Ex-UK political aide Steve Hilton pledges 'common sense' overhaul if elected California governor

But he said he opposed California's "sanctuary state" policies, which limit co-operation with federal enforcement on Immigration law.As governor, he said he would not obstruct federal Immigration authorities, instead favouring a return to what he characterised as a more co-operative approach seen during the Obama administration.Pressed on civil liberties concerns - including cases where people without criminal records have been detained - Hilton argued such situations would be avoided through better co-ordination between state and federal authorities.Meanwhile, his Democrat opponent Xavier Becerra, a former cabinet secretary under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden, has framed himself as a candidate fighting for the California dream who answers to the state's residents, not Washington. Becerra has said that Hilton would hand the state over to US President Donald Trump and questioned whether Hilton could be trusted to safeguard the Golden State against claims of Voter fraud by the Trump."Californians didn't build the greatest state in the nation to hand it over to a Trump errand boy dead-set on throwing our progress into reverse," Jonathan Underland, a spokesperson for the Becerra campaign, told the BBC. "Voters know Steve Hilton means higher prices, rights stripped away, and an all-out attack on our values — and they don't want anything to do with it."Hilton's path to the final stage of the race has already surprised many observers.