Governor Gavin Newsom has expressed a distinct lack of engagement with the race to find his successor, suggesting that the general public shares his indifference towards the lackluster lineup of candidates.
Despite growing concerns among Democrats about two Republican front-runners—former Fox News personality Steve Hilton and ex-Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco—dominating the June primary and potentially excluding Democrats altogether, Newsom has chosen to remain uninvolved in the race.
At a Monday press conference in Hayward, centered around funding for his controversial CARE Court initiative aimed at assisting mentally ill defendants, Newsom confessed, “It’s been challenging to concentrate on that race.”
He candidly added, “I honestly haven’t taken a look, nor do I think the public has.”
According to a recent poll, Hilton leads with 14% support among likely voters, closely followed by former Representative Katie Porter at 13%, and Bianco at 12%. The Democratic vote is widely divided among figures such as Representative Eric Swalwell, billionaire activist Tom Steyer, and others like former Attorney General Xavier Becerra and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
Despite this, Newsom acknowledged, “I’m not as directly engaged as perhaps I might need to be” in the unfolding election.
He claimed he was more focused on CARE court, energy supply and other issues and pinned some of the apathy on President Donald Trump’s constant media distractions and a focus on other issues in the state, like Prop. 50, that dominated political talk last year.
There was a “series of circumstances that have shifted attention … Prop. 50, whether Padilla was going to get in, Kamala was going to get in,” he continued.
“When I’m out in the community people aren’t talking to me about it, which is interesting this late,” he said.
Newsom’s office announced $291 million in funding for CARE court, which lets family members and others ask a court to compel an individual into treatment.
Newsom hyped the program as a “paradigm shift” in 2023, but it has since been described as a failure by people involved and failed to make a significant dent in street conditions, according to a CalMatters investigation.
The governor appeared to blame counties such as San Francisco and Santa Clara for not properly implementing the program, placing ten counties on an “Improvement list.”
