Three leading Republican candidates in the Sept. 14 recall of Gov. Gavin Newson debated at the Sacramento Press Club on Tuesday.
Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, businessman John Cox and state representative Kevin Kiley all criticized Newsom, but the big surprise of the night came when Cox was served with a subpoena on stage.
Faulconer also took aim at fellow GOP contender and frontrunner Larry Elder who decided to skip the debate. He blasted Elder for his past derogatory comments about women, including a column written in 2000 by Elder for Capitalism Magazine in which he wrote that “women know less than men about political issues, economics and current events.”
All of us on the stage and everybody running for governor, that’s not who we are as Californians. When I think of my mom who went to night school and had a career and raised us, to all of the working mothers, you’re going to have a governor who is going to stand up and support you,” said Faulconer.
"That’s bull----, and we ought to call it that," Faulconer added, according to The Sacramento Bee. "As governor, I’m going to make sure that California daughters have the same opportunities as California sons."
Faulconer answered questions from reporters following the debate and suggested that statements such as Elder’s should disqualify him from taking part in the recall race.
"You can’t have a governor who believes that," Faulconer said.
Elder’s comments about the minimum wage also elicited criticism from all three candidates. In an interview with McClatchy’s California editorial boards, Elder said “The ideal minimum wage is $0.00.”
Kiley said eliminating the minimum wage is going too far, but the current standard is "way off" and "probably needs to vary a bit more by region," according to the Los Angeles Times. Faulconer and Cox agreed that there should be a minimum wage.
"Frankly, the minimum wage right now isn’t an issue because people are getting paid beaucoup bucks for doing things that used to get minimum wage because of a shortage of labor," Cox said. "Certainly, the federal government can set a minimum wage so there isn’t sweatshops and things like that. That’s fine."
Bringing a dramatic flair to the event, Cox was served with a subpoena during the debate over claims of unpaid advertising bills.
A judge had ordered Cox to pay close to $100,000 to a political consulting firm in May. It was “one of a string of unpaid bills detailed in a lawsuit and campaign filings” associated with Cox’s failed 2018 bid, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Polls have shown the election will likely be a tight race with Newsom expected to barely come out ahead. The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies surveyed likely voters and found that while 50 percent oppose the recall election, almost the same amount of voters support the effort, 47 percent.
Poll director Mark DiCamillo told KNX that part of the reason for that near-even split is because Democrats are not as motivated to vote in the recall as Republicans.
"There’s this widespread expectation among Democrats and even no party preference voters that Newsom will defeat the recall," he said. "This might be contributing to somewhat greater complacency among those recall opponents than those recall supporters."
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talked about trying to motivate Democrats ahead of the recall campaign with CBS San Francisco.
"I don’t think many people have took the recall seriously because of it’s not very serious purpose. But, the fact is, it exists. We do have to get more enthusiastic about turning out the vote," she said.
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