First TV debate in race for governor mostly bypassed California’s serious issues

There will be 61 names of would-be governors on the June 2 primary election ballot, but the top two finishers will — as certainly as anything can be in politics — come from the six who participated Wednesday evening in the first statewide televised debate.

Former Congressman Eric Swalwell’s scandal-ridden departure this month shook up the field and seemingly lifted former Attorney General (and ex-Biden cabinet member) Xavier Becerra into contention after months in the low single digits.

However, no one has achieved support anything close to what would be needed to claim one of the top two finishes, probably in the mid-20% range, and a spot on the November ballot.

The debate, staged by the NextStar string television stations in San Francisco, was a chance for them to shine.

None did — if shining means presenting a compelling case that he or she is what California needs to confront the existential issues that will determine whether the state can once again be a unique place where people can see their ambitions become reality.

Those issues include housing shortages, rampant homelessness, the nation’s highest levels of unemployment and poverty, uncertain water supplies, soaring utility costs, shamefully low academic achievement in public schools and a state budget in chronic deficit.

The topics posed by the debate moderators touched on only a couple of those issues, and then too briefly to be significant. Otherwise, the questions dealt with, at best, peripheral matters that may be trendy on social media but have little or nothing to do with governing the nation’s most populous and complex state.

Really folks, do we yearn to know what streaming program the candidates have most recently watched?

The potential for voters to learn more about what the candidates would do as governor was also undermined because only the first hour of the debate was broadcast on old-fashioned television. Viewers had to switch to their computers to see the last half hour.

Given all of that, what could one have gleaned from watching?

For one thing, the four Democrats are not inclined to criticize outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom on one of the truly relevant issues, having the nation’s highest numbers of homeless people.

Asked to give Newsom letter grades on homelessness, none offered anything lower than a B, even though the problem is at last as severe as it was when Newsom took office in 2019. The two Republicans, of course, gave him Fs.

We got only brief sound bites on what the six would do themselves to reduce homelessness.

The related issue of housing, both supply and cost, got a little more attention, but mostly it boiled down to six promises of making it easier for developers to build, which has been Newsom’s approach but has not noticeably affected either housing production or cost.

That was about it on the big issues. There was nothing on water, one brief response to one viewer-generated question about academic achievement and some sound bites about the costs and availability of home insurance.

We did, however, get relatively lengthy responses about gas taxes, charging fees on zero emission vehicles, whether truck drivers should be able to read English and whether young children should be barred from using social media — again, trendy issues but not the serious ones that will face the next governor.

From a purely political standpoint, none of the sextet scored some point that will reverberate enough to change the dynamics of the campaign. Nor did anyone commit an injurious gaffe.

Maybe the next televised debate, scheduled for next Tuesday, will be meatier and more illuminating. It could hardly be less so.