Steve Hilton, California gov candidate, launches tip line to expose fraud after $1 billion Minnesota debacle
Steve Hilton, the Republican hopeful who wants to replace Gavin Newsom as California governor, has just set up an online tip line. In it, anyone who thinks California’s government programs are misused can report fraud or abuse.
Hilton says the line was inspired by a scandal that broke in Minnesota, where federal investigators allege that a large‑scale scheme stole about $1 billion from pandemic‑era social‑services agencies. He believes the problems in California could be even worse—“1,000 times worse,” he told The Post—because the state has been run by one party for many years, according to his “very strongly held assumption.”
In late 2022 Minnesota attorneys general pushed charges against dozens of people who allegedly created fake companies to bill state agencies for millions of dollars in bogus assistance. A New York Times investigation in late November found that the fraud was largely concentrated in the state’s Somali community, and the newspapers noted that officials had doubted some invoices as early as 2020. Federal and local officials later drowned out doubts with threats of lawsuits and negative press. On Saturday, an X account claiming to represent 480 Minnesota state stewards blasted Gov. Tim Walz for “presiding over the fraud” and accused the administration of punishing whistleblowers.
The new California tip line, launched Friday, urges state employees to call in alleged waste, fraud and abuse. Hilton plans to circulate the line’s number in publications that Sacramento staff read and has pledged a “full public audit of California’s major programs” if he becomes governor.
Hilton argues that California’s “aggressive one‑party establishment,” coupled with a huge Latino immigrant population, has created “massive incentives for fraud and waste in the system growing every year.”
The race for governor is crowded. Alongside Hilton, other candidates who have announced plans include Rep. Eric Swalwell of the East Bay, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Rep. Katie Porter of Orange County, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, and former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
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