{"id":165011,"date":"2026-02-05T10:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T10:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/165011\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T10:48:18","slug":"sparks-fly-as-san-jose-mayor-fends-off-rivals-from-left-and-right-in-first-gubernatorial-debate-santa-cruz-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/165011\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparks fly as San Jose mayor fends off rivals from left and right in first gubernatorial debate \u2013 Santa Cruz Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first major televised debate among leading candidates for California governor<\/a> Tuesday saw the race\u2019s newest entrant \u2014 San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan \u2014 draw fire from both ends of the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

For most of the two-hour debate aired on KTVU in the Bay Area and KTTV in Los Angeles featuring a half dozen Democrats and one Republican, the candidates stuck to their campaign talking points with little acknowledgement of their rivals. Mahan was singled out by name by two of his rivals on the stage.<\/p>\n

But afterward, Melissa Michelson, a political science professor at Menlo College, told TV interviewers she felt \u201cMatt Mahan did very well in the debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Hilton, the Republican in the debate, said he was amazed that Mahan, who has often criticized current Gov. Gavin Newsom, gave him credit in recent remarks for his effort in dealing with homelessness.<\/p>\n

The mayor noted in response that Hilton had visited him in San Jose last month \u201cto see what\u2019s working\u201d and said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what changed in the last week, but it seems (to be) the fact that I jumped into this race. Frankly, that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s wrong with our politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor also fended off criticism from billionaire entrepreneur and Democratic environmental activist Tom Steyer who has been vocal about other billionaires and corporations needing to pay their fair share in taxes. Mahan, who comes from the tech sector, has been critical about a proposed tax on the state\u2019s billionaires that he says would drive high-paying jobs out of California.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now the big tech CEOs are terrified about the idea of paying their fair share. Right now they\u2019re supporting Matt, that\u2019s where they are,\u201d Steyer said. \u201cWho have I got? I\u2019ve got the nurses, I\u2019ve got the bus drivers, I\u2019ve got the cafeteria workers, I\u2019ve got the custodians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahan responded that he supports closing tax loopholes on the wealthy but that the proposed wealth tax would hurt the state and said \u201cour politics has been oversimplified\u201d by \u201cpopulists on both sides and you deserve real answers not easy answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the biggest names in the race weren\u2019t on the debate stage: Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, Democratic former Rep. Katie Porter, and Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell. Organizers said all three cited schedule conflicts. Swalwell\u2019s campaign said he chose to stay in Washington, D.C., to vote against Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding.<\/p>\n

Swalwell posted a video on social media during the debate to explain his absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be here (in Washington, D.C.,) to make it absolutely clear that the will of the people across California is to be protected,\u201d the congressmember said in the clip, which appeared to be pulled from a televisions news interview. \u201cSo I\u2019m not giving (ICE) a penny and I don\u2019t think we should give them a penny until they do what they said they were going to do which is remove violent criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilton called Bianco a \u201cRINO\u201d \u2014 it stands for \u201cRepublican in name only\u201d \u2014 and criticized him for not showing up to the debate \u201cto face these Democrats or his record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChad Bianco has more baggage than LAX,\u201d Hilton said.<\/p>\n

Experts the network interviewed afterward differed on how much the candidates who didn\u2019t participate would be hurt by it. Jasmyne Cannick, a Democratic Party delegate in Los Angeles, said it would have some impact. Michelson however noted that those candidates all are leading in polls and could afford to skip.<\/p>\n

Dan Schnur, a former GOP strategist who worked for Gov. Pete Wilson, told the Bay Area News Group that Bianco\u2019s absence from the debate stage could hurt him as it gave Hilton the sole opportunity to use \u201cthe rest of the field as a foil to cement his status among Republican voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBianco campaign said he had a scheduling conflict,\u201d Schnur said. \u201cI hope it was something really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats are heavily favored in California where they outnumber Republicans 2 to 1 in voter registration. But some of the six Democrats on stage struggled to separate themselves from the pack as they denounced the Trump administration and pledged to make California more affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe assignment for all of them was to distinguish themselves,\u201d Michelson said after the debate. \u201cAt the end they were trying to answer that question\u2026and many of them talked about being ready to go on day one, this is no place for job training, you\u2019ve got to be a fighter, but if you all say the same thing, you\u2019re not distinguishing yourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Democrats in the debate were state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former health secretary and Attorney General Xavier Becerra, former state Controller Betty Yee and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.<\/p>\n

Schnur said that larger fields of candidates are often divided up along ideological lines, but during Tuesday\u2019s debate, he said candidates seemed to position themselves as either an \u201cinsider\u201d or an \u201coutsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose candidates who have had the longest careers in public service are competing against each other in terms of experience, those who are running against the system are positioning themselves as insurgents so it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see one insider and one outsider emerge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Michelson said that Mahan, who jumped into the race less than a week ago, had the most \u201cunique vision\u201d among Democrats, presenting a message that appeared to resonate with viewers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe absolutely has a shot,\u201d Michelson said of the mayor, who will need to build his name recognition in a state where half of all voters live hundreds of miles from the city he leads.<\/p>\n

The debate came as the candidates reported their latest campaign fundraising hauls<\/a>. Steyer, who spent $27 million in the race last year, nearly twice the combined spending of the other top contenders, aired several ads leading up to and during the televised debate.<\/p>\n

The debate remained civil throughout with little mud-slinging in a race that has seen few attack ads. Yee closed by calling herself \u201cthe adult in the room.\u201d Villaraigosa said he\u2019s \u201ca proven problem solver.\u201d Thurmond talked about his struggles with poverty in his youth. Becerra talked about his experience as attorney general taking on the Trump administration and saying the governor\u2019s office is a \u201cplace where you have to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

So who ultimately came out the winner? It might come down to who gets the most likes or retweets after the fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor better or worse we live in a much different era than the time of the Lincoln-Douglas debates because most people won\u2019t watch these events live, they\u2019ll rely on legacy and digital media,\u201d Schnur said. \u201cThe best things the candidates can do is try to create a moment that goes viral after the debate ends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first major televised debate among leading candidates for California governor Tuesday saw the race\u2019s newest entrant \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,8,1471,181,205,100,180,266,13,88,90,89,198],"class_list":{"0":"post-165011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-news","10":"tag-central-coast","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-politics","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newsletter","15":"tag-northern-california","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-san-jose","18":"tag-san-jose-headlines","19":"tag-san-jose-news","20":"tag-santa-clara-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}