{"id":910894,"date":"2026-06-06T15:12:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T20:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/06\/final-california-governor-debate-ignores-hollywood-issues-altogether\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:12:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T20:12:47","slug":"final-california-governor-debate-ignores-hollywood-issues-altogether","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/06\/final-california-governor-debate-ignores-hollywood-issues-altogether\/","title":{"rendered":"Final California Governor Debate Ignores Hollywood Issues Altogether"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Seven of the top candidates for California governor took the stage in San Francisco for the final debate before the primaries but left out one issue that may affect voters: Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>The CBS debate, co-hosted by the San Francisco Examiner, featured Xavier Becerra (D), Chad Bianco (R), Steve Hilton (R), Matt Mahan (D), Katie Porter (D), Tom Steyer (D) and Antonio Villaraigosa (D).<\/p>\n<p>This debate was the first that allowed each candidate to present an opening and closing statement. Despite it being the candidates\u2019 third time onstage with one another, the cross talk and interruptions persisted as they had in previous debates.<\/p>\n<p>CBS News Bay Area reporter Ryan Yamamoto, CBS News Los Angeles reporter Tom Wait and San Francisco Examiner editor-in-chief Schuyler Hudak Prionas moderated the forum, segmenting out the debate by issues, notably sprinkling in rapid fire questions as they let each of the candidates respond to policy questions.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/media-platforms\/politics\/california-governor-candidates-film-tv-production\/\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/043026-CA-Gubernatorial-Candidates-v2.jpg?fit=300%2C169&#038;quality=89&#038;ssl=1\" alt   data-portal-copyright=\"TheWrap\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\">\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>However, Hollywood, namely, film and television production, did not make the cut. Last debate on NBC4, candidates were asked a yes or no question about expanding the state\u2019s film tax credit program. Each of the candidates said they would support an uncapped plan.<\/p>\n<p>Since the last debate, greater discussion of a federal film tax incentive program has also been embraced by both political parties in order to make the United States more competitive than international film markets. However, the moderators left production incentives completely out of Thursday\u2019s debate discussion.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E77UzwNExAA?si=zSj5EFXEtoKZdGMl\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Instead, the candidates discussed issues of affordability, climate change, education and AI, among other issues. <\/p>\n<p>Former U.S. Rep. Porter continued to side-eye her male opponents for speaking over one another, even writing a message directly to former California Attorney General Becerra to outline his revenue plan for voters after skirting around it several times.<\/p>\n<p>Becerra was also put in the hot seat early on, criticized by Republican candidate Hilton for being associated with fraud within the Biden administration. Becerra\u2019s longtime advisor Sean McCluskie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-05-13\/becerras-advisor-pleaded-guilty-gubernatorial-rivals-are-piling-on\">pleaded guilty<\/a> to stealing $225,000 from the former Biden Cabinet secretary\u2019s campaign account. The former AG has not been accused of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>Hilton first referred to Becerra as a friend before telling the former health and human services secretary that he needed to prepare \u201chis criminal remarks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith friends like that who needs enemies,\u201d Becerra replied. <\/p>\n<p>San Jose Mayor Mahan outlined his plans to support education, lauding the fact that he was a former teacher himself. He said he wanted to place the department of education under the governor\u2019s jurisdiction. <\/p>\n<p>Steyer added that the government does not need to \u201ctell teachers how to teach,\u201d but instead keep them from leaving the state by paying them, training them and supporting them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea that we don\u2019t need to pay them, and we will just do it better \u2014 that\u2019s pie in the sky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the CBS California debate above.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/media-platforms\/politics\/tom-steyer-katie-porter-slam-trump-california-governor-debate\/\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274718003.jpg?fit=300%2C169&#038;quality=89&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter and businessman Tom Steyer look on during a CNN California Governor Primary Debate in Monterey Park, California (Credit: Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)\"   data-portal-copyright=\"TheWrap\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\">\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> Tess Patton<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/media-platforms\/politics\/final-california-governor-debate-ignores-hollywood-issues\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seven of the top candidates for California governor took the stage in San Francisco for the final debate before the primaries but left out one issue that may affect voters: Hollywood. The CBS debate, co-hosted by the San Francisco Examiner, featured Xavier Becerra (D), Chad Bianco (R), Steve Hilton (R), Matt Mahan (D), Katie Porter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":910895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[921,584],"tags":[5229,5256],"class_list":["post-910894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","category-final","tag-california","tag-final"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}