www.montereycountynow.com MAY 7-13, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 21 continues through Election Day. You can return your ballot by mail, no postage required, through June 2. For a full list of polling locations and more on how to vote, visit montereycountyelections.us. Voting is easy and fast—and it matters. The Editorial Board comprises Weekly Founder & CEO Bradley Zeve, Publisher Erik Cushman and Editor Sara Rubin. The judgments of our editorial board are made independently of the Weekly’s news team. STATE Tom Steyer for Governor California’s economy is the fourth largest in the world ($4.25 trillion), larger than Japan’s or the United Kingdom’s. Texas and New York combined barely edge us out. There are 19 million people employed here. Our state government employs 552,000 people, compared to 458,000 in Texas, a state that brags about lean government while running nearly the same headcount with 9 million fewer residents. We’re monstrous. Yes, our state is iconoclastic. We’ve banned fracking and plastic straws. Our homeless problem is notorious. Our bullet train is a dud. We probably invented double oat milk cappuccinos. Meanwhile we lead in tech and the fight against climate change, we subsidize the rest of the country—in fiscal year 2024-25 sending $275 billion more to Washington than we got back—and we sit at the center of the AI investment boom, the single most consequential technological transformation of our lifetimes. And we are about to elect a new governor with Gavin Newsom terming out. There are 61 candidates listed in your ballot, although many have dropped their campaigns. (This wildly unwieldy number comes from the ease of getting on the ballot in California, for a filing fee of $4,370 or 7,000 signatures. The result is some wacky candidates.) With a government this big, inefficiency is to be expected. Our annual budget is over $300 billion, 3,245 registered lobbyists are pushing their special interests, public unions have gamed the retirement system. This is not a job you hand to a Fox TV host. Governing California requires someone willing to take on entrenched interests at this critical moment—to lead, not manage—when Washington has turned hostile and the national Democratic Party offers little to inspire confidence. That person is Tom Steyer. Steyer is the clearest anti-Trump voice in this race, and he means it. While others are also running against Trump, Steyer spent years and hundreds of millions of his own money, mostly through philanthropy, building an actual infrastructure of resistance. He’s not hypothesizing—he put his money where his mouth is. What seals it is who’s spending money to stop him. PG&E pumped nearly $10 million into an anti-Steyer PAC, which funneled it into a second PAC backed by the real estate and the construction industry. Two layers of corporate money, one goal: keeping Steyer out of the governor’s office. Their ads attack him for proposing commercial landlords pay property taxes on what their properties are actually worth today. Oil companies, facing his proposed windfall profits tax and his track record to fight against climate change, are part of the same anti-Steyer coalition. These are the industries that are committed to being the masters of Sacramento. When they line up against you, you’re clearly doing something right. Much of the work Katie Porter did in Congress was potent. In committees, she led a relentless interrogation of corporate malfeasance. She’d be a strong voice for working Californians and for women. But sharp questioning isn’t the same as results, and her pitbull style has undermined her ability to build the coalitions that governing actually requires. Xavier Becerra is decent, experienced and now carries a number of influential endorsements, including that of Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. Before he was appointed by former president Joe Biden to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Becerra was California’s Attorney General and was not shy about suing the first Trump adminTom Steyer was one of six leading Democratic candidates for governor who participated in a debate in Monterey in March, hosted by the Democratic Women of Monterey County. "I believe we’re going to have a fight between the oligarchs and working people who have been screwed for 45 years. That’s what I am down for," he said. Burcu Mousa previously worked in the County Auditor/Controller's Office and wants to return in the top elected role. "I believe the office is on the wrong track, and I have the experience, temperament and leadership style to help turn it around," she says. DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS
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