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14 California lawmakers are posting not-so-secret instructions on how to attack their opponents

November 2, 2026 By Kate Wolffe and Nadia Lathan 2 Comments

Some candidates for the California Legislature are increasingly using a controversial tactic that experts and watchdog organizations say appears to flout the state’s campaign finance laws.

A CalMatters’ survey of legislative race websites found at least 14 candidates have detailed campaign messaging packaged on their websites in ways that make it easy for independent expenditure committees to use in advertisements.

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The technique, known as “red boxing,” is being increasingly used in the absence of oversight from state regulators.

CalMatters found at least three instances in which outside groups made digital campaign ads that mirrored the packaged messaging on candidate websites. Under state campaign rules, ads made “at the behest” of official campaigns are presumed to be “coordinated” spending — not independent expenditures — and may illegally exceed campaign finance contribution limits.

In one example, a section in a red box on Assembly candidate Jessie Lopez’s website says “Democratic and (No Party Preference) voters should know” that her competitor, fellow Santa Ana city councilmember David Penaloza, voted to approve a city contract with the surveillance camera company Flock, that he is funded by special interests, and that Jessie Lopez will “fight for working people.”

On Oct. 14, a 15-second ad popped up on the Facebook and Instagram feeds of Santa Ana residents highlighting Penaloza’s approval of the Flock contract, his funding from “big tech billionaires,” and nurses’ and educators’ support for Lopez. It was paid for by an outside group, Working People United sponsored by SEIU California State Council, which has spent at least $1.4 million in support of Lopez since April.

Lopez did not respond to a text message requesting comment, and her campaign did not respond to emailed inquiries about whether the information was intended for an independent expenditure committee. Working People United also did not respond to a request for comment.

But campaign strategists and watchdog groups agree the practice is becoming widespread in competitive California races.

“After Citizens United and all of that, and big money getting into politics, it’s gotten crazy, right? Things have just gotten unwieldy,” said Jorge Contreras, California Director of the Working Families Party, which supports Lopez.

“Because of that, the candidates are using red boxes to try to communicate.”

Click here to read the full article in CalMatters

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: California legislature, California Politics, elections

California’s top fiscal watchdog botched staff payments, let managers work from Idaho, Alabama

October 3, 2026 By Josh Koehn Leave a Comment

California’s financial watchdog failed to sniff out wasteful spending and abuses happening right under her nose — and her office even tried to burn more taxpayer money to cover its debts.

The findings in a new State Auditor’s report expose waste, fraud and abuse across California government, including inside Controller Malia Cohen’s own office, which is responsible for safeguarding taxpayer money and auditing the agencies that spend it.

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The Controller‘s Office — responsible for protecting the state’s financial resources, auditing public spending and administering the state’s payroll system — was singled out for losing track of a manager working from Idaho for five years, as well as another manager who spent parts of multiple years working in Alabama and Tennessee.

Meanwhile, Cohen’s senior officials “purposefully” stalled the recovery of more than $33,000 in employee overpayments and tried to get the state to pay “damages” to cover up the losses.

State Auditor Grant Parks called the idea “poorly conceived” in his report and concluded the failures inside Cohen’s office “risked providing [State Controller’s Office] employees with a gift of public funds.”

Cohen did not respond to the California Post’s request for comment.

The Controller’s Office disputed the finding that it violated state law, arguing it had initiated collection within three years. The auditor rejected that argument, finding officials canceled required payroll deductions without reasonable justification.

Herb Morgan, a candidate for state controller in November’s election, slammed Cohen’s oversight and called the overpayments more than “a paperwork error.”

“While Sacramento tells Californians to live here, work here, and pay here, the Controller’s Office had staff teleworking from Idaho, Tennessee, and Alabama — and admitted it does not check where its people actually work,” Morgan told The Post.

Click here to read the full article in the California Post

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: California, California legislature, California Politics, watchdog

California’s Shadow Welfare System for Illegal Immigrants

September 25, 2026 By Christopher F. Rufo, Kenneth Schrupp, Austen Hufford Leave a Comment

The state spends billions on housing, health care, and other benefits.

California runs the nation’s largest welfare system, devoting more than $180 billion annually to food, health care, and other programs for the poor and downtrodden. To sustain the arrangement, the state imposes the nation’s highest tax rates.

In theory, these programs are supposed to help struggling Californians. In reality, many serve large numbers of illegal immigrants. Today, California oversees a shadow welfare system that allows noncitizens to receive health care, rental assistance, college grants, tax credits, low-cost car insurance, and even smartphones on the taxpayers’ dime.

