As Cox, Newsom vie to be governor, biggest topic is housing affordability

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In his big green tour bus, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox rolled down Berkeley’s San Pablo Avenue and met with the owner and employees of Platinum Auto Collision and Paint Monday morning.

The main topic of discussion was housing affordability in the Bay Area.

Many employees, like Dino Romo, are super commuters traveling from the San Joaquin Valley to the Bay Area for work.

If elected, John Cox said on his first day in office he would call a special session to devote 100 percent of attention to California’s housing crisis.

“Streamline regulations, lowering the cost, streamlining approvals so that they can cap it faster. Providing incentives for builders for local communities to do things that would encourage builders to come in and build more,” said Cox.

In previous interview with KTVU, Cox’s opponent democrat Gavin Newsom said this about housing, “The cost of building is very high in California. That's a nice thing to identify as an issue. The question is: what is he specifically proposing to address it? We're proposing focusing on materials, modular housing, pre-fab housing, a novel strategy, all part of our plan and proposal. I have not heard those details, any details whatsoever, except for reducing regulation.”

New polls conducted by Research CO shows Newsom leading by 20 percentage points over Cox. 58 percent of likely voters support Newsom, while 38 percent of likely voters support Cox.

Cox responded to the poll projections, “People in California have a good way of, first of all, rejecting the conventional wisdom and deciding for themselves that they want change.”

Cox’s campaign continued Monday with stops in Fairfield and Sacramento, before heading to San Diego. 

Gavin Newsom’s final get-out-the-vote rally is Monday at 7 p.m. at The Chapel in San Francisco where he’ll be joined by Senator Kamala Harris and Governor Jerry Brown.