Californians Are Ready for Change: Steve Hilton Can Beat Becerra

Last night’s primary election results demonstrate that Californians are ready for change. But are enough Democrat voters fed up with policies and politicians they’ve supported? Because it will take Democrats to change how they vote if California chooses the path of healing.

Steve Hilton can beat Xavier Becerra – maybe the numbers don’t add up, but that doesn’t account for disaffected Democrats, Palisades, Malibu and Eaton fire victims, residents of the once beautiful cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Sacramento, reduced to “shithole” cities, with drug addicts living in their own filth on the sidewalks and streets. And people who rarely think about politics wondering why their kids’ schools are educational cesspools of gender justice curriculum.

All of the gerrymandering done ahead of this election never accounted for the will of the voters.

The California results show that even in deep blue, corrupt areas, people have had it with the corrupt status quo.

I saw this posted on X, which seems to sum up another interesting corruption issue in the election:

Only in California politics can a Dem Candidate move forward to the General Election for Governor, when not one, not two, but three former aides to his campaign team recently were indicted and pled GUILTY to stealing from the campaign to the tune of $225,000. Three individuals associated with Xavier Becerra’s political operations pleaded guilty in a federal fraud scheme involving the diversion of about $225,000 from one of his dormant campaign accounts: Sean McCluskie: Becerra’s former chief of staff (and longtime advisor). Dana Williamson: A former advisor and key political strategist who also served as Becerra’s campaign manager. Greg Campbell: A Sacramento lobbyist who was part of the conspiracy.

Anyone paying attention in California is fed up with this corruption, that no politician seems to be prosecuted for. It’s easy to go after the consultants, but what about the politicians?

And this isn’t Becerra’s first rodeo. As I reported in 2018:

Becerra has his own troubles in D.C. as he was up to his eyeballs in the House Democratic Caucus Awan Brothers Congressional IT Scandal. Then-Rep. Xavier Becerra was the caucus chairman when he gave a fake server to the cops in order to obstruct their investigation. “The executive director of the Democratic Caucus was Sean McCluskie, who was Becerra’s chief of staff and is now chief deputy attorney general of California,” Daily Caller reporter Luke Rosiak reported in 2017. “The Awans and their associates collected more than $5 million in pay from congressional offices, often drawing chief-of-staff level pay though there is reason to believe many didn’t even show up. The House’s internal probe found they logged into servers they had no affiliation with, used members’ usernames, covered their tracks, and persisted even after being fired.”

Becerra, a sitting member of Congress since 1993, was surprisingly appointed to the California AG’s office when then-California AG Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. Did he miss California? Not likely, since he and his wife and three daughters lived in and own a million dollar home in the D.C. area and by all accounts, were ensconced as permanent residents. (It appears the Becerra’s just this month sold their home in Maryland).

Members of the Awan family logged on to the Caucus server 7,000 times without authorization between October 2015 and August 2016, according to a House investigation.

“The Awans were accessing members’ computers without their knowledge, transferring files to remote servers, and stealing computer equipment — including hard drives that Awan & Co. smashed to bits of bytes before making tracks,” former Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy reported in National Review. And none of the Awans could have qualified for a security clearance.

The unvetted Awans enjoyed unfettered access throughout the Democrat Caucus – and even had access to the accounts of members of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees.

Many believe Becerra departed Congress to become Jerry Brown’s appointed attorney general in California to put him in a position in which he could not be prosecuted.

But the scandal quietly disappeared thanks the mainstream media, and Congress eventually looked the other way.

However, Becerra wasn’t the most popular of the cool kids in the Biden administration.

Biden adviser Susan Rice referred to HHS Sec. Becerra as a “bitch-ass” and privately called him an “idiot,” according to multiple sources, Jim VanderHei of Axios Tweeted last year:

Axios reported:

• There was — and still is — deep animosity toward Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for what was seen as his reluctance to find more space in child migrant shelters, which are overseen by HHS, according to several sources familiar with the dynamics.
• Rice referred to Becerra as a “bitch-ass” and privately called him an “idiot,” according to multiple sources.
• During one meeting when Biden was tearing into Becerra, Rice passed Mayorkas a note that read: “Don’t save him,” according to two people familiar with the meeting.

So Californians are faced with the opportunity for significant change, far removed from the Xavier Becerras and Karen Basses of the political world.

Currently, the Secretary of State’s office is reporting on the Governor’s race, the top candidates with 58% in are:

The change agent is Steve Hilton. And if he and Becerra advance to the November General Election, Becerra’s entire past will be front and center for all to witness.

This is the most competitive, open race in years, as Gov. Gavin Newsom is term-limited. With voter frustrations skyrocketing over high housing costs, high gas and electricity prices, highest-in-the-nation gas taxes and income taxes, high cost of living, homelessness, and a sense the state is “going in the wrong direction,” this may be the tipping point – for Democrat voters. 

And Spencer Pratt challenging Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will resonate in November. Bass only got 35% of the vote as an incumbent! If you think Pratt’s adds resonated going into the Primary Election, just wait. He will drill down on Bass and her lengthy career, and it won’t be pretty.

Pratt and Hilton aren’t career politicians. Karen Bass and Xavier Becerra are. The contrasts are already stark, even with the numbers against Republicans.