SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 3 (Our California Times) — California governor candidates Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton clashed over immigration in their sole televised debate as county election officials prepared to send mail ballots to voters.
The hourlong CNN matchup was the contest’s only televised debate, the Associated Press reported. The candidates met Wednesday night on a soundstage in Burbank, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The exchange put immigration policy, the treatment of unaccompanied migrant children and homelessness before California voters choosing their next governor.
What was the immigration dispute?
Becerra accused Hilton of treating immigrants differently based on their appearance.
“You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you, but deport immigrants who look like me,” Becerra said during the debate.
Hilton called that accusation “disgraceful.” He said he wanted “to lower the temperature on this whole question” of immigration.
Those remarks concerned how the candidates approach immigration and immigrant communities. A separate exchange focused on the handling of children who arrive in the United States without a parent or guardian.
Hilton alleged that Becerra had dismantled the vetting of sponsors for those children. Sponsor vetting means checking the people who would take responsibility for a child. Becerra disputed Hilton’s description of the migrant crisis.
The allegation and rebuttal were the candidates’ competing accounts, not an established finding about how the children’s cases were handled.
What did they say about homelessness?
Both candidates also addressed homelessness, including encampments — places where people without housing stay in tents or other temporary shelters.
“We will make sure the encampments are cleared,” Becerra said.
Hilton described homelessness as a failure that reflected badly on California: “This absolute scandal shames our state.”
Where does the debate fall in the election calendar?
The debate took place as voting by mail was about to begin. California county election officials were preparing to mail ballots to the state’s 23.2 million registered voters, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Associated Press reported that ballots were expected to begin arriving ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. That placed the candidates’ televised exchange near the start of the period when voters could make their choices by mail, rather than only on election day.
A September poll by the University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies put Becerra ahead, according to an Associated Press debate preview. That survey measured voter preferences at that point in the campaign; it was not an election result.
