Steve Hilton has the ideas, the energy, and the optimism to turn California around. 

That is why The California Post is endorsing him for governor.

Hilton has spent years analyzing California’s challenges and coming up with solutions. 

Years ago, he launched an organization, Golden Together, to push for change.

And today, Hilton is running a campaign on common sense.

For too long, the world’s fourth-largest economy has been governed like a Third World basket case.

One-party rule has been a disaster for California — for 16 years. 

Endless rules. Transgender madness. Unions controlling everything.

And then there’s our finances.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last budget in 2010 was $122 billion. 

Gavin Newsom’s last budget: $349 billion, almost three times higher.

Does our state feel three times better? Cleaner? Happier? No.

Newsom likes to attack Republicans. But when he runs for president, he won’t run on his record.

When Newsom took office, the state counted over 151,000 homeless people.

Seven and-a-half years and billions of dollars later, there are over 187,000 homeless, even after a drop last year.

And the state continues to pour billions into a high-speed rail project that has not laid an inch of track.

California used to be a place people came to chase their dreams. Now, it is a place people leave to start over elsewhere.

Wealthy residents started leaving even before the “billionaire tax” made the ballot.

That is why California needs Steve Hilton — urgently.

He will end taxes for those earning less than $100k per year.

He’ll end the high-speed “train to nowhere.”

He’ll cut the gas tax and end the war on refineries.

It is all part of his effort to achieve “Calaffordia.”

Already, through his “Cal DOGE,” Hilton has found $250 billion in waste and fraud that he can stop.

He will clean up homeless encampments, if cities refuse. 

“I will do it using state law enforcement resources,” Hilton told The California Post.

On housing, Hilton challenges the “green” lobby and its “densification” orthodoxy. 

“Build outwards, not upwards,” he says.

His ideas are so good that Democrats are copying them.

Hilton has also shown mature leadership that contrasts with Newsom’s petulant style.

He says California needs to work with the federal government, not against it — no matter who occupies the Oval Office.

Other candidates for governor are just not up to the job. 

Xavier Becerra mismanaged the Biden administration’s Health and Human Services department.

He forced vaccine mandates on Americans and lost track of tens of thousands of migrant children.

Billionaire Tom Steyer has blown $200 million on a bad impersonation of socialist Bernie Sanders. There is no left-wing idea too radical for him to embrace.

Katie Porter’s habit of losing her temper wasn’t just a one-off. Running a state as complicated and diverse as California needs a steadier hand.

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The same applies to Chad Bianco. He is solid on the issues, but struggles to convince voters he can work across the aisle in Sacramento.

Of all the candidates, Matt Mahan had the strongest resume of success in government. But he has never provided a clear vision of his own. 

The same goes for Antonio Villaraigosa, whose sharp criticism of his own party is refreshing, but has no idea how to move forward.

All of the Democrats embraced free health care for illegal aliens, biological men in women’s sports, and even high-speed rail.

They will not bring the change California needs.

Steve Hilton will — through his common-sense ideas, through his energy, and through his commitment to saving the California dream.

It’s time for change.

It’s time for Steve Hilton.

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