Michael Tubbs, who in 2016 became Stockton’s youngest-ever and first Black mayor amid documentaries and celebrity acclaim, and who introduced new ideas, but who lost his reelection bid in a surprising upset, today announced his candidacy for Lt. Governor of California.
Tubbs, 33, who lives in Los Angeles, is currently serving as a special adviser for economic mobility and opportunity for Gov. Gavin Newsom. We talked by phone.
“I’m excited about this,” Tubbs said. “Being an elected official in Stockton has illustrated to me what’s possible, and what needs to be done. My time post-Stockton has illustrated to me the importance of having good leadership. I’m excited about drawing on those lessons in a statewide capacity.”
Tubbs said there’s a gap between what California thinks it is and what it really is—truer words were never spoken—and that progress on housing, income inequality, social mobility and other issues can reduce bad populism and disaffection from government.
“I think that’s part of the reason I’m running for lieutenant governor,” Tubbs said. “I think California needs leaders who are uncomfortable with the status quo. Who are not afraid to try new things and to bring new people on board. That’s the only way things change.”
Tubbs tried new things in Stockton. His most famous experiment was a pilot program for universal basic income. The nonprofit Economic Security Project chipped money to give 125 low-income Stocktonians $500 a month, no strings attached.
Researchers found recipients spent most on basic needs, including groceries, utilities, and auto costs, with less than 1% going toward alcohol and tobacco. Instead of working less, many people used the breathing space to find better employment.
Skeptics say people didn’t quit working because they knew the pilot lasted only two years; they would quit and live off the handout if it were permanent. That’s an ongoing debate.
But Tubbs took the debate mainstream. According to Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, which Tubbs founded, 150-plus mayors and 50 county officials are running guaranteed income pilots. Cambridge, Massachusetts, has launched a UBI variant, using general fund dollars to give low-income single mothers guaranteed income for several years.
The point is not only that Tubbs tested a solution to Stockton’s dire poverty problem but how he reconceived the mayor’s role. Until Tubbs, mayors thought and acted locally, even provincially. Tubbs leveraged state and national connections. In doing so, he transcended the strictures of council-manager government in which the mayor has little more statutory power than other council members.
And he got pilloried for it. His term coincided with the near-death of The Stockton Record newspaper, the retrenchment of TV stations, and the rise of the 209 Times disinformation site. The 209 Times founder, a bitter also-ran, conducted a nonstop smear campaign against Tubbs.
Instead of reporting that Tubbs’ forays outside the city often resulted in benefits to Stockton, the 209 Times pushed the interpretation that Tubbs was looking past the mayor’s job. His eye was on higher office. He was in it for himself.
Not so, said Tubbs. “The reason why Stockton is part of the (California) Big City Mayors coalition was that I was not sitting around the office all day. I was meeting with mayors up and down the state.”
And lobbying his friend Gov. Gavin Newsom to admit Stockton into the coalition. Joining California Big City Mayors is one of Tubbs’ most consequential legacies. It has brought tens of millions of dollars for low-income housing, youth programs and jobs.
Tubbs’ relationship with Newsom also advanced Stockton’s crucial campaign to land a California State University. He secured $2 million in State money for a feasibility study of a CSU, Stockton. After Tubbs’ defeat, a councilwoman in Chula Vista, which is also vying for a CSU, opined that Stockton had fallen out of the poll position.
Despite the disinformation, Tubbs did do much locally. He built institutions: the Reinvent Stockton Foundation, Stockton Scholars, Reinvent South Stockton Coalition, Stockton Service Corps, all still going strong.
“No one who’s … looking national is going to take the time to create local intuitions that are still there,” Tubbs said.
He admitted his response to the 209 Times was inadequate.
Given a do-over, “I would have had a more sophisticated social media response presence,” he said. “To respond to falsehoods in real time. ‘The Lie of the Week’ sort of thing (Note to self: excellent idea for Stocktonia). I think in the absence of that, the lies really took hold.”
The 209 Times is a lightning rod for Stockton’s political dysfunction, but the problem goes deeper than that. Stockton has a culture of takedown politics.
