p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> <\/p>\n
As in past statewide races in California<\/a>, Trump\u2019s outsize political presence will loom large.<\/p>\n In the last year, Bonta\u2019s office has filed more than 60 lawsuits against the Trump administration \u2014 challenging Trump\u2019s efforts to end birthright citizenship, slash billions in federal funding<\/a> for California and groups such as Planned Parenthood, halt food assistance for state residents, ban transgender kids\u2019 access to gender-affirming healthcare and school sports, deploy National Guard<\/a> and other military troops into California cities and unilaterally assess tariffs on global trading partners.<\/p>\n Bonta has framed the fight as an existential one for the future of American democracy and rule of law, and cited it as his paramount responsibility when he announced his decision not to run for governor.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this moment, my place is here, on the front lines, in the trenches, serving as a bulwark, creating a protection around our state and our people, our values and our progress in the face of these vicious, inhumane, unlawful, cruel attacks from the Trump administration,\u201d Bonta said.<\/p>\n Days later, Gates announced his candidacy at the Huntington Beach Pier on a policy platform broadly aligned with Trump\u2019s, but a message focused on fixing California\u2019s high cost of living and other state problems.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia has the highest cost of living and the highest taxes, which are crushing families, and Sacramento elites keep scheming for ways to raise our taxes while leaving our streets unsafe for our families and our businesses,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n Gates projects himself as tough on crime, pro-police and serious about reducing homelessness. He has aligned himself with Trump by backing stricter voter identification laws, alleging massive waste and fraud in state government and opposing transgender kids in girls\u2019 sports.<\/p>\n Gates backs the authority of localities such as Huntington Beach to set their own policies, including around elections, zoning, housing and the environment. As city attorney, he repeatedly squared off with Bonta and the state over such issues, recouping millions for the city in one senior housing dispute but losing repeatedly in other cases, including over voter ID rules.<\/p>\n Asked if he generally would align the state with Trump were he to win, Gates said \u201cit\u2019s a better question if you ask about specific policies\u201d \u2014 but that he supports many of Trump\u2019s actions. He wants federal immigration agents out of California neighborhoods but said the best way to ensure that is to undo California\u2019s sanctuary policies, not challenge agents\u2019 presence and tactics in court as Bonta has done.<\/p>\n Gates hopes Bonta continues his campaign focused on Trump because Californians view that as \u201cout of touch\u201d given the state\u2019s more pressing challenges with crime, homelessness and other problems created by liberal policies in Sacramento. Gates would enforce legitimate state and local laws, but also said \u201cSacramento has been lawless for quite some time\u201d and part of his job would be to \u201creconcile\u201d such laws with the Constitution. As an example, he cited local policies, including in Los Angeles County, that charge fees or cause delays in issuing concealed-carry firearm permits, which the Trump administration has sued over<\/a> and which Gates called unconstitutional.<\/p>\n Bonta, in an interview with The Times, said he is proud of his work and plans to run on his record \u2014 which he said includes suing the Trump administration every time it violated the law \u2014 but also work on a slew of other issues important to Californians, from crime to housing, affordability to the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe walk and chew gum at the same time,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on affordability, and that\u2019s top of mind to people. We\u2019re focusing on the rule of law and democracy, that\u2019s top of mind to people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> As in past statewide races in California, Trump\u2019s outsize political presence will loom large. In the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9610,7,125723,9,8,723,9982,68460,721,125726,592,125722,125725,225,125724,73129,1519],"class_list":["post-296368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bonta","tag-california","tag-california-attorney-general-race","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-crime","tag-gate","tag-gates","tag-law","tag-other-state-problem","tag-people","tag-sacramento-elite","tag-school-sport","tag-state","tag-top-tier","tag-transgender-kid","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296368","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=296368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}