The Republican Running for Governor Will Take Audience Questions at 3 p.m. at a Fair Oaks Avenue Building With a Storied Place in California Car-Design History
Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is scheduled to hold a public “Califordable Town Hall” in South Pasadena at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 20, bringing his statewide campaign to a single block of Fair Oaks Avenue with an unusual backstory. The event is set for KRB Custom Garages at 1517 Fair Oaks Ave., directly across from South Pasadena Middle School.
The stop is one of more than 25 on Hilton’s “Califordable Town Hall Tour,” a series the campaign launched in January in Redwood City and has carried to cities including Santa Barbara, Thousand Oaks, Santa Ana, Fullerton and West Los Angeles. The campaign’s framing centers on the cost of living, what Hilton calls making California “Califordable,” with an emphasis on housing, health care, energy and gas prices.
Saturday’s town hall appears to be without modern precedent in South Pasadena
A Research dive into available records by The South Pasadenan found no documented instance of a candidate for California governor staging an open, public campaign event within the city — not in the current contest, and not in the high-profile races that came before it.
Statewide candidates have long gravitated to larger stages in Los Angeles and to neighboring Pasadena; in this cycle alone, several of the leading Democratic candidates — among them Xavier Becerra, who finished first in the June primary and is now Hilton’s opponent in the November runoff — appeared at a climate forum in Pasadena in late January, and the broader field, including Hilton, met for a televised debate at East Los Angeles College in May, while South Pasadena itself went unvisited.
The city’s political-event history follows the same pattern: Its public forums and town halls have featured state legislators, including former state Sen. Anthony Portantino, along with a long roster of City Council and Assembly candidates, but no one seeking the governorship.
Because complete records for a city of South Pasadena’s size are not available for every era, this cannot be stated as an absolute first in the community’s long history — but no verifiable instance of it has surfaced in modern memory, making Steve Hilton’s visit, by all available evidence, the first of its kind in generations.
What Residents Can Expect
By the campaign’s own description, this is a town hall built around audience participation, not a press-only availability. The format pairs opening remarks from Hilton with an extended question-and-answer session, and the campaign has said most of each event is reserved for questions from the audience. At the Santa Barbara stop earlier this year, the format drew a crowd of more than 140 who were able to question the candidate and take photos with him afterward. In short, attendees can expect the opportunity to put questions to Hilton directly. This is distinct from the separate news conferences Hilton has held during the campaign, including one in June on the pace of California’s ballot counting.
Residents who wish to attend or ask a question should confirm details and any RSVP requirements through the campaign, as the event is a private campaign function rather than a City of South Pasadena event.
Where the Race Stands
Hilton is on the November ballot. In the June 2 top-two primary, he finished second behind Democrat Xavier Becerra, and the two advanced to the November 3 general election to succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. Early returns showed the pair essentially tied, each with roughly a quarter of the statewide vote and well ahead of the rest of a crowded field that included climate investor Tom Steyer and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Hilton is the only Republican in the November runoff. A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times has shown Becerra leading Hilton among registered voters, 52 percent to 31 percent.
Hilton, born in Britain to Hungarian parents who fled communism, is a former Fox News host and onetime chief strategist to British Prime Minister David Cameron who became a U.S. citizen in 2021. Endorsed by President Donald Trump and by U.S. Reps. Kevin Kiley and Tom McClintock, he has named former Democratic state senator Gloria Romero as his running mate and describes his effort as nonpartisan. His platform calls for cutting taxes and regulations, lowering housing and energy costs, expanding oil production, and ending full Medi-Cal coverage for immigrants in the country illegally, redirecting the savings toward health care for citizens and legal residents. Becerra, his opponent, is a former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary who served as California attorney general from 2017 to 2021 and represented parts of Los Angeles in Congress for 24 years.
A Venue With a Past
The choice of location is its own small story. The building at 1517 Fair Oaks is a mid-century modern structure designed by the noted Southern California firm Smith & Williams, the partnership of Whitney Smith and Wayne Williams known for flat roofs, low profiles and walls of glass. The South Pasadenan profiled the building in 2019 as the home and private museum of James R. Powers, the Ford Motor Company designer credited with the original concept for the sleek 1961 Thunderbird. Powers filled the space with nearly 40 classic cars and more than 3,000 scale models, living in an apartment above the garage that housed the collection. He died in May 2023 at age 89, remembered by fellow collectors as among the last of the great Ford designers of the 1950s and 1960s. The address is now associated with the local firm KRB, which operates a construction and flood-and-fire restoration business there and under which the campaign has listed the venue as KRB Custom Garages.
The campaign has not publicly explained why it selected this particular building. What is documented is the site’s history: a piece of California car-design heritage now serving as the backdrop for a candidate who has made the “California dream” a centerpiece of his pitch.
City Hall’s Distance
South Pasadena Mayor Sheila Rossi, who was sworn in to the city’s rotating mayoralty for 2026 and represents District 2, did not receive an invitation to Saturday’s event, and her office did not request one, according to The South Pasadenan. The absence is not unusual for a partisan campaign stop, which carries no expectation of official municipal participation, but it underscores that the town hall is Hilton’s event rather than a city-sponsored forum.
The Califordable Town Hall is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday at 1517 Fair Oaks Ave. The South Pasadenan will report on the event as warranted.
About the venue Location on Fair Oaks Street in South Pasadena:
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