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We visited four public-services offices in Southern California, each of which admitted that illegal aliens can enroll in public-welfare programs or receive benefits on their children’s behalf. In total, California taxpayers spent at least $11 billion subsidizing illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year. The state’s shadow welfare system, it seems, shows no signs of slowing down.

Local officials were remarkably transparent. In Glendale, we spoke to a welfare officer about California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), a state-funded alternative to Supplemental Security Income that provides monthly cash assistance to low-income noncitizens who are elderly or disabled.

“If [you are] a citizen, you cannot get CAPI,” he said. “I don’t care about legal or not. Not being [a] citizen [is the key].”

In Los Angeles, we heard more of the same. We asked another welfare officer about the benefits available to illegal immigrants and their children. While some state programs are closed to illegals, we learned, they are open to those aliens’ U.S.-born children.

“If you were born here and the child was born here, you get money for two,” the officer said of CalWORKs, the state’s version of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. “Because she is not and the child is, she only gets money for the child, and not for her.”

These benefits add up. In California, illegal immigrants can qualify for CAPI, public health insurance, and various tax credits. Their children qualify for others, including CalWORKs and, as in other states, Section 8 rental subsidies. All told, a family of five in California with two illegal-alien parents, two U.S.-born children, and one illegal-alien grandparent can receive public services worth more than $100,000 per year.

State leaders are proud of it. In a recent podcast episode, Governor Gavin Newsom bragged about his “controversial” decision to extend Medi-Cal coverage to illegal immigrants. His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, encouraged people to sign up for the California Earned Income Tax Credit, a program whose promotional materials assure applicants that “no Social Security number” is “no problem.”

The governor’s office did not respond to our comment request by deadline.

How is all this possible?

Click here to read the full article in the City Journal

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: California legislature, California Politics, shadow, welfare system

Newsom signs mortgage relief bills for L.A. County and California wildfire victims

September 17, 2026 By Laurence Darmiento Leave a Comment

Legislation that will extend mortgage relief to victims of the January 2025 Los Angeles County wildfires and establish a similar permanent program for disaster victims statewide was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The mortgage forbearance bills by Assemblymember John Harabedian (D-Pasadena), who represents the devastated Eaton fire zone, follow a law enacted last year that gave victims of the Jan. 7 fires up to 12 months of mortgage relief.

“Wildfire recovery does not end when the flames are extinguished,” Harabedian said in a statement. “Unfortunately we know that climate change will make natural disasters more frequent and severe throughout California.”

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AB 1847 extends relief for a total of 24 months for L.A. County homeowners suffering financial hardship whose homes remain uninhabitable. It also gives them until Jan. 7, 2029, to apply for the additional forbearance.

AB 1842 establishes a statewide program providing up to 12 months of mortgage relief for homeowners whose homes are made uninhabitable in a federally declared emergency.

“These new protections will make insurer obligations clearer and give homeowners more financial flexibility when they need it most. As fire seasons across the West become a year-round reality, California’s commitment to recovery must be just as enduring,” Newsom said in a statement.

The governor created a voluntary program in January 2025 within weeks of the firestorms in Altadena, Pacific Palisades and nearby areas that 420 institutions signed on to and that initially provided just three months of relief.

Months later, he signed AB 238, a Harabedian bill that provided for 12 months of mortgage relief and banned late fees, foreclosures and negative reports to credit bureaus for homeowners who receive it.

The law also prohibited mortgage lenders and servicers from requiring borrowers to pay back any forbearance in a lump sum, but it otherwise did not specify repayment terms. However, any forbearance was limited by the legal language in the mortgage.

That led to complaints from some borrowers who told The Times that they had difficulty getting relief or were told by their mortgage lenders or servicers that if they didn’t want to pay it back in a lump sum, they would have to get a loan modification that could raise their interest rate.

Harabedian has said that most of the contracts and guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the government-sponsored organizations that hold or guarantee the majority of U.S. mortgages — do not bar loan deferrals.

The extension bill, AB 1847, strengthens the deferral language so borrowers have greater certainty about their repayment options when they exit the program, Harabedian’s office noted.

Andrea Luquetta, an attorney for the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan group that advocates for consumer-friendly financial practices, said the changes strengthen the forbearance program for Jan. 7 fire victims.

“Servicers are required to offer deferral of the forborne payments to the end of the loan as the default option,” she said.

The statewide mortgage relief bill signed Tuesday by Newsom, AB 1842, builds on the Los Angeles County program. However, homeowners can qualify for a forbearance only if their homes are in a federally declared disaster zone.

