Knives out for Xavier Becerra

Democratic frontrunner Xavier Becerra took fire from all sides at the last debate among governor hopefuls before the June primary. He was an easy target considering that his former political consultant was in court earlier Thursday pleading guilty to federal fraud charges.

But even with San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan calling Becerra the “embodiment of the status quo,” and former Fox News host Steve Hilton arguing that Becerra should be preparing for his criminal defense instead of running for office, the former California attorney general tried to brush off the jabs. 

• Becerra: “This is what happens when you take the lead in the polls and you’re ahead of everyone else. They all come at you.”

Former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter also drew laughs from the audience for pushing Becerra to disclose his state revenue plan, holding up a handwritten question on a piece of paper that harkened back to her whiteboard-wielding days in the House.

The race is still up in the air. Only 3% of ballots have been returned, and 12% of likely voters remain undecided, according to the latest poll from Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics. Becerra has eked out a lead with 19% of respondents favoring him, followed by Hilton, a Republican, and billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, who both polled at 17%. 

Two of them, regardless of party, will advance to November’s general election. And concerns among Democratic voters that two Republicans will land on the ballot has some delaying their decision until a clearer leader emerges.

Aside from attacking Becerra, the candidates tried to distinguish themselves with answers on how they’d handle housing, affordability and education. 

Steyer pledged familiar promises, including single-payer healthcare and building 1 million homes. Porter laid out her four-point plan to address affordability, which involved eliminating state income taxes for people earning less than $100,000 — an idea Porter admitted she cribbed from Hilton.

Both Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa cited their experience running big cities, touting their record of bringing down homelessness and crime rates in their cities.

Meanwhile, the two GOP candidates united in faulting the state’s long dominant Democratic Party for today’s affordability and housing crises. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco advocated for more deregulation and reining in “excessive fraud.” And Hilton said he was not “an idealogue,” but was running to restore balance from the state’s “one-party rule.” 

If you’re still undecided, spend some time with our voter guide.

Read more about the debate from CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang.

Yes, the California state budget is flush with billions of dollars more coming in than the Newsom administration projected at the start of the year.

But Gov. Gavin Newsom isn’t letting up on some healthcare cutbacks to unauthorized immigrants that Democratic lawmakers badly want restored. 

That’s the bottom line from Newsom’s final budget proposal, a $350 billion spending plan that braces for an uncertain economy and continuing friction with the Trump administration.

• Newsom: “I’m not trying to get out of Dodge. This is a balanced budget structurally for the next 18 months after I’m gone.”

CalMatters’ Yue Stella Yu reports that Newsom pointed fingers at President Donald Trump repeatedly during his budget press conference Thursday, labeling the president and Treasury Secretary “Dumb and Dumber” for pursuing policies like tariffs that burden consumers and destabilize small business owners. 

Newsom’s spending plan sets up a conflict with Democrats in the Legislature who want to boost healthcare services for unauthorized immigrants and spend more to build affordable housing and fight homelessness. 

• State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat and head of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, in a statement: “ Medi-Cal should not be created into a two-tier system. The working people and those who are underserved in California deserve seamless access to healthcare in the world’s 4th largest economy.”

Quick reminder: The Legislature must pass a budget by June 15 and lawmakers and Newsom have until July 1 to agree on a final spending plan for 2026-27.

Read more.

California lawmakers still want to curb student cell phone usage in schools, but they’re willing to make some exceptions for teenagers. 

That compromise helped keep alive legislation that was originally meant to ban cell phones in K-12 schools, writes CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones.

The proposal builds on an existing state law requiring schools to limit students’ cell phone use during the school day. Originally, the new bill would have required all schools to draft policies banning students from using cell phones on campus or during a school trip.

But school leaders argued that having two laws on the issue would be confusing for school staff and may nullify policies they had already been working on. In response to their criticisms, lawmakers exempted high schools from the new bill.

Research has shown that cell phone use distracts students and affects their ability to concentrate in class. But a recent study cast doubt on whether cell phone bans have a significant effect on test scores and other measures of student success.

Read more.

Speaking of bills, lawmakers on Thursday went through more than 900 other measures that had new spending attached. The fast-paced, relatively opaque process, essentially spiked 259 bills for the session. Read more from CalMatters’ Maya C. Miller and Nadia Lathan.