Becerra vs. Hilton: What California's Governor's Debate Did (and Didn’t) Change

You saw it, Jeannie?

I sure saw it.

And?

Well, it's certainly made a splash.

Uh, for those who haven't seen it, we're looking at a darkened bedroom.

There are two young women in it.

One of them is kind of, you know, trying to tempt or lure the other one into some private behavior.

The whole atmosphere is very sexualized.

Absolutely.

And it turns out at the end of the ad that that thing that one of the women is trying to convince the other to do is actually fill out her ballot to vote for Steve Hilton, a Republican for governor.

Um, and you know, it's, it's funny, it's cheeky, it's, uh, controversial, and it-

To some people it's funny and cheeky, but it's also creating quite an uproar.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, it's, it's caused quite a conservative uproar amongst, uh, Republicans who say this is sexualizing young women.

This is kind of encouraging sexual activity.

Um, and I think that that's kind of Steve Hilton's style.

He's a marketer by trade, and he's somebody who's trying to grab attention.

And he says that this is his way of getting people who might not have considered voting for a Republican before to really think about it.

That's kind of the message.

It's, it's just try it, is the message of his ads.

Uh, so yeah, we'll, we'll see if it works on, on any of those people.

In fact, that poll we're going to get to found that, and this is according to his camp, 58.8% saying that California's headed in the wrong direction, so why not try something? But trying this ad, Nicole?

I mean, like you said, it, it caused a big stir.

Um, but I think that a lot of that is happening on the right.

Um, the, the Republican backlash has come from, um, M- Michael Gates, who's a Republican running for attorney general, campaigning a lot alongside Steve Hilton, um, Sonya Shaw, um, running for, uh, state-