The legislation was limited because of complaints by mortgage servicers that many mortgage contracts and guidelines do not have allowances for state-declared emergencies. However, homeowners do not need to cite any financial hardship to qualify for relief.

Luquetta said the Center for Responsible Lending also supported the bill establishing the statewide program.

“Forbearance works, it’s been proven in analysis after it’s been used in other states (such as Texas and Louisiana after Hurricane Harvey) and now more Californians can access it when they need it,” she said.

Click here to read the full article in the LA Times

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: California legislature, California Politics, Gavin Newsom, Insurance, Newsome, Wildfire

How a gym, a farmers market and MMA fighters landed millions in Newsom’s last budget

September 16, 2026 By Yue Stella Yu Leave a Comment

$29 million to renovate a gym at a Santa Barbara college in Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón’s district.

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$13 million for a farmers market and food innovation hub in wealthy Marin County, where Gov. Gavin Newsom lives.

$3 million to renovate the San Jose Giants’ minor league baseball stadium in Santa Clara County.

California lawmakers doled out $1.3 billion in handouts for their legislative districts with almost zero public scrutiny or input during an annual budgeting process that allows legislators and the governor to hand-pick funding recipients in private.

The money, often known as earmarks or “pork-barrel projects,” is commonplace in California and elsewhere, even in years when the state faces huge budget deficits. The practice allows lawmakers to tout their accomplishments and woo voters.

The earmark process is so secretive that few know why some projects make the cut and others don’t, raising equity and transparency concerns, even among lawmakers. Critics argue that it allows elected officials to play favorites.

“(It) is done all behind closed doors,” said Julie Baker, CEO of California for the Arts. “It is somewhat inequitable … to have a grant making process that everyone’s competing over and then have a process that’s non-transparent.”

Here’s how earmarks work: The leaders in the California Assembly and Senate, both Democrats, allow their colleagues to submit private wish-lists for funds with a suggested spending cap the leaders set. Then billions of dollars for hundreds of projects suddenly appear in a bill heard just days before lawmakers leave for the year, leaving little time for the public to weigh in. Lawmakers don’t put their names on the earmarks, making it hard to identify who requested what.

This year, Limón loosely capped Senate Democrats’ requests at $5 million each, said Sen. Dave Cortese, a San Jose Democrat who secured $6.5 million for his district. Lawmakers do not share their funding requests with each other, he said — at least not before they take credit for them in press releases or ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

“It’s a confidential process between each office and leadership,” he told CalMatters.

But even he bemoaned the opaque nature of it.

“Why couldn’t we do this process a little earlier and get our requests into subcommittees so the public could just see what’s going on?” Cortese said. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of here.”

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: budget pork, California legislature, California Politics, Gavin Newsom

Why a signature Newsom power move flopped in the last days of the Legislative session

September 8, 2026 By Maya C. Miller 3 Comments

Despite his signature last-minute maneuvering, Gov. Gavin Newsom couldn’t secure his final major deal with the California Legislature.

The Democratic governor, who terms out in January, wanted to reduce how much utilities must pay after their equipment sparks wildfires by eliminating the ability of insurance companies to sue utilities to recoup costs.

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But on Tuesday, after weeks of pushback from lawmakers and survivors of the Los Angeles-area wildfires, the Assembly killed a compromise Newsom had previously agreed to, throwing into question whether the governor would call a special session to hammer out a deal before he leaves office.

The bill before the Assembly, Senate Bill 492, amounted to a collection of “half measures,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas told reporters after the chamber adjourned. “I think Californians expect a lot more than half measures,” he said. (Senate Pro Tem Monique Limón said her chamber was prepared to pass the deal.)

The unsuccessful last-minute scramble, and ultimately the deal’s death, illustrates the limits of a lame-duck governor’s power in his last legislative session — even for one as high-profile and ambitious as Newsom.

The governor himself acknowledged the fumble.

“Simply put, this measure did not meet the gravity of this moment,” Newsom said in a statement. “California cannot settle for half measures.”

‘Jamming’ the Legislature

Newsom has become accustomed to pushing priorities through the Legislature in the days before a deadline, a practice known as a “jam” in Sacramento. The move has previously helped Newsom score carveouts to the state’s landmark environmental law and a measure to fast-track infrastructure construction

“Jamming the Legislature” involves closed-door negotiations with interest groups and legislative leadership, from which compromise legislation emerges often just days or hours shy of the deadline.

Lawmakers are then left with little time to make amendments or hold public hearings, and opponents have little opportunity to object.

