California Republican Gubernatorial Candidate John Cox discusses housing, taxes during Bay Area visit

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- On Nov. 6, California will have a new governor. It will either be the Democratic candidate Gavin Newsom or his Republican contender, John Cox.

Cox hasn't spent too much time in the Bay Area. But on Tuesday he was in San Francisco speaking to the Bay Area Council, where it was impossible for him to sidestep the Brett Kavanaugh controversy during his visit.

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"I think the president has a prerogative to appoint who he wants to," said Cox. "And I think it's sad that this is all coming out like this, it should have happened before."

Other than that, the 63-year-old says he's not focused on it one iota. Instead, Cox says he has his eye on the problems in California.

For starters, the former Chicago businessman and real estate investor says he wants to lower taxes, which are hurting the working class the most.

"You can't have an economy with a think layer at the top and everybody else really having a tough go of it," explained Cox.

He admits his biggest challenge will be to make California more affordable in the area of housing -- one of the reasons people are moving out of the state. It's an issue that both Cox and Newsom agree on.

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"The folks running for governor understand there is a lot of frustration among the population and that people are looking for different approaches to solve these problems of extremely high costs of housing that's beyond anybody's reach," said Bay Area Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman, who was moderating the event.

Both Newsom and Cox have also talked about making changes to the state pension plans which are badly underfunded.

"They've been telling that they've been putting money away and that they are going to get pensions and they have not been putting nowhere near enough money," said Cox, who says he will make it one of his priorities if elected.

One the issue of immigration, Cox was against the construction of a border wall but changed his mind, after he was endorsed by President Donald Trump last May.

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