic hopefuls and several Republicans are in the race.
To help you get to know them and what they say they’d bring to the job, ABC10 “To the Point” host Alex Bell sat down with the candidates.
To keep things fair, names were drawn at random for these interviews. Interview responses have been cleaned up and slightly condensed for easier reading, while keeping the candidate’s words intact.
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond
Q: For people that are meeting you for the first time, why are you deciding to run for governor?
Tony Thurmond: “You know, our state’s facing the biggest affordability crisis ever, so many challenges around homelessness, and I’ve got a plan to help our state. We can build 2 million housing units. I have a plan to provide billions so that we can build housing for those who are unhoused, and I want to give working Californians a tax credit so that you all have more money for those expenses like groceries, gas and housing.
I’ve served for 18 years as an elected official. I believe I had the experience and a vision to serve, and I want to help our state be better.”
Q: If you are elected, what are your top three priorities going to be the first year in office?
Tony Thurmond: “We have to make sure that people can afford to have a home. And so as governor, I’m going to provide down payment assistance programs. I have a very unique housing plan that will allow us to build 2 million units of housing over the next few years. It uses surplus property that exists on school campuses in every county in our state. There are 75,000 acres of land ready for development, so it will be housing.
It will be helping our homeless, as I said, I’m working to get $10 billion for building affordable housing and helping the 10,000 unaccompanied homeless minor youth who are on their own who need help. And so we’ll do this, we’ll do that, we’ll provide a tax credit to Californians, health care — I support a single payer healthcare program. And fighting back against Donald Trump, this reckless immigration policy that we have seen is devastating our communities.
I’ve passed legislation that keeps ICE out of our schools and out of our hospitals. I’m working on legislation that would put a tax on any company that operates an ICE detention center and as governor, I’ll work with Congress to abolish ICE and to create a pathway to citizenship for those who just want to work and pay taxes here.”
Q: California has spent billions addressing homelessness, but yet it still remains a huge problem in our state. What would you do differently to address homelessness?
Tony Thurmond: “I think there has to be accountability in how those dollars get spent, and we have to make sure if there’s any waste or abuse that we put a spotlight on that and take care of that.
I think that for every $1 we spend for programs for those who are unhoused, we have to require that the participants participate in mental health and substance abuse programs.
I’m also working on legislation right now that would put a measure on the ballot for Californians to vote on that, if passed, would give us $10 billion to build more housing, and I think a big portion of that if passed would need to go to helping those who are homeless because 40% of those who are homeless are older Californians who are trying to make the decision between paying rent for food and have fallen off and have become homeless.”
Q: Speaking of violence and crime, let’s switch to criminal justice reform. Do you think that California has gone too far, not far enough, or struck the right balance when it comes to criminal justice reform in the state?
Tony Thurmond: “You know, when I was on the city council in Richmond, that city was considered the most dangerous city per capita in the state of California. And we approached it in a way where we had a combination approach for how we address crime and safety, and today, violent crime has been significantly reduced. We did this through adding more police. You have to have police in your community. Someone has to answer the call when a crime has been committed, but you can’t police or arrest your way out of the problems that we are seeing. You have to also have intervention programs.
As a council member, as a legislator, I’ve grown programs to provide paid employment training opportunities as a way of keeping people out of engaging in criminal activity. You do have to have diversion programs that give someone a chance at a second chance, but we have to recognize that there has to be accountability for people’s actions.”
More interviews with the candidates for governor will be posted as they air on ABC10.
Gavin Newsom’s son doesn’t want him to run for president
ABC10: Watch, Download, Read