When a truly talented leader gains office, the rare competent official who can realize some of the city’s potential, they immediately come under fire from the nihilists, wannabes, and low-information populists soured by disinformation. They did it to Tubbs who was idealistic (or perhaps hubristic) enough to believe excellence is its own defense. They’re trying to do it to City Manager Harry Black.
The best one can do is to support the high achievers as they try to better the lives of the self-defeating masses that believe the worst of the best and the best of the worst.
As for the 209 Times, it won’t admit that one-term Mayor Kevin Lincoln—a big, fat, nothingburger it supported over Tubbs who is now running for U.S. Congress—is the one looking past Stockton and making campaign trips outside the city.
At this year’s State of the City Address, Lincoln took credit for securing California Big City Mayor money, by the way. Neither he nor Stockton would be at the table were it not for Tubbs.
Tubbs also acknowledges bungling the Swenson Golf Course controversy. The city manager’s office proposed building housing on Swenson, a money losing golf course. The NIMBYs all blamed Tubbs.
Given another chance, “I probably would save Swenson until term two. I still think it was the right thing to do,” Tubbs said. “I should not have allowed the city manager to agendize it until the week before I got married. I think—just the timing—it wasn’t urgent.”
“Post-Stockton,” as Tubbs calls it, the former mayor was appointed by the governor as special adviser for economic mobility and opportunity. Tubbs led the End Poverty in California (EPIC) campaign and embarked on a statewide listening tour in 2022 “to hear what is top of mind for people.”
He visited around 22 counties. A report he delivered to the governor’s office resulted in several statewide policy innovations: the Californians for All Youth Jobs Corps summer jobs program, The California Kids Investment and Development Savings Account (CalKIDS) college savings accounts.
Tubbs also worked with California State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) who crafted The Hope, Opportunity, Perseverance, and Empowerment (HOPE) for Children Act, which paves the way for expansion of child trust accounts, or baby bonds, for California children living in poverty.
He also wrote a 2021 memoir, “The Deeper the Roots” and expanded his family to three children.
As a state official, Tubbs said he would support easing the housing crisis by building more housing, even if that means reforming the California Environmental Quality Act, a sacred cow to enviros.
He also supports revising the provision in the state constitution that allows communities to block construction of government housing.
Characteristically, and perhaps controversially, he supports exploring reparations to Black Californians denied wealth by racist policies—with emphasis on exploring, as the state did in a 700-page report.
“Guaranteed income … I didn’t say ‘Let’s do it,’ I said ‘Let’s test it’.” That said, “We’re taught growing up that if you harm somebody you should repair it.”
The only time Tubbs stammered on his state positions was when asked about the Delta Tunnel. Suddenly he seemed mindful of the powerful interests outside the Delta region one must cultivate to win state office.
“Even if it’s an imperfect solution,” he finally said, “there has to be a solution that respects the integrity and the needs of the Delta region while respecting the needs of the rest of the state.”
Tubbs was no perfect mayor. At City Council meetings, he offended people by looking at his texts while citizens were speaking during the public comment period. I got calls from voters that his office did not return calls or that his people were aloof. And he sometimes seemed enamored by his celebrity.
But he—to use his word— “reinvented” the mayor’s office, and I’ve little doubt he’d do the same thing as lieutenant governor. Infusing it with fresh ideas and sympathy for the disadvantaged, including the state’s impoverished cities.
“The San Joaquin Valley—the Stocktons, the Fresnos, the Merceds—this is where the future of the state lies,” Tubbs said. “If we don’t have leaders at the table that see, care, or even understand those communities, they won’t have their needs addressed.”
He added, “Stockton will always be near and dear to my heart. Stockton will always have an advocate at the table as long as I’m there.”
Michael Fitzgerald’s column runs on Wednesdays. On Twitter and Instagram as Stocktonopolis. Email:mfitzgeraldstockton@gmail.com
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What I find interesting is that public response to his running has been relatively positive. As the “209 Times Crew” is losing their collective minds and reposting previous hit pieces, their followers have been pretty silent. This is a state wide election. Outside of the Stockton/Tracy area, their lies and misinformation is meaningless.
I’m glad to see Michael Tubbs running for Lt. Governor. I seen the bold ideas he had for Stockton and was impressed by what he was trying to accomplish. I do hope he does eventually run for Governor in the future. He does have top leadership qualities.