Capitol Briefs: Becerra, primary turnout and ballot measures

Becerra starts with big lead over Hilton: The June primary is finally behind us and a new Berkeley IGS poll shows Democrat Xavier Becerra with a big initial lead over Republican candidate Steve Hilton. According to the poll, which came out on Thursday, Becerra holds a 21 point lead over Hilton, garnering support from 52 percent of those polled against just 31 percent for Hilton.

While the two draw virtually identical support from members of their own parties (82 percent among Dems for Becerra and 84 percent by Reeps for Hilton), voter registrations in California favor Democrats by 20 points.

The IGS poll notes that Hilton’s challenge for November is more than just over party registration, saying “Becerra’s early preference lead over Hilton is broad-based as he holds sizable leads among both men and women, across voters of all ages, as well as among voters in each of the state’s major racial and ethnic subgroups.”

Hilton has been endorsed by President Trump, and this week Becerra received the nod from Gov. Gavin Newsom. That could be another major hurdle for Hilton as the president holds only a 29 percent approval rating in California, with 69 percent disapproving.

Primary turnout bigger than anticipated: Turnout for the June 2^nd primary was far bigger than anticipated, according to a new survey from the Public Policy Institute of California. In a blog post, PPIC researchers noted that turnout “as a share of the population eligible to vote was higher this cycle (34%) than in any midterm primary since 1982.”

The governor’s race and contests for reconfigured U.S. House of Representatives districts drive the interest, with the poll showing that “most likely voters were closely following the news about the governor’s race (71%) and expressed more enthusiasm (61%) than usual about voting in this year’s House elections.” There was also a partisan divide there, as “Republicans were closely following the governor’s race while Democrats were enthusiastic about voting in the House elections.”

As many as eight pending legislative ballot measures: The Capitol is nothing if not deadline driven, and the next major marker comes on June 25^th, the last day for placing or removing proposals from the Nov. 3^rd ballot.

As noted by Capitol lobbyist, McGeorge law professor and regular Capitol Weekly contributor Chris Micheli, there are currently three measures qualified for the ballot that have been placed there by lawmakers:

ACA 13 (Ward) Voting thresholds. (Res. Ch. 176, 2023) 

SCA 1 (Newman) Elections: recall of state officers. (Res. Ch. 204, 2024) 

SB 42 (Umberg) Political Reform Act of 1974: public campaign financing: California Fair Elections Act of 2026. (Ch. 245, 2025) 

Micheli notes lawmakers are currently pondering placing eight more possible measures:

• SB 895 (Wiener) California Science and Health Research Bond Act
• ACA 7 (Jackson) Government Preferences
• ACA 18 (Caloza) UC Regents: Student Members
• SCA 5 (Cortese) Education Finance: Education Equalization Act
• AB 736 (Wicks) The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026
• SB 417 (Cabaldon) The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026
• SB 623 (Archuleta) Veterans’ Bond Act of 2026
• ACA 9 (Boerner) Public Utilities Commission

Big City Mayors Forum: In case you missed it Capitol Weekly was joined this week by approximately half a dozen members of the Big City Mayors coalition to address three key issues facing local leaders: homelessness, housing and economic development. The entire event will soon be available on the Capitol Weekly YouTube page and individual snippets are already arriving on all our social media feeds.

Capitol Weekly reporter Leah O’Tarrow and intern Olivia Bye put together a nice summary of the event on our website earlier this week, but a few more interesting bits that didn’t make it into the story:

Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson on the state’s messaging on economic development: “California is actually a great place to do business. We’re number one in manufacturing in the country. But when you go and you talk to people nationally and internationally, and they’re looking to set up a business here, one of the first things they say is, ‘it’s too expensive, we can’t go there, California doesn’t manufacture anymore.’” She also noted that Riverside is a foreign trade zone as well as having “the lowest utility rates in the state” but that a lot of people outside of California looking to do business aren’t aware of that.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee each put plugs in for easing the path for more manufactured and tiny homes, both for housing affordability and for providing shelter for unhoused populations.

Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh urged Sacramento lawmakers to support her city’s oil and agricultural industries. She also expressed concerns over water in Kern County, saying, “we need these ongoing understandings by our state legislature that water is critical to us in the Central Valley, and our ability to provide the energy that California needs.”

Some Capitol trivia before you go: California’s first Black legislator was Assemblymember Frederick M. Roberts, elected in 1918. Eighty years later a DNA test confirmed that Roberts was the great grandson of…wait for it…Thomas Jefferson. Thanks to Brian Ebbert, Chris Micheli and Alex Vassar for this infonugget out of their California Capitol Cocktail Trivia book.