Late last week, a Newsom aide conceded in a memo to legislative leaders that the governor’s measures “do not appear to have a path” and instead presented a narrower set of reforms that the administration and legislative leaders agreed upon. Still, Newsom’s office balked at the suggestion that the governor capitulated to lawmakers’ and wildfire victims’ demands.

“All other outstanding issues are off the table,” his office wrote in the memo obtained by CalMatters. Last Friday, share prices of the state’s three major investor-owned utilities tumbled. On Monday, the companies’ stock continued to plunge; Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric saw more than 20% declines.

Click here to read the full article in CalMatters

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: California legislature, California Politics, Gavin Newsom, Legislature

Shocking: CA Senate Democrats Reject Banning Pedophile Sex Offenders from Holding Public Office

August 27, 2026 By Katy Grimes 3 Comments

I will not stop fighting until every sex offender is barred from holding public office in California’ said Sen. Valladares

A bill to keep convicted sex offenders from holding public office made it through the Assembly 67 to 0 in early July.

Then it went over to the Senate, with a stop in the Senate Elections Committee, chaired by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), and came out grossly amended. The Globe reported June 30th:

AB 2691 by Assemblywoman Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo) prohibits persons convicted of “sexual assault” and “human trafficking” from running for any state or local elective office in California. It’s a good bill, with good intent… or was.

Recent amendments made on June 24, 2026, added in exemptions for pedophile adults who target children for sex.

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Sen. Steven Choi (R-Irvine) was the only NO vote in Senate Elections. He explained:

“The recent amendments of this bill added an exemption to allow adults convicted of molesting children to be eligible to run for public office,” said Sen. Choi. “Before being amended, AB 2691 would have prohibited child groomers and pedophiles from being eligible to run. I questioned the author at the hearing why we would give these monsters an exemption and she couldn’t explain. That’s unacceptable.”

California Family Council provides details:

“AB 2691, authored by Assemblywoman Dawn Addis, is called the Public Trust Protection Act. It would disqualify people convicted of felony sexual assault or human trafficking from running for or holding state or local elected office. California Family Council supports that idea. The problem is what got added on June 24.”

The bill defines “sexual assault” to include crimes like rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration. But a new exception carves out three of those crimes when they are committed against a minor age 14 to 17: felony sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration, including cases where the perpetrator is over 21 and the victim is 14 or 15. Committed against an adult, or against a child under 14, those crimes count as sexual assault and bar someone from office. Committed against a 14-to-17-year-old, they don’t.

In plain terms: a person convicted of felony sexual assault against an adult, or against a child under 14, would be barred from public office under this bill. A person convicted of the same acts against a 14-to-17-year-old would not be.

These are the exemptions from the definition of sexual assault the following crimes:
1. Penal Code §286(b) (sodomy on a minor)
2. Penal Code §287 (b) (oral copulation on a minor)
3. Penal Code §897(h) +(i) (sexual penetration on a minor)

With all of the new exemptions involving minors, claiming that these sex crimes are not felonies is flagrant.

The sex acts against minors – children – are universally held as heinous and indefensible.

If any of this is ringing a bell, Sen. Wiener, in 2019, authored Senate Bill 145 which at the time of its introduction would allow a sex offender who lures a minor with the intent to commit a felony sex act, the ability to escape registering as a sex offender as long as the offender is within 10 years of age of the minor.As we reported in 2020, SB 145 allows a 24 year old to have sex with a 14 year old, relaxing the penalties for having “non-forcible sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration with a minor.”

Governor Gavin Newsom signed Wiener’s SB 145 in 2020. The Globe reported: “Gov. Newsom Signs Bill to Protect Sex Offenders Who Have Homosexual Sex with Minors,” asking, “How can this bill be legal when California’s age of consent is still 18?”

Senator Suzette Valladares (R-Santa Clarita) weighed in on the exemptions for child-sex offenses for candidates at the June Senate Elections hearing, stating:

Right now, a registered sex offender can run for school board in California. Nothing in state law stops them. A bill to fix that, AB 2753, passed the Assembly 60-0.

Then Senate Democrats killed it in committee, and advanced a different bill carving out an exception for people convicted of sex crimes against children. This already almost happened. A registered sex offender tried to run for Fresno City Council this year.

Protecting kids should not be controversial.

Parents and voters deserve better.

Senator Valladares on Tuesday called on the California Senate to restore the bill language that would ban dangerous criminals, including convicted sex offenders, from holding public office in California.

She called on her colleagues to accept her amendments to AB 2691, which would have closed a loophole in the bill allowing convicted sex offenders, including people convicted of crimes against children, to hold public office, including serving on school boards in California.

