In a follow-up interview with The Sacramento Bee, Hicks declined to say whether he had private discussions with candidates about dropping out. He reiterated his call for them to assess the viability of their campaign, saying only they could determine whether they have a path to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m simply saying publicly what many have said in private,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p>\n
Those voices are increasingly becoming public.<\/p>\n
Newsom, who has stayed out of the race to replace him, suggested he agreed with the sentiment of the letter<\/a> in a Tuesday interview with CBS Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be candid with you, my first reaction is, I get why he sent the letter,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n And, in a statement, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, urged candidates not to file if \u201cthey aren\u2019t ready or able to go the distance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith respect, they know who they are,\u201d Rivas said.<\/p>\n A Public Policy Institute of California survey released last week<\/a> found three Democrats \u2014 former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, billionaire Tom Steyer, and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin \u2014 were locked in a virtual dead heat with Hilton and Bianco.<\/p>\n None of the remaining six Democratic candidates, who each polled at 5% or less, appeared willing to heed the calls to step aside.<\/p>\n Former state Controller Betty Yee filed official candidacy paperwork Tuesday, despite what she described as daily emails urging her to drop out of the governor\u2019s race. Yee noted that a majority of voters told PPIC pollsters they were not following the election closely.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, this is still wide open,\u201d Yee said.<\/p>\n Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said he plans to officially file for the race Wednesday and argued that he remains a top-tier candidate despite a dip in his polling since Steyer and Swalwell entered.<\/p>\n \u201cViability is about winning votes, not polls,\u201d Becerra said, pointing to the statewide votes he won en route to being elected California attorney general in 2016.<\/p>\n Other candidates responded to Hicks\u2019 letter more stridently.<\/p>\n State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond filed his official candidacy paperwork Tuesday and posted a video on social media<\/a> calling the political system \u201crigged\u201d and \u201ccorrupted by the political elites.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe California Democratic Party is essentially telling every candidate of color to drop out,\u201d said Thurmond, who is Black.<\/p>\n San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement that \u201cvoters choose the next governor, not political gatekeepers,\u201d and former Assemblymember Ian Calderon from Los Angeles said that the party should \u201cstop trying to manage the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
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