S8 Ep877: High-profile candidates like Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer navigate a crowded field to replace Gavin Newsom, while outsider Steve Hilton gains traction as voters express frustration with rising costs and failing infrastructure. (2/16)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2026
⏱️ 5 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Jeff Bliss is here. He is Pacific Watch, and the mayor's race in L.A. is highly entertaining because of |
| 0:21.7 | Legos. I don't have anything comparable in the governor's race, and there are many of them. |
| 0:27.0 | Jeff sent me a graphic, I think 61 people are running. I don't know. It's some fantastic number. |
| 0:33.0 | I did watch Tom Steyer on the Jim Acosta show. Steyer is a grown-up. He speaks very well. He's quite |
| 0:40.1 | convincing. He's very forceful. He's a CEO. That's what he is. And he's made his money being |
| 0:45.9 | confident and visionary. Now, he's also preaching climate change. So that gets confusing when he talks about gasoline prices, not mentioning |
| 0:58.0 | the refineries that were shut down. However, I was impressed. He was hoarse because he's been talking |
| 1:03.3 | a lot. That's Tom Steyer. I do not believe he's leading, but he's not losing anymore either. |
| 1:10.2 | A man named Bacera, who was a |
| 1:12.5 | California politician, then became a member of Joe Biden's cabinet, is also doing well. And the |
| 1:20.9 | mystery here is a man named Hilton, who's not only from Europe, not only from Fox, but also not a politician. |
| 1:31.2 | Are those the three names that are at the top right now, Jeff? |
| 1:34.5 | I would say those are the big names right now. |
| 1:37.6 | It's Bacera and Steyer are the ones that everybody's talking about. |
| 1:41.5 | Chat Bianco, the sheriff from Riverside County, who is leading with Hilton, has fallen back. |
| 1:48.8 | And Matt Mayhan, who's the mayor of San Jose, has been making some strides, certainly not enough to close the gap between now and the election. |
| 1:57.6 | But Sarah has been the big name, both in terms of coming up in the polls, the money he's getting, the support he's getting from some of the DNC. |
| 2:06.3 | But also for the big gaps, you know, earlier in the week, he had an interview with a reporter at Los Angeles Station, KTLA. |
| 2:14.7 | And he basically told her on camera, look, you know, I don't, this isn't going to be an ambush. |
| 2:19.9 | This is going to be a profile piece. And, and, you know, he was basically telling her what to do. |
| 2:25.1 | And she's like, no, I, I ask you questions. And that's the way an interview goes, is roundly viewed. |
| 2:30.9 | And including by Democratic politicians on the East Coast,-known pundits who said that was basically |
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