Becerra, Hilton bring gubernatorial campaigns to southland
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (KESQ) - Democrat Xavier Becerra officially kicked off his gubernatorial runoff campaign in Los Angeles today, while his likely Republican opponent, Steve Hilton, also visited the Southland to again call for changes in California's extended vote-counting process.
Becerra visited Mercado La Paloma in downtown Los Angeles, speaking with merchants, chatting with diners and posting for photos.
As of midday Tuesday, Becerra led the field of gubernatorial candidates with 2,179,986 votes, or 27.7%. Hilton was in second place with 1,978,382 votes, or 25.1%.
Billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer was still in the hunt to possibly overtake Hilton, with 1,760,620 votes as of Tuesday, or 22.3%.
Hilton is expected to secure second place in the election, advancing to the November runoff with Becerra, but neither candidate was prepared to say it definitively on Tuesday.
"I'm anxious to find out who's going to be there with me,'' Becerra told reporters. "... We know we're in, so we're going to get out there and continue to talk to people the way we did during the primary. And we hope that folks stay engaged and that we have an even bigger turnout for the November general election."
Becerra said he knows that the possibility of low voter turnout was a concern going into last week's primary election, but said, "I think at the end of the day, it's going to be a decent result."
"We still want to get more people coming out, but it's good to see that the reason it is taking a while for the count to be completed is because a lot of folks ended up voting, and so we're happy about that,'' he said.
Hilton, meanwhile, said he is waiting until all the votes are counted before declaring victory.
"In this campaign, as I pointed out last night, we always had a policy that we would wait for the official call of the race from the AP (Associated Press),'' Hilton said during a Tuesday news conference outside the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Office in Norwalk. "That is what we are waiting for. We do not know when that will happen, partly for the reasons that we'll be discussing in a moment, so we're not popping the champagne yet. But we're very confident that we will be in the top two to face Xavier Becerra, and to give Californians a choice for change in November.
"Remember, a majority of Californians think that our state is going in the wrong direction, and so it's very important that we offer them the change that a majority want to see. So that's the update on the race,'' he said.
During his news conference, Hilton again called for changes in how California conducts its elections, expressing dismay at the length of the ballot-counting process.
While insisting he has not seen any obvious evidence of massive voter fraud in the election, Hilton called for implementation of voter ID rules in California to ensure fair elections. He urged Becerra to join him in campaigning in support of voter ID, which would require voters to show legal identification to cast a ballot.
Proponents of such a system insist it will prevent fraud and ensure every ballot cast is legitimate. Opponents, however, say such a rule will disenfranchise many voters who do not have a valid government ID or passport -- affecting primarily lower-income voters, minorities, the disabled and the elderly.
