California is at a breaking point.
The once-Golden State has been pummeled with sky-high taxes, faded dreams of home ownership, soaring crime rates, a crumbling infrastructure, and an absentee governor who is consumed with national ambitions.
As California’s 2026 gubernatorial race draws near, one candidate in particular recently took the lead in the polls: Steve Hilton, a business consultant, restaurateur, and former advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Hilton has garnered national attention for his common-sense approach to revitalizing the Golden State.
Resonating with the state’s battered populace, Hilton has been focusing on working folks, as opposed to Sacramento insiders and coastal elites. And he has zeroed-in on what voters truly care about: Good jobs, affordable homes, safe neighborhoods, and effective schools.
He received an assist with his candidacy from three issues currently in the news: California’s proposed punitive billionaire wealth tax, the state’s Commercial Drivers License scandal, and the recently uncovered corruption and incompetence that has driven away businesses, families, and untold opportunities.
Some info on the state’s proposed 2026 Billionaire Tax Act.
Pushed by unions and primarily cheered on by the democratic socialist senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, the proposed ballot measure would slap a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of any individual whose assets are valued at $1 billion or more and who was residing in California on January 1, 2026.
In anticipation of the passage of the proposed ballot measure, California is already seeing jobs disappear, wealth flee, and its tax base shrink.
Billionaires are hard at work restructuring assets and pondering exit strategies.
Tech giants who, not so incidentally, are largely responsible for building up California’s economy are now packing up in droves.
The proposed ballot measure is being peddled to voters through the use of old fashioned class envy and newfangled propaganda.
Hilton’s reaction to the idea of a billionaire wealth tax? A flat-out “No.”
Instead of confiscatory gimmicks that punish success and hurt everyone within reach, Hilton proposes actual relief: No state income tax on earnings under $100,000, a flat 7.5% rate on anything above the amount, and the protection of Proposition 13 with no new property tax hikes.
Hilton plans to cut state spending back to pre-pandemic levels, which would end the 50% explosion that occurred in bureaucracy. This is the same bureaucracy that spent $24 billion on homelessness with zero results, wasted $30 billion on high-speed rail that failed to materialize, and engaged in endless giveaways to unions.
Hilton’s pro-growth policies will keep talent and capital in California and put a damper on exits to Texas, Florida, and other more inviting alternatives.
Regarding the Commercial Drivers License (CDL) scandal, here are some notes on the textbook case of Sacramento prioritizing politics over public safety.
Federal audits have revealed that California’s DMV illegally issued more than 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs to foreign drivers, whose legal status did not match their license expiration dates.
These were no minor oversights. The state government put unqualified, oftentimes unvetted drivers in the front seats of 18-wheelers and school buses. The fallout? Deadly crashes, including tragedies in and outside of California.
When the Trump administration’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy demanded fixes, California officials dragged their feet. This cost the state $160 million in withheld federal highway funds.
It was not mere incompetence on their part. It was an arrogant insistence on a leftist political agenda. Rules were bent in favor of illegal immigrant drivers, who in many cases were insufficiently screened and lacking in proper instruction, which seriously jeopardized public safety.
Hilton’s solution is to enforce California law, revoke illegally issued licenses, and place valid and competent workers behind the commercial wheel.
If elected governor, Hilton is intent on restoring accountability at the DMV, prioritizing legal workers, and ensuring that roads and highways are kept safe.
After eight years of unchecked one-party Democrat rule, the median price of a home is about $1 million, arrest rates have plummeted, violent crime has risen precipitously, reading and math scores of public school students have dropped, the state’s budget has experienced record deficits,
the cost of living has spiked, the population has declined, and tent cities have continued to line the streets, despite billions having been spent on homelessness.
Hilton additionally plans to enforce laws against shoplifting and open drug markets, empower parents with school choice and charter options, cap hidden housing fees, slash anti-housing regulations so that the American Dream can once again be realized, and deliver abundant energy and water minus the routine blackouts.
His persona is appealing, an outsider with executive experience who is not just another career politician.
Can he end the one-party stranglehold and restore luster to the once-Golden State?
Anything is possible here on the Left Coast.
James Hirsen 