Xavier Becerra Says He Will Fight for California. Who Did He Fight for as AG?

As California’s attorney general during the first Trump presidency, Xavier Becerra made headlines as a hero of the Democratic resistance, suing the Trump administration more than 120 times to defend key progressive policies, including the Affordable Care Act, the environment and immigrant and workers rights.

But as Becerra rises to the top of the Democratic field for governor, critics say that on some issues closer to home, he sided with powerful interest groups, including law enforcement and fossil fuel companies — and that on housing, he was as likely to use his power as attorney general to block development as to push for more.

As attorney general, Becerra declined to investigate oil companies accused of misleading investors and the public on climate change. And perhaps most notably, Becerra’s office went to court to fight against the release of police misconduct records following California’s passage of a landmark transparency law — and once threatened journalists with criminal charges for possessing records his office had sent them.

“Xavier Becerra just seems to reflexively have been against any of these measures to improve transparency into police records,” said Jason Paladino, one of the reporters threatened by Becerra’s office. “When you look at the fact that one of his major backers throughout his campaigns has been the police unions, it’s hard to not make that connection that he’s got this powerful constituency in the state, which he feels somewhat beholden to.”

It’s a characterization that Becerra and his supporters reject. Jonathan Underland, a spokesperson for his campaign, said Becerra has “always made decisions based on protecting Californians and defending the law, not on politics or who supported his campaigns.”

Those close to Becerra when he was attorney general paint a picture of a hardworking, principled leader who came into office prepared to push back on President Donald Trump and protect Californians — and whose views on issues including the environment and housing were shaped by his upbringing as the son of working-class immigrants.

“Not everyone was aggressive in those early days [of Trump],” said Amanda Renteria, who served as Becerra’s chief operating officer for his first year as attorney general. “He really was like, nope, we know what’s coming at us and we’re gonna be ready … from the first conversation I had, he had a real insight about what it meant to have a Trump administration and be in the state of California.”

Becerra surged in the polls after the exit of former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who suspended his campaign in April amid sexual assault allegations he has denied.

A complicated record in California

The attorney general’s office has launched three California governors and is perhaps the position in state government most analogous to the top job: attorneys general confront many of the same policy challenges a governor faces, from housing and homelessness to public safety and the environment, and they oversee a staff of more than 5,000.

The record Becerra built in Sacramento, particularly on three issues where California’s next governor will face immediate tests — police accountability; climate and the oil industry; and housing — offers the clearest window into how he might actually govern, and whose interests he would protect.

Yet much of the scrutiny of Becerra’s record since he surged in the crowded field has centered on his time leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden.

As California continues to face hostility from a second Trump administration, those federal fights he took on as attorney general are newly relevant — and Becerra has framed himself as the best person to wage them. But on other issues, critics say Becerra struck a cautious tone and was unwilling to buck the status quo.

That includes environmentalists’ critiques of how he handled the fossil fuel industry.

“His time as attorney general was a story of what he didn’t do,” said Kassie Siegel, climate political director at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. “He did sue the Trump administration 120 times, but he didn’t do the things his successor did that were needed and that he was called on to do.”

Melanie Fontes Rainer spent nine years working for Becerra, first in the attorney general’s office and then when he was the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Fontes Rainer, who led a healthcare unit as an assistant attorney general, said Becerra had the foresight when he was appointed attorney general to create that new unit, which focused exclusively on healthcare policy and was able to lead California’s fight against Trump’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act.

“At that point, nobody had sued the president in this manner and had necessarily taken on this national role in protecting, whether it was national civil rights or national healthcare,” she said.

The expertise in that healthcare unit allowed California to be a leader in other areas, Fontes Rainer said, such as successful actions against companies involved in the opioid crisis. She said Becerra was eager to take on important, progressive issues: winning on behalf of DACA recipients at the U.S. Supreme Court; suing Sutter Health on behalf of patients and workers; protecting abortion and LGBTQ rights.

“He expects you to work your ass off, because he works his ass off,” she said, adding that Becerra is willing to take on powerful interests if the moment calls for it. “He is never gonna be the leader who is all about himself.”

Critics, though, say there were clearly some groups that Becerra didn’t want to challenge.

A fight over transparency

Becerra received heat for several incidents involving law enforcement, including his refusal to investigate a police shooting in Vallejo — a case his successor later pursued — and his failure to probe a jailhouse informant scandal in Orange County that led to a federal investigation and settlement.

