Frontrunner in California Governor’s Race Roasted by Ex-Colleagues Who Say They Couldn’t Name His Friends With a Gun to Their Head

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Leading California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra (D) was mocked by several fellow Democrats for having no friends and a total lack of policy ideas in a new feature from Politico on Monday.

The report paints Becerra as an unfriendly, unoriginal, and downright boring liberal candidate. Still, Becerra remains the frontrunner to replace Gavin Newsom (D) as California’s next governor, according to several polls.

Politico pointed out “Congressional support for Becerra has been conspicuously absent in his gubernatorial bid,” even as he’s raced to the front of the gubernatorial pack. “There are 25 California Democrats now in Congress who served with Becerra; two-thirds have not endorsed him,” the report said.

That is probably because Becerra sounds remarkably unpopular with his colleagues.

One House Democrat told the outlet, “If you took a gun to my head and asked me, ‘Who are Xavier Becerra’s friends — or who were they?’ I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know.”

Another House Dem called him “aloof” and said it made sense why his campaign was “invisible” until Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) dropped out in disgrace over accusations of sexual misconduct.

That same lawmaker said the 68-year-old Becerra was “never a profile in courage” during his time in Congress. Becerra represented California in the House from 1993 to 2017, and later became the state’s attorney general. He also served as the secretary of health and human services during ex-President Joe Biden’s time in office.

Politico added:

Becerra, in private meetings, has been light on policy specifics and ideological beliefs.

Some who’ve met with him have been perplexed by the dearth of vision; one Sacramento lobbyist said the lack of a prepared pitch felt “vanilla and underperforming.” But Becerra has framed his unformed plans as proof of being a reasonable negotiating partner who welcomes outside input — an implicit contrast to his top Democratic rival, Tom Steyer, who has taken a more openly antagonistic stance against statehouse interests.

Monday’s report comes a few weeks after Becerra told a Los Angeles TV reporter to make sure she wasn’t doing a “gotcha piece” on him.

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