I Have Some Questions for the Democrats Who Want to Run California

Summary of I Have Some Questions for the Democrats Who Want to Run California

by New York Times Opinion

1h 32m•May 12, 2026
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Overview of I Have Some Questions for the Democrats Who Want to Run California

This New York Times Opinion forum, moderated by Ezra Klein in Oakland, brought together the top Democratic candidates for California governor to debate one issue: how to actually solve California’s housing crisis. The conversation centered on why building homes in California is so slow and expensive, how to make housing more affordable without undercutting workers, and how much the state should push back on cities that block development. The candidates largely agreed that California needs to build more, faster — but they differed on the best mix of incentives, enforcement, labor standards, tax reform, and homelessness policy.

Core Themes

1. California’s housing problem is partly a speed problem

A major throughline was the RAND finding that it takes much longer to build housing in California than in comparable states, and that delays drive up costs.

Key ideas repeated across the forum:

  • Permitting and approvals take too long.
  • Local fees and “last-minute” add-ons inflate project costs.
  • State and local bureaucracy creates overlapping delays.
  • More certainty and faster approvals could reduce costs significantly.

2. Construction costs are driven by multiple factors

Candidates pointed to different cost drivers:

  • Labor
  • Materials
  • Financing
  • Fees
  • Land costs
  • Delay and uncertainty

There was broad agreement that California needs to reduce the overall cost stack, not just focus on one piece.

3. The state must decide how hard to push cities

A central political question was whether California should rely on:

  • Carrots: funding, incentives, and infrastructure support
  • Sticks: lawsuits, builder’s remedy, fee caps, and state override powers

Most candidates agreed that local governments often resist housing, but they differed on how aggressively the state should intervene.

Candidate Positions and Main Arguments

Tom Steyer

Steyer argued that California can reduce costs by:

  • Expanding modular / offsite construction
  • Using state purchasing power to create demand for factory-built housing
  • Providing more financing, including a major housing bond
  • Reworking local government incentives by closing a corporate real estate tax loophole

His key point:

  • The state should help create scale, because many modular companies have failed due to lack of orders and stable revenue, not necessarily because the technology is bad.

Xavier Becerra

Becerra emphasized a more traditional Democratic balance:

  • Keep union labor and higher wage standards
  • Use infill development and streamlined approvals
  • Support a $10 billion housing bond
  • Use enforcement against cities that ignore housing law

He also argued:

  • Housing should not be built on the backs of workers who cannot afford to live in the homes they build.
  • Lowering costs requires action on red tape, fees, and financing, not just labor policy.
  • The state should use both incentives and penalties against noncompliant cities.

Katie Porter

Porter focused heavily on the time = money equation:

  • Faster approvals can cut housing costs by 10–20%
  • California should adopt a uniform statewide permit
  • Cities should be forced to set fees up front, with limited late-stage add-ons
  • Smaller multifamily projects should not face the same burdens as massive developments

She also took a strong stand against overreliance on labor requirements:

  • She said she does not support prevailing wage requirements for all residential housing right now, because that would raise costs.
  • She framed her approach as pragmatic: enforce wage violations, but don’t add cost drivers that make projects impossible.

Matt Mahan

As San Jose mayor, Mahan argued from direct experience:

  • San Jose approved thousands of units that never got built because the numbers didn’t work
  • The state should cap local fees
  • Cities should move approvals to ministerial / by-right pathways
  • The state should create stronger accountability when cities miss deadlines

He also said:

  • Litigation is too slow to be the main enforcement tool.
  • California should consider limited redevelopment-style financing so cities can fund infrastructure without loading all costs onto projects.
  • The state should buy older housing stock when possible instead of always subsidizing new construction at very high prices.

