Debates among candidates for political office, like the ones among the top eight of 61 candidates on the ballot for the governorship of California, provide an opportunity for candidates to orally express why we should vote for them.
There is an old lawyer joke that “oral promises are not worth the paper they are printed on.”
While oral promises are a necessary part of every campaign, have you ever wondered how much better our lives would be if those previously elected had actually delivered on their oral campaign promises?
In order to be a conscience voter, I have developed a simple method for categorizing campaign messages:
Those not yet in office must include some indication from their past as to why they may be able to deliver on the promises.
Incumbents – besides promises for future performances – must include how they have performed on their previous campaign promises.
Candidates running for an office that they have never held, such as Xavier Becerra running for governor, should include their experiences in other public positions.
However, Xavier Becerra’s campaign debate theme of “Stop Trump” is meaningless except as a method of detracting voters from considering his record, which includes:
U.S. House of Representatives: Elected to Congress in 1992, where he served for 12 terms where he helped craft and pass the Affordable Care Act that, if it was really “affordable,” there would not still be all the efforts to fix its failures to provide “care.”
California Attorney General: Becerra was appointed by then-Governor Jerry Brown in 2017, he was known for frequently challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to control immigration and its associated costs, manage the costs of environmental regulations, and manage the cost of healthcare.
Hmm, do those issues still dominating California campaigns much more than they are in other states indicate a failure of his efforts as California AG?
Biden Administration: Becerra served in President Joe Biden‘s cabinet as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Becerra’s Core Responsibilities & Services as Secretary of HHS:
Healthcare Coverage: Manages public health insurance programs, including Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for low-income individuals.
The Medicaid fraud that occurred during his tenure is just beginning to be uncovered in Minnesota, Maine, and in Los Angeles where 800 hospices were being unjustly compensated for not performing any services or, for that matter, even having a facility.
Where were the audits under Becerra’s term?
Public Health & Safety: Becerra was responsible for overseeing the Federal Drug administration (FDA) to ensure the safety of food, drugs, and medical devices, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to prevent and control infectious diseases.
Was the reason that neither the FDA nor the CDC approved the use of medications like Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine for COVID – despite their being successfully used by various physicians in Florida – because they were championed by the Republican Governor Ron DeSantis?
Medical Research: Funds groundbreaking biomedical and public health research primarily through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Becerra did not investigate the involvement of the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci, trying to hide his role in funding the Wuhan Lab that created COVID and his receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies he was responsible for regulating..
Mental Health & Substance Use: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (SAMHSA) is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). SAMHSA leads public health efforts to advance the nation’s behavioral health, reducing the impact of substance abuse, and mental disorders, by providing multi-million dollar block grants to state/local governments, nonprofits and tribes.
Unfortunately the DOGE group uncovered the lack of controlling how the grants were spent.
Conclusion
Whenever a candidate, such as Becerra, fails to campaign on his record in public office the reason is never that it was a successful record.
Why vote for a proven non-performer?
Give another candidate the opportunity to deliver.
The same advice could be given, of course, to voters deciding whether to vote for challenger Spencer Pratt or incumbent Karen Bass in the Los Angeles Mayor’s race.
•••
Paid Advertisement:
Funded by our local conservative Super PAC Analytics805
Community Calendar:
TODAY! TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2026
SBCurrent’s Primary Endorsements Here.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Santa Barbara Current to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.