SAN FRANCISCO — The Orange County Register yesterday published a scathing editorial questioning Xavier Becerra’s record of failed leadership and incompetence.

“Journalists, fellow Democrats, and his former cabinet members agree – Xavier Becerra mishandled, mismanaged, and botched his way through his 36 years as a career politician,” said Steyer for Governor spokesperson Danni Wang. “Becerra failed migrant children, bungled public health crises, and turned a blind eye to transparency and accountability. The OC Register is right: Becerra ‘inspires little confidence.’”

Key excerpt below and the full editorial can be read here. 

“...Becerra inspires little confidence in his ability to run the state government. His federal stewardship at HHS was a bust, with the Wall Street Journal calling him “out of his depth.

His White House bosses had “grown increasingly frustrated … over his department’s sluggish effort to house thousands of unaccompanied minors” who had crossed the southern border during the administration’s refugee crisis, per Politico in 2021. 

He’s still struggling to explain a scandal involving allegations that his advisers pilfered $225,000 from his campaign account. There are no allegations of wrongdoing on his part, but his explanation – that it “happened outside of my vision” – doesn’t offer confidence in his management abilities.

We have long criticized his subservience to the state’s police unions as AG: ‘Becerra refused to follow a new law that requires the release of law-enforcement disciplinary records. Courts repeatedly rebuked him …. He even threatened legal action against reporters who had properly obtained some of those records from his office.’ He relented, but that lack of transparency also was his hallmark in Washington, D.C. And, again, he’s ultimately an establishmentarian who regurgitates standard progressive policies.

California faces a bevy of financial and quality-of-life challenges and needs a government with the management skills and right ideas to put it on the path toward reform. We understand the Democrats’ political dilemma, but Becerra is the answer to a question nobody is asking.”

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