Xavier Becerra, the candidate no one wanted – Daily News
Former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced his candidacy for governor of California last week, touting his toughness.
“I watched my parents — a construction worker and a clerical worker — achieve the California dream,” Becerra said in a video announcing his run. “Can we do that today, with this affordability crisis? Very tough. But we’ve taken on these tough fights. … We can do that, but you need a leader who can be tough.”
Right.
Becerra, as previously mentioned, served as California attorney general for a time, leading multiple lawsuits against the first Trump administration. He was then appointed to serve as U.S. Health and Human Services secretary under President Joe Biden.
In response to the latter, in February 2021, this editorial board wrote, “we have two significant deal-killing concerns with Becerra after watching him operate in Sacramento. The first is his rabid partisanship. The second is his heavy-handed approach toward policy disputes.”
Becerra, as AG, frequently skewed titles and summaries for statewide ballot initiatives in ways to help those he agreed with and punish those he disagreed with. Of course, some might say, that’s what all AGs, including Rob Bonta, Kamala Harris and Jerry Brown have done. Fair enough.
Which brings us to the part of his record he would like people, especially Democrats, to forget.
Throughout his time as AG, Becerra repeatedly fought against state laws requiring the release of law enforcement disciplinary records when officers were found to have engaged in serious misconduct.
“Courts repeatedly rebuked him, but his actions provide insight into his mindset,” we wrote at the time, “He even threatened legal action against reporters who had properly obtained some of those records from his office.”
Back in 2020, we called out Becerra’s phony rhetoric after the death of George Floyd. “Instead of being a beacon of reform, Becerra has shielded officers who abuse their power,” we wrote on June 9, 2020, concluding, “If Becerra wants to be on the right side of history, he can spare us the empty Tweets and reform the way his department operates.”
On his way out of the state DOJ upon his confirmation by the Senate, Becerra was criticized by gun-violence researchers who met resistance from his department in obtaining data ordered released by the state Legislature. Becerra repeatedly blocked and obstructed the researchers in defiance of state law.
In addition, as the Sacramento Bee reported at the time, Becerra’s office also “quietly signed a settlement agreement in federal court admitting his agency’s gun-registration website was so poorly designed that potentially thousands of Californians were unable to register their assault weapons and comply with state law.”
As we wrote at the time, “These revelations are a fitting summation of Becerra’s years as attorney general. He’s disregarded laws he doesn’t like. He bungled basic data-collection efforts and resisted open-government measures, as Democrats protected him.”
Becerra may or may not be tough. But we know he’s unfit to be governor of California.
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