This story is third in a series on California gubernatorial candidates. See our previous story on Matt Mahan here.
The leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, Steve Hilton, blames unnecessary state regulations for surging insurance premiums and California’s high cost of living. In a recent news briefing, he also suggested that wildfires contribute to climate change.
“In 2020, the last year we had really big mega wildfires, the fires released more CO2 emissions than was saved by the previous 20 years of climate change policy in California,” Hilton told reporters at a May 19 briefing with American Community Media (ACoM) reporters. “So we need to manage the forest better.”
According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (CCES), however, forests regenerate themselves following wildfires, thus creating, “a net neutral effect on climate over the long term.”
During the briefing, Hilton blamed overregulation under the Democrats for the high cost of living. As governor, he would want to cut taxes and allow strict enforcement of federal immigration laws.
“I’m arguing for a positive, practical change plan to make our state califordable,” he said, that last word coined as a slogan for the Hilton campaign. “Three dollar gas, cut your electric bills in half, your first 100 grand tax free, a home you can afford to buy, to make California the best place once again to start and raise a family, to start and run a business.”
Hilton, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump and is a former Fox News host, recently inched ahead of all other candidates, according to a May 14-16 poll of 1,200 likely voters conducted in both Spanish and English. Hilton has lived in California for about 13 years and been a U.S. citizen for only five, thus fulfilling the minimum eligibility requirement to be governor.
Immigration enforcement a campaign pillar
He called for enforcement of immigration laws as a way to improve life for Californians, claiming that problems with employment, schools and the health system “are a consequence of the uncontrolled immigration that we’ve seen in recent years.
“… we will not obstruct the implementation of federal immigration law …” — Steve Hilton
“When I’m governor – because we will have an approach that all the laws must be peacefully enforced – we will not obstruct the implementation of federal immigration law that has led to some of these scenes that I don’t think any of us want to see, for example as we saw in Los Angeles last summer or even worse in Minneapolis earlier this year,” Hilton said.
“I think the number one point that we need to make is that we’ve got a situation in California where legal immigrants like myself – and I’ve said very clearly, I’m a candidate of the legal immigrant community for the legal immigrant community – are being denied the basics of the ladder of opportunity that we want to see for our immigrant communities here in California.”
Hilton, whose parents left Hungary because he said they did not like communist rule, immigrated to the United States in 2012 from his native England.
Studies show that undocumented immigrants contribute more to the economy than they take. According to the nonpartisan California Budget and Policy Center, in 2022 undocumented Californians paid nearly $8.5 billion in state and local taxes but were excluded from some of the services those taxes fund.
Hilton: Northern California needs fire
Hilton made a distinction between fires in Northern and Southern California. He blamed Southern California fires on human accidents and arson, and natural events like lightning for fires in the north.
“We should not be suppressing these [Northern California] fires,” Hilton said. “We actually need a more natural, organic approach to this. The forests have been allowed to become overgrown, overdense.”
Hilton did not address the foothill fires that have destroyed thousands of homes, such as the Camp Fire, sparked by a PG&E equipment failure, that wiped out Paradise and took 85 lives.
He said that people who have suffered losses from wildfires have not been treated fairly. He noted that a group of Southern California homeowners were fined for clearing brush, and said, “All that extreme environmentalism has to go.”
The cost of insurance has also been a problem, Hilton said, suggesting that lawsuits and recent wildfires were to blame along with overregulation.
Eliminate waste and fraud, says Hilton
The candidate painted a grim portrait of California, citing poverty and unemployment rates, the high cost of living and the difficulty of home ownership, and a general lack of opportunity.
“I’ve lived the California dream,” he stated. “I think the simple reason I’m running is that that dream is not there for most people.”
Hilton vowed to eliminate waste and fraud in the state budget as well as lower taxes and government fees. “We have the highest taxes in the country, but the worst results,” he said.
Immediate steps he said he would take as governor would be to eliminate income taxes on tips and for anyone earning under $100,000; eliminate the small business tax, and limit all car registrations to a flat $71 fee.
“The other changes that we need to make just take longer to work through the system,” he said, referring to policies that affect the cost of housing and energy.
Foreign-born California governor?
Prior to moving to California, Hilton was policy director for UK Prime Minister David Cameron. In 2012, he took a leave of absence to teach at Stanford University. At the end of his one-year sabbatical, he opted to stay in California and went on to found tech companies.
If elected Hilton would be the third foreign-born governor of the state after Arnold Schwarzenegger, originally from Austria, and John Downey of Ireland. Downey was the state’s seventh governor from 1860-1862. When Schwarzenegger took office in 2003, the Austrian-born body builder and movie star had been a U.S. citizen for 20 years and had lived in the country for 35 years.
The Evitarus public opinion poll, which claims a 2.83% margin of error, listed Hilton with 22% support; Xavier Becerra, 21%; Tom Steyer, 15%; Chad Bianco, 10%; Katie Porter, 7%; Matt Mahan, 4%; and both Antonio Villaraigosa and Tony Thurmond, 1%.
Lindajoy Fenley is a senior editor at ChicoSol.