SACRAMENTO — Xavier Becerra hasn’t even been elected yet — officially, anyway — and I am already bored.
The Democrat merely seemed to be going through the motions in a plodding gubernatorial campaign he couldn’t possibly lose.
That said, it isn’t a governor’s job to excite any journalist or to entertain the public.
It’s OK for a governor to be boring — Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian, for example — if they can produce results that improve the state and lives of its residents.
California needs a governor who gets stuff done. Boring is acceptable, even in this fast-paced polarized world. But a do-nothing governor who’s just moseying along is intolerable.
We’ve had a showboat governor for nearly eight years. Gavin Newsom and Californians would have been better off if he’d spent more time governing hands-on and less chasing national media and the presidency.
We can’t know yet what kind of governor Becerra will be — except rather boring, most likely. No Jerry Brown or Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Will this 68-year-old career politician with the yardlong resume have the resolve and courage to stand up to special interests — labor as well as business, immigration rights activists and rich techies alike — and make timely decisions they won’t like?
Decisions such as whether the state should continue rolling back Medi-Cal healthcare benefits for undocumented immigrants.
Newsom and the Democrat-dominated Legislature began providing free Medi-Cal for all low-income Californians regardless of their immigration status. But reality quickly smacked them in the face. The state couldn’t afford the generosity. So the governor and lawmakers began retreating.
Becerra, who will be California’s first elected Latino governor, is the proud son of Mexican immigrants. Will he make the prudent decision to chop more Medi-Cal benefits for undocumented noncitizens, especially in the wake of President Trump’s huge cutbacks in federal healthcare funds?
The new governor will need to act fast on all things involving money. He must send his first state budget proposal to the Legislature by Jan. 10, six days after taking office. For practical reasons, he has to decide by mid-December.
He could kick the can down the road until the annual May budget revision, using the excuse of revenue uncertainty and needing more time for study. But that would be seen by many as a sign of indecisiveness and weakness. Not a good start.
During the campaign, Becerra talked vaguely about the lofty goal of universal healthcare coverage, but never was specific about how he’d achieve it.
He has long advocated “Medicare for all.” But that’s not the same as government-run “single payer,” the dream of Democratic progressives. Medicare for all is, well, just that. And Medicare is not single-payer because it allows for supplemental private insurance. The issue of universal coverage is horrendously complicated and the goal is massively expensive.
Another contentious budget decision Becerra must make soon is what to do about the sputtering bullet train. Scrap it or keep throwing tax money at the failed project that’s decades behind schedule and $100 billion over budget. No tracks have even been laid.
One immediate problem: High-speed rail’s anticipated $1-billion annual funding source from the state’s Cap-and-Invest program is drying up. That’s because industrial polluters aren’t buying permits to emit greenhouse gas like they were. It’s a long story that means short revenue for rail construction.
“We’re going to build the bullet train, but not this bullet train,” Becerra told me in April. “It’s too expensive. Sit everybody down and come out with a position.”
Lately, he has been promising to “clean shop” at the High-Speed Rail Authority and “get this done the right way. We’re not gonna have this overspending.”
OK, but based on his campaigning, Becerra still doesn’t know “the right way.” That’s understandable. No one else seems to either. Take your time, Xavier, but not a lot — or you’ll be seen as part of the problem, like Newsom is.
There’s a long list of nagging state dilemmas we didn’t hear specific solutions for during Becerra’s sleepwalk campaign. He spoke mostly in generalities. Did he not know the fixes? Or was he too risk-averse to speak out? Probably both.
Becerra adhered to the old playbook taught to young political consultants in campaign management 101:
If you’re ahead, hide. When you do emerge from under the bed, avoid risky provocation. It could cost you poll points and potentially the election.
Becerra did get out and jog round the track — never a sprint and always stepping cautiously.
He missed a golden opportunity.
Becerra had nothing to lose. He was a Democrat running against a Trump-embraced Republican in a deep blue state angry at the GOP president. He could have created some excitement by making bold pronouncements about, for example, what he’d do “first thing on Day One.”
He certainly should have participated in more than one general election debate, especially after initially declaring that he would. He performed well in his one debate — coming across as calm, likable and capable.
Becerra should have held more — and more meaty — news conferences with reporters. The few he engaged in were relatively brief and unenlightening, I’m told by colleagues.
He missed a chance to build a solid statewide support base that could help when the postinaugural honeymoon quickly ends.
But that‘s not his natural style. And, anyway, when all the votes are counted, he’ll be a landslide winner.
One smart move at the end: helping Democratic candidates in hot House races by campaigning with them.
Becerra could be just the governor California needs: an experienced pol knowledgeable on most issues — a longtime U.S. House member, state attorney general and U.S. Health secretary.
Importantly, he’s not someone who craves national attention. He’ll be focused on the job he was elected to.
He’ll just need to be bolder, more decisive and move faster than what we saw during the campaign — while having the guts to tell allies “no.”
That wouldn’t be boring. It could be exciting.
What else you should be reading
The must-read: Support dwindles for wealth tax, voter ID ballot measures, new poll shows
CA vs. Trump: Justice Dept. sent subpoenas to L.A. election officials. What that means and what happens next
The L.A. Times Special: Voter guide to the 2026 California general election
Until next week,
George Skelton
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