But it was his legal battle against Senate Bill 1421 that drew the sharpest criticism from within his own party. The state law, passed in 2018 after years of advocacy by civil liberties groups and Democratic lawmakers, made public for the first time the disciplinary records of police officers accused of sexual assault, use of force and other serious misconduct.

After the law took effect, the attorney general’s office didn’t just refuse to release its own records — questioning whether the law applied to records created before the law’s passage — it also sent guidance to law enforcement agencies that critics say gave police departments across California cover to refuse compliance, too.

In recent interviews, Becerra has continued to defend how he handled the case, saying he didn’t fight for secrecy but rather clarity to ensure his office was following the law. But even after an appeals court ruled against him, his office continued to resist, and the lawsuits dragged on for six years.

“It was just an extreme position to take,” said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, which successfully sued Becerra and other police agencies, along with media organizations including KQED. “That office really fought tooth and nail to keep many of the records under lock and key.”

Becerra’s office shocked legal experts again when it sent a letter to two journalists at UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program ordering them to destroy a list of 12,000 current and former police officers and applicants who had been convicted of crimes.

The list was provided to the reporters by Becerra’s own office and another state agency in response to a public records request. In the letter, the attorney general argued that even possessing the records was a criminal act.

“It’s either clear ignorance of a core First Amendment principle, or it’s willful disregard of it. Neither of those, I think reflect very well,” Snyder said.

The attorney general never made good on his threats, even after the reporters published their story.

But Paladino, one of those reporters, said the letter was concerning for numerous reasons: He argued it showed a hostility toward a free press, a misunderstanding of basic First Amendment law, and a willingness to kowtow to law enforcement groups.

“The legal letter was just completely wrong in its interpretation of the law. And it had real implications for press freedom,” he said. “He was given a bunch of chances to sort of be like, oh, in hindsight, we shouldn’t have sent that letter. And at every turn, he has doubled down.”

In a recent interview with the Sacramento Bee, Becerra again insisted that he was following the law.

“I simply repeated what the law says. If you are in possession of information that is confidential and you disclose and you make that information public, or you disclose it, you are subject to action for violation of privacy laws,” Becerra said.

Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC), one of the state’s top law enforcement lobbying groups, rejected the notion that Becerra took positions in order to score political points with police groups. On the records fight, Marvel said, Becerra simply wanted to make sure the law was on his side before releasing information that could harm an officer’s career.

“Once the cat’s out of the bag, whether the information is accurate or not, it’s out of the bag,” said Marvel, whose group represents more than 85,000 rank-and-file police officers in the state.

PORAC endorsed two of Becerra’s opponents in the governor’s race, Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and Democratic former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. But Marvel said he believes law enforcement would have a positive relationship with a Becerra as governor.

“I wouldn’t say he’s pro-cop, I’d say he’s pro-public safety,” Marvel said. “If ultimately Xavier Becerra becomes governor, I think I absolutely would have an open door.”

Friend or foe of Big Oil?

Becerra touts his environmental work as attorney general, including lawsuits targeting Trump’s moves to neuter greenhouse gas emission regulations, to undermine the Endangered Species Act, to roll back vehicle emission standards and expand offshore oil drilling. He also created an office of environmental justice to protect vulnerable communities.

In the governor’s race, though, he’s been hit by opponents over his ties to oil companies, with billionaire Tom Steyer in particular attacking Becerra for accepting donations from the industry, including Chevron’s $39,200 donation to his gubernatorial campaign, the maximum allowed by law. In response, Underland pushed back on Steyer, who invested in fossil fuel companies decades ago as a hedge fund manager.

“Xavier Becerra spent his time as attorney general actually fighting the fossil fuel companies in court — and winning. Unlike Tom Steyer, Becerra didn’t write them checks. He took them to court and won,” Underland said.

But the questions about Becerra’s relationship with oil companies are unlikely to wane. Last week, the oil drilling company California Resources Corporation contributed $500,000 to an independent expenditure committee that is supporting Becerra.

Earlier, as attorney general, Becerra angered environmental activists when he stayed mum on an investigation into ExxonMobil.

Becerra’s predecessor, Kamala Harris, reportedly launched the investigation into whether the company lied to investors about the links between fossil fuels and global warming. Becerra never addressed the investigation when he was attorney general, and did not file suit.

But Becerra’s successor, Attorney General Rob Bonta, did sue ExxonMobil and four other oil companies on similar grounds. That suit alleges that the oil companies have known for decades about the risks of fossil fuels but denied or downplayed those issues, and seeks to make them pay into a fund to help mitigate the effects of climate change in California.