Click here to read the full article in the California Globe

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: California legislature, California Politics, Legislature, pedophiles

California regulators approve new rules limiting what replacement tires you can buy for your car

August 19, 2026 By Ashley Zavala 2 Comments

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California regulators on Monday approved new rules that will restrict what tires you can buy when it’s time to replace them on your car.

In a unanimous vote, the California Energy Commission voted to adopt new rules that will phase out the sale of replacement tires that don’t meet certain energy efficiency standards.

“This ultimately is about protecting consumers,” said David Hochschild, the chairman of the California Energy Commission. “I see this as sheltering the public from higher costs in the long run.”

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Tire manufacturers and the commission’s staff are at odds over whether this will add to the cost of living in the state. Both sides acknowledged this will no longer allow the sale of a significant portion of the tires currently sold in California.

At the center of this is a tire’s rolling resistance, or how much energy a tire uses as it rolls down the road. Lower resistance means a vehicle uses less gas or electricity. New cars come with generally efficient tires, but consumers typically replace those with higher rolling resistance tires.

The first phase would begin in 2029, which would allow the sale of tires with a maximum rolling resistance level of 9.1 newtons per kilonewton (N/kN). In phase 2, the standard lowers to 7.2 (N/kN) starting in 2033. The commission came up with the standards after testing 537 types of tires.

According to the commission’s staff, the rules are meant to ensure replacement tires sold in California are at least as energy efficient on average as the tires that come with the car or truck when it’s originally sold. The CEC claims Californians could save $79 in four months in gas or electricity costs under phase 1, and about $153 in phase 2 within seven months.

Click here to read the full article at KCRA

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: California legislature, California Politics, tires

Almost nowhere in California is building enough, according to the state. Here’s why

August 12, 2026 By Ben Christopher 2 Comments

Every eight years, state housing regulators give cities and counties across California an especially dreaded homework assignment: Make a plan for a bunch of new homes.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration assigns localities goals to hit at four different affordability levels. Collectively, the numbers represent the housing department’s best estimate of the number of new homes needed to match any expected population growth and to chip away at the state’s decades-in-the-making shortage of affordable places to live.

With these targets meted out to each region on a rolling basis, this summer, a massive chunk of the state, including all of Southern California, passed its halfway mark.

So in the spirit of a mid-term exam, how are cities and counties doing?

Bad news, California. If this were graded, the state would abound in D’s and F’s.

Less than a third of cities and counties are on track to permit enough “above moderate” units, the category that typically refers to market-rate housing, according to data submitted by locals to the state housing department.

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The progress report for more affordable types of housing is even bleaker. Only 32 jurisdictions — less than 6% — are on track to hit their “very low” targets. That refers to housing within financial reach of anyone earning less than half the typical local income.

After years of nudging, political trolling and litigating, most cities and counties now have state-approved plans in place. But as the production numbers show, it’s one thing to plan and another to build. Almost nowhere in the state is actually seeing the new construction necessary “to meet the housing needs of all Californians,” as housing regulators have described these targets.

Only five jurisdictions in the entire state are permitting at a pace to hit all four income targets. Four are the lightly populated unincorporated bits of small, mostly rural counties: Plumas, Napa, Yolo and Mono. The fifth is Placerville, a town of roughly 11,000 people in the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento.

To be “on track,” a city or county needs to issue permits at a clip that, if sustained, would allow it to hit its state targets by the end of its planning cycle. State housing regulators told the city of Irvine in Orange County, for example, to plan for 8,671 market-rate units by 2030. Now halfway there, the city has issued more than 6,000, making it one of the minority of cities to be on pace to reach its target for above-moderate housing.

But for more affordable digs, Irvine, like most California cities, is far behind. The city has permitted just 9% of the very low-income housing needed to reach its target by the end of the decade. For the next most affordable category, which refers to units priced for those earning up to 80% of the regional median, it’s at a mere 3%.

Click here to read the full article at CalMatters

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: California legislature, California Politics, Homes

California’s top fiscal watchdog botched staff payments, let managers work from Idaho, Alabama

California’s Shadow Welfare System for Illegal Immigrants

Why a signature Newsom power move flopped in the last days of the Legislative session

‘Jamming’ the Legislature

Shocking: CA Senate Democrats Reject Banning Pedophile Sex Offenders from Holding Public Office

Almost nowhere in California is building enough, according to the state. Here’s why

Few California cities and counties are on track to hit state-set housing targets, no matter the affordability level

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