Michael Gates touts tough-on-crime platform in bid for state attorney general

Michael Gates, the long-time former Huntington Beach city attorney, has entered the race for California’s attorney general with a tough-on-crime platform, vowing to enact stronger protections for police, restore local control to city governments and tackle homelessness with “not excuses,” but enforcement.

Gates officially declared his candidacy on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at the Huntington Beach Pier, in front of more than 100 supporters and city leaders. The announcement sets up a potential showdown between Gates and Attorney General Rob Bonta, who shared Sunday that he would seek reelection instead of running for governor.

“Sacramento elites keep scheming for ways to raise our taxes while leaving our streets unsafe for our families and our businesses,” Gates told the crowd, which chanted his name and hoisted large signs reading “Safe Families” and “Safe Communities.”

“When I am your attorney general,” Gates said, “it’ll be my charge, my responsibility to protect our families and keep our communities safe.”

Citing a recent report from the California State Auditor that said several state agencies had “wasted, misused or failed to report” more than $5 million in taxpayer money, he called the investigation a “scathing indictment of our leadership in Sacramento,” Gates said.

Gates, a Republican, also excoriated Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom for high taxes, the cost of living and crime rates in the state.

In an interview after the campaign kickoff, Gates said he had planned to run for Huntington Beach city attorney — he left the office early last year to join the Justice Department under the Trump administration — but decided to pursue the state’s top law enforcement role after seeing Republican Steve Hilton’s polling numbers in the gubernatorial race, as well as Bonta’s consideration of the gubernatorial contest.

Some polls have skewed somewhat favorably for Hilton in the governor’s race, where a solid frontrunner has yet to emerge. Like in the attorney general’s race, the top two vote-getters in the June primary will move on to the general election.

“With Bonta waffling, and thinking about running in the governor’s race, that accelerated my thought process,” Gates said. “We’re going to make this a good, very, very competitive race.”

Should he be elected attorney general, Gates said he would “fully enforce” and fund Prop. 36, a tough-on-crime measure that increased penalties for nonviolent theft and drug crimes; investigate and prosecute fraud and corruption by elected leaders; fund legal defense for local police; and address homelessness by enforcing anti-loitering and anti-camping laws.

On social issues, Gates said he would protect parental rights in libraries and on school boards, as well as ensure that sports and education systems are in “full compliance” with Title IX, the 1972 anti-sex discrimination law that has become a flashpoint in discussions about transgender athletes’ right to compete on women’s sports teams.

Gates also pledged to support the creation of more city-level criminal prosecution programs like the one he established in Huntington Beach in 2017, which he said led to an 11% reduction in the crime rate in the city’s downtown area.

“The real scheme Californians should be concerned about is the one that unfolded right in Huntington Beach, where obstructionist politicians wasted millions in taxpayer dollars defending policies to keep housing supply low and the cost of a home sky-high,” Jonathan Underland, spokesperson for Bonta’s reelection campaign, said. “Time and time again, Attorney General Rob Bonta has stood up for the residents of Huntington Beach in court — racking up victories against these bad actors to bring the cost of living down, keep people safe by protecting critical public safety funding, and defending businesses of all sizes by challenging unlawful, costly tariffs in court.”

Huntington Beach Mayor Casey McKeon, who attended the event with the rest of the City Council, said Gates will be a good champion.

“We need someone with strong backbone, American steel and a spine like Michael Gates: a true fighter, someone that’s not going to back down to the pressure of Sacramento,” McKeon said.

Gabriella Menendez, who said she is an immigrant from Mexico and a long-time Huntington Beach resident, said Bonta’s office has unfairly targeted Huntington Beach by trying to control how the city chooses to address its own issues.

“Sacramento just wants our money and they want to tell us how to live,” Menendez said. “We just want to live in peace and justice and equality.”

Gates was elected city attorney in Huntington Beach in 2014 and held the job until he accepted the role of deputy assistant U.S. attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which took him to Washington, D.C.

But in November, the Department of Justice fired Gates from that position “for cause,” according to a federal employment document obtained by the Register through a records request. Gates insisted that he left of his own accord to be with his family in Huntington Beach. On Nov. 21, the DOJ said in a letter to Gates that it “rescinds and will remove from your personnel record any previous reference to your termination” and would accept his voluntary resignation.

On Wednesday, Gates noted the many legal battles he waged for the city during his tenure as city attorney — many of which he said revolved around maintaining local control over municipal issues, such as fights over the state’s housing mandate, the city’s voter ID law and a $25 million settlement that Gates secured in 2023 for a former redevelopment loan.

Huntington Beach Councilmember Pat Burns said Gates will continue “fighting for the people” from the state’s capital, the same way he has for the city for so many years.

“He’s going to fight for local control because individual cities have got to run their own cities,” Burns said. “Sacramento cannot run cities from Sacramento.”