It’s one of three dozen lawsuits like it filed by cities, counties and states in recent years, said Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund.

When he was attorney general, Becerra’s office did support some of those local lawsuits, but Siegel said he should have gone further.

The Center for Biological Diversity gave Becerra a C+ on its environmental scorecard, noting campaign contributions from oil companies and his opposition to a proposed state law that would make fossil fuel companies pay for the effects of climate change.

Siegel also pointed to Becerra’s answer in a recent debate, where he said he would support opening up oil drilling again in Kern County — something he had opposed as attorney general.

“You have to put all the pieces together,” she said. “The environmental consequences of more oil drilling in California would be massive.”

Becerra didn’t shy away from the issue when asked by KQED’s Scott Shafer why he accepted donations from Chevron and whether he would hold big companies like them accountable as governor.

Becerra noted that there were several lawsuits he filed or joined as attorney general against fossil fuel companies. He also talked about how many people companies like Chevron employ.

“Chevron — that’s the problem with politics — they’re not the bad guy,” Becerra said. “Does everybody here drive an electric vehicle? You need Chevron, I need Chevron, my people of the state of California need Chevron.”

But Renteria said voters shouldn’t assume that just because her former boss isn’t writing off big corporations that he won’t fight for the little guy.

“By nature, he’s like this protector,” she said, adding that he has a natural aversion to anyone “bullying or taking advantage” of people, and will do everything he can to fight on their behalf.

Building less, blocking more

But on one of the biggest issues facing the state — the need for more housing — critics say Becerra didn’t show that type of aggression as attorney general, instead seeming more interested in blocking housing developments than helping push market-rate development.

In 2021, for example, he joined two lawsuits to halt developments in San Diego County, saying they were in wildfire zones and didn’t include enough affordable housing.

Earlier, in 2019, Becerra sued Huntington Beach for refusing to add state-mandated low-income housing to its local housing plan, and in 2020, he joined a lawsuit to ensure that cities comply with state affordable housing laws.

Becerra points to those lawsuits as evidence of his commitment to ensuring local governments both built more housing in general and affordable housing in particular — and that they complied with state laws mandating more construction.

On the campaign trail this year, Becerra has stressed the state’s housing shortage as a key driver of affordability and promised to use the governor’s office to eliminate hurdles — including aggressively going after cities and counties that aren’t building enough. He has also pledged to declare a state of emergency around housing and embed his own housing experts in agencies across the state government to help remove obstacles to building.

Laura Foote, executive director of the pro-housing group YIMBY Action, said she gives Becerra credit for appearing more interested in the issue as a candidate than he did as attorney general, a shift that matches the state’s overall political evolution on the issue.

“I think that now there’s sort of a greater recognition that the overall housing shortage is damaging everyone, not just low-income people. He has made that pivot,” she said.

But her group, YIMBY Action, which endorsed Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer in the governor’s race, gave Becerra a “C” grade on housing. It noted that when asked about holding cities accountable as attorney general, “he took the opportunity to brag about using CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act), one of the most potent and abused tools of the anti-housing movement, to block a housing development in San Diego.”

Those lawsuits were successful: After Becerra left the attorney general’s office, Bonta negotiated settlements that led one of the projects to be scrapped entirely; the site, now owned by the state, will be permanently conserved as open space. The other proposed project will move forward under a separate settlement, with thousands of housing units slated for a smaller area than the initial proposal, which will reduce wildfire risk.

In general, Foote said, Becerra seemed to focus almost exclusively on affordable housing as attorney general, like in the Huntington Beach case, which Huntington Beach settled in 2020.

“It was a good case for them to weigh in, but I think it did reveal in that administration a preference to be really focused on subsidized affordable housing and pushing back on explicit discriminatory things as opposed to getting involved in the larger housing supply issue overall,” Foote said.

But she added that Becerra didn’t have as many tools at his disposal as the current attorney general does, and that he’s promised to focus on accountability if he’s elected governor.

“He has already committed to doing a greater degree of enforcement than we have had under the Gavin Newsom administration. … Is it as much improvement as some of the other candidates have committed to? No, but I think he is already promising to do better than we have done over the last eight years,” Foote said.

As Becerra leans into his resume on the campaign trail, his opponents are trying to frame that experience as a liability. His campaign is pushing back.

“The record speaks for itself,” Underland said. “Xavier Becerra took on oil companies, fought cities blocking affordable housing, challenged the Trump administration over environmental rollbacks, and held powerful interests accountable in court.”