Antonio Villaraigosa

Villaraigosa’s pitch was the most aggressively pro-growth:

  • He blamed impact fees, CEQA delays, and anti-housing politics for blocking production
  • He defended temporary rent protections but said long-term affordability requires more supply
  • He strongly opposed the Los Angeles ULA transfer tax
  • He argued California needs a major tax-system fix, including reforming Prop 13

He also stressed:

  • Democrats have become too focused on perfect solutions.
  • California needs an “all of the above” approach: market-rate, workforce, affordable, and homeless housing.
  • The state needs an accountability board to make sure laws actually result in construction.

Housing and Homelessness

Prevention is cheaper than sheltering people after the fact

Porter and Mahan both stressed eviction and homelessness prevention:

  • Direct cash assistance is highly effective
  • Targeting households after a job loss, medical emergency, or income shock can prevent homelessness at much lower cost
  • California’s current system is too fragmented, with too many programs and forms

Mahan said his city’s prevention model had strong results:

  • Over 90% of households receiving short-term help stayed housed
  • Case management plus rental aid helped prevent long-term homelessness

Interim housing got major attention

Steyer and Mahan both supported interim housing, but for somewhat different reasons:

  • It is faster and cheaper than permanent supportive housing
  • It gets people off the street sooner
  • It can be more humane than shelters because it offers privacy, pets, and more dignity

Mahan emphasized that San Jose’s interim housing sites worked when cities paired them with:

  • local preference
  • no-encampment zones nearby
  • community buy-in
  • case management

The debate over coercion and mental health

Becerra argued that:

  • Homelessness is partly a mental health crisis
  • California needs more accountability in service systems
  • People who cannot care for themselves should not be left on the street indefinitely

He pointed to:

  • 988 mental health crisis support
  • stronger intervention when someone repeatedly refuses help despite clear danger

Outcomes matter more than money spent

A major criticism from several candidates was that California has spent billions on homelessness without enough measurable improvement.

Main complaint:

  • Spending alone is not enough
  • Programs need outcomes, not just appropriations
  • Some expensive housing models are wildly inefficient, costing $800,000 to $1 million per unit

State vs. Local Government

This was one of the biggest fault lines in the forum.

What most candidates agreed on

  • Cities often resist housing
  • Local control cannot be absolute if California wants to solve a statewide crisis
  • The state needs stronger accountability mechanisms

Different approaches

  • Becerra: use incentives first, then penalties and lawsuits if necessary
  • Mahan: prefer deadlines, by-right approvals, and state override mechanisms over lawsuits
  • Steyer: make local governments financially whole so housing is not an unfunded mandate
  • Porter: simplify and standardize the system to reduce opportunities for obstruction
  • Villaraigosa: use tough executive leadership and accountability, not just lawmaking

Tax Policy and Prop 13

Villaraigosa and Steyer both tied housing to California’s tax structure:

  • Prop 13 distorts local incentives
  • Cities often prefer commercial development over housing because of revenue structure
  • Local governments need more stable funding if they are expected to support housing growth

Steyer argued the state should raise substantial new revenue to support cities and counties. Villaraigosa said the whole tax system needs reform, not just Prop 13 in isolation.

Final Takeaways

  • California’s housing crisis is fundamentally a systems problem: delay, fees, zoning, financing, and politics all compound each other.
  • There is broad Democratic agreement on the need to build more housing, but serious disagreement about how to do it.
  • The biggest tension is between speed and standards: lowering costs quickly versus protecting labor, environmental review, and local control.
  • Homelessness prevention and interim housing emerged as practical near-term solutions, while permanent supportive housing alone was seen as too slow and expensive.
  • Enforcement matters, but several candidates argued that money, incentives, and simpler rules may work better than lawsuits alone.

Book Recommendations Mentioned at the End

Each candidate closed by naming a book:

  • Tom Steyer: The Hour of the Predator
  • Xavier Becerra: Reign of Gold
  • Katie Porter: Yesteryear
  • Matt Mahan: Why Nothing Works
  • Antonio Villaraigosa: The Shining Future

These choices reflected the forum’s themes: democracy, resilience, frustration with bureaucracy, and the need for practical reform.