Bianco and Hilton were forceful about their commitments to aggressively cut back regulations impacting Valley ag, and Porter raised the question of rethinking California\u2019s controversial farmworker overtime pay<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI love being the first Republican in this race, because it made all the rest of the Democrats have to act like Republicans, like they wanted to help you,\u201d Bianco said. If elected, he said he would sign away any regulations \u201cbothering\u201d Valley farmers in his first 10 days in office.<\/p>\n \u201cI am giving you your farms back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Democratic frontrunners \u2014 U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell of Dublin and billionaire Tom Steyer \u2014 were absent due to scheduling conflicts, organizers said.<\/p>\n Dave Puglia, CEO of Western Growers, said in an interview with The Bee following the forum that it was \u201ccritically important\u201d to hear from the six candidates on issues impacting the state\u2019s agricultural community.<\/p>\n \u201cAll six of them, one way or another, multiple times,\u201d he said, \u201creflected the reality that our members experience, that farmers experience: California is not the land of sweet honey anymore; that we have serious, serious problems that make our ag industry increasingly non-competitive with other states and other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n Puglia also said he was \u201cless satisfied\u201d that Swalwell and Steyer weren\u2019t there, especially because his team provided the date to all candidates well in advance.<\/p>\n \u201cI would just note that there was a lot of time to make accommodation to be here,\u201d Puglia said.<\/p>\n Fresno County District 4 Supervisor Buddy Mendes co-moderated the event with Kristin Olsen-Cate, a former assemblymember and supervisor who represented Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.<\/p>\n Candidates agreed that California needed more investment in water sources and infrastructure, from dams to updated infrastructure to recycling as well as a more streamlined approach to the state\u2019s 2014 sustainable groundwater regulation law.<\/a><\/p>\n The law, known as SGMA, threatens to take 900,000 acres of farmland out of production.<\/p>\n Mahan said California needs to invest in the state\u2019s conveyance system, upgrade infrastructure to prevent leakage and invest in technology such as desalinization. \u201cIt\u2019s not either or, but we (need to) have the infrastructure and innovation to make sure that we don\u2019t have to trade off our environmental goals with our the health of our ag economy.\u201d<\/p>\n Porter, who kicked off her time in the Valley with a campaign event in Hanford on Tuesday<\/a>, said it was time for other parts of the state to bear the burden of California\u2019s water restrictions, not just farms and rural communities. She and Mahan pointed out the many ways farmers have found to save water.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to also ask our urban and suburban communities to innovate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Bianco said farmers had been punished by California\u2019s water policies: \u201cLet\u2019s don\u2019t build the reservoir so we force you to drill it or to pump it from the aquifer, and now we\u2019re going to punish you from pumping it from the aquifer.\u201d<\/p>\n Villaraigosa said California needs \u201can all-of-the-above solution\u201d on water including: recycling, recharge, dams and underground aquifers.<\/p>\n Hilton said he supported completing the Folsom South Canal to bring water \u201chuge amounts of water\u201d from the Tuolumne River and American River to the rest of the state. He also said more surface water storage and use would help with groundwater recharge and SGMA regulations.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are practical things we can get done for low cost and get it done quickly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Affordability, Housing<\/p>\n Several candidates stressed that they wanted to drive down the cost of California housing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no bigger piece of your budget than housing,\u201d Porter said. If elected, she\u2019d prioritize \u201cbuilding housing faster, building more housing, changing how we prevent housing and innovating in construction and design and materials.\u201d<\/p>\n On the first day in office, Becerra said he\u2019d declare a state of emergency to move forward on 40,000 shovel-ready housing projects ready to break ground<\/a>: \u201cI can bypass some of the legislature. I can move quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahan said as mayor he led the fight to reduce fees and cut permitting timelines. He said he\u2019d reform California\u2019s environmental review laws that slow building projects: \u201cWe need to completely overhaul CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act),\u201d he said. \u201cWe need exemptions and strict limits on who can sue and how long it can be in judicial review.\u201d<\/p>\n Porter \u2014 a single mother of three teenagers who said she was \u201cthe only candidate on stage who cooks dinner and pushes a shopping cart every night\u201d \u2014 supported Hilton\u2019s idea to eliminate California state income taxes for people earning less than $100,000. \u201cThat was a Republican idea, but I\u2019ll take good ideas anywhere I can find them.\u201d<\/p>\n Energy, oil costs<\/p>\n Bianco said he would eliminate the gas tax and explore nuclear energy. \u201cWe are going to be oil independent in California,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will never buy another gallon from another state or from another country.\u201d<\/p>\n Becerra said he would freeze property taxes and utility rates \u201cuntil we can look behind the curtain to figure out why they\u2019re charging us so much and making so much profit at our expense.\u201d He also said California needs to explore every source of energy with a balanced transition to cleaner, more efficient energy that doesn\u2019t leave people behind. He was the only candidate to mention the Iran War, saying it made the situation worse for ourselves and that people are feeling it at the gas pump every day.<\/p>\n Hilton said his goal would be to have $3 gas prices in California by opening up the state\u2019s oil and gas production. He also said California has a fleet of gas-fired power stations that are running at 10% to 15% capacity because they are only being used as backup for \u201cunreliable, more expensive wind and solar. That is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahan said California needs a modern energy system, to expand the energy and to speed up permitting for new projects to access new solar and wind resources. He also proposed suspending the gas tax and then backfilling the infrastructure dollars within the general fund. \u201cIt is crazy to push all the refineries out of state just to import fuel from farther away. … We lost all the jobs in the meantime. The way to get there is through innovation and investing in smarter energy transition over time, not to punish sources of energy we rely on today.\u201d<\/p>\n Porter said energy demand is expected to go up in California 50% over the next five years and that the state needs to speed up its permitting process for green energy. \u201cWe need to keep all of the energy sources that we have online, and we have to be adding capacity aggressively. This is to power everything from electric vehicles to data centers to new innovations in agriculture to more air conditioning because of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n Villaraigosa said he would put a moratorium on any California Air Resources Board regulation that drives up costs. He said California needs the gas tax for its infrastructure, but that he would support a gas rebate for anything over over $5.50 per gallon. He also said California needs to build 2 million more charging stations over the next decade to support the state\u2019s electric vehicles goals. \u201cAnd if we built it, we don\u2019t have a grid. So we have to build the grid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n![\"California](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/FRS_GovForum_02.JPG\" "\\"FRS_GovForum_02.JPG\\"")
California gubernatorial candidates, from left, Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Steve Hilton, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, and Antonio Villaraigosa sit on stage during a forum hosted by the Western Growers Association at Fresno State on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com Water management, storage, SGMA<\/p>\n
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