{"id":340620,"date":"2026-05-31T21:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T21:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/340620\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T21:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T21:05:17","slug":"steyer-releases-last-minute-ad-targeting-xavier-becerra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/340620\/","title":{"rendered":"Steyer releases last-minute ad targeting Xavier Becerra"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dana<\/p>\n

Dana Williamson, center, enters the Robert T. Matsui U.S. Courthouse in Sacramento, where she pleaded guilty to bank fraud, filing a false tax return and lying to the FBI in a corruption scandal, on Thursday, May 14, 2026. Williamson previously advised both Gov. Gavin Newsom and gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra.<\/p>\n

REN\u00c9E C. BYER<\/p>\n

rbyer@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

Tom Steyer is making a final attempt before the Tuesday gubernatorial primary to cast rival Democrat Xavier Becerra as a risky bet for voters after Dana Williamson, Becerra\u2019s former campaign adviser, pleaded guilty to corruption charges earlier this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cXavier Becerra\u2019s campaign manager? Guilty. His chief of staff? Guilty,\u201d said a Steyer campaign ad<\/a> shared first with The Sacramento Bee in a video voiceover. \u201cBecerra could be indicted next.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ad shows footage of Williamson walking out of a downtown Sacramento courthouse earlier this month after pleading no contest to lying to federal authorities, falsifying tax records and bank fraud. The FBI arrested and charged her last fall for funneling campaign funds to pad<\/a> the salary of Sean McCluskie, Becerra\u2019s former chief of staff, who previously pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing next month.<\/p>\n

Polls put Steyer, a billionaire climate activist self-funding the most expensive campaign in state history, just behind Becerra, a former state Attorney General, and Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News pundit who has won President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement<\/a>. Becerra and Steyer are vying to advance out of Tuesday\u2019s primary, after which only the top two vote-getters will proceed to the general election.<\/p>\n

Federal authorities have said Becerra was a victim in the conspiracy, but Steyer has sought to portray him as an unwitting accomplice and a potential target for retribution as the U.S. Department of Justice has investigated Trump\u2019s enemies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Becerra is indicted, that would give our governor\u2019s office to Donald Trump\u2019s favorite candidate,\u201d the ad said, referring to Hilton. \u201cWe can\u2019t risk giving California to Trump and Hilton if Xavier Becerra is indicted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur campaign runs on billionaire tears,\u201d said Becerra campaign spokesperson Jonathan Underland. \u201cKeep \u2018em coming, Tom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Lia Russell<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Lia Russell covers California\u2019s governor for The Sacramento Bee\u2019s Capitol Bureau. Originally from San Francisco, Lia previously worked for The Baltimore Sun and the Bangor Daily News in Maine.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dana Williamson, center, enters the Robert T. Matsui U.S. Courthouse in Sacramento, where she pleaded guilty to bank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-340620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340620","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=340620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}