District

California Republicans in Congress are vastly outnumbered by their Democratic counterparts in the state — and it may get worse.

Five of the nine GOP seats are at risk after California voters passed Proposition 50 in Tuesday’s special election. The measure, put on the ballot by the Democratic-led state Legislature, reshaped California congressional districts in a way that was specifically designed to unseat Republican incumbents.

The new maps target areas held by Reps. Kevin Kiley and Doug LaMalfa in Northern California, Rep. David Valadao in the Central Valley, and Reps. Ken Calvert, Young Kim and Darrell Issa in Southern California. The radical reconfiguration not only put Republicans in danger, but probably protects vulnerable Democratic officeholders by adding more voters from their own party into their reconfigured districts.

Already, California’s Republican members hold just nine seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, while Democrats have 43.

Proposition 50’s passage also sets off an intraparty fight for a newly created Republican seat in Riverside and Orange counties, which will pit two GOP incumbents against one another — Calvert of Corona and Kim of Anaheim Hills — knocking one of them out of office. Calvert and Kim on Wednesday announced they planned to run for that seat.

“With the passage of Prop. 50, Californians were sold a bill of goods, allowing [Gov.] Gavin Newsom and his radical allies in Sacramento an unprecedented power grab to redraw the Congressional map and silence those who disagree with his extreme policies,” Calvert said in a statement.

Newsom and other Democratic leaders argue that redistricting, which normally happens once a decade by an independent commission, was necessary after GOP leaders in Texas redrew their own congressional districts — at the request of President Trump — in a bid to add more seats for their party and retain Republican control of the House.

The passage of Proposition 50 will boost Democratic efforts to win control of the House after the 2026 election, a victory that likely would stifle parts of Trump’s agenda and open the president and his administration to a litany of congressional investigations.

Proposition 50 is expected to exacerbate the political isolation that millions of Republicans in California already feel, especially in the state’s vast northern and inland territories, and conservative suburban enclaves.

Trump won 38% of the presidential vote in California last year. About a quarter of the state’s registered voters are Republicans. Yet, Democrats have held every statewide office since 2011, and have an iron grip on the California congressional delegation.

Some California Republicans may be left asking: “Who in Congress is representing our views and who do we turn to?” said Mark Baldassare, survey director of the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

Cook Political Report, which tracks elections, changed 11 California congressional district race ratings Tuesday, with all but one district moving in Democrats’ favor.

Political consultant Rob Stutzman remains skeptical that Democrats will win all five congressional seats targeted by Newsom in the 2026 midterm elections. Some of the GOP representatives have deep roots in the community and have survived past challenges by Democrats, Stutzman said.

Newsom and others “may have overpromised what Prop. 50 could do,” Stutzman said.

Here are the top six Republicans whose districts were changed by Proposition 50 and who may find their political future at risk.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale)

In Northern California, LaMalfa appears likely to run in one of two redesigned districts: One that stretches toward Mendocino National Forest and south toward Santa Rosa, or another that runs along the Oregon border and down the coast to the San Francisco Bay Area.

His current district, which spreads across the deeply conservative northeast corner of California to the Sacramento suburbs, was carved up by Proposition 50 and replaced with three districts that favor Democrats.

“They’re not going to kidnap my district here without a battle,” LaMalfa, 65, said Tuesday.

Democrats running for Congressional District 1’s seat — the seat that includes Mendocino National Forest — include Audrey Denney, an education director who unsuccessfully challenged LaMalfa in 2018 and 2020.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin)

Kiley’s new district takes in neighborhoods in and around Sacramento, pulling in Democratic voters and losing former Republican communities along the Nevada border.

He hasn’t said which district he’ll seek.

“My current district is split six different ways,” Kiley, 40, said Wednesday. “In that sense, I have a lot of options.”

On Tuesday night, he promised to “work across party lines to find a national solution to the age-old plague of gerrymandering, and in particular, to the more recent affliction of mid-decade gerrymandering.”

Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford)

Valadao’s predominantly Latino district in the Central Valley extends north post-Proposition 50, gaining more registered Democrats.

Still, more Democratic voters doesn’t necessarily translate to a Democratic victory, given the conservative attitudes in the region. A dairy farmer, Valadao, 48, has survived past challenges, in part due to poor turnout among Democrats and his popularity among moderate voters in the Central Valley.

Among those who have announced their intention to challenge Valadao is Visalia school board trustee Randy Villegas, a Democrat.

Valadao was among the few Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, increasing his appeal to Democratic voters. But he could also be vulnerable because of his support for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which cut medical benefits for roughly two-thirds of his constituents. The representative argued his district will get concessions for rural hospitals, water infrastructure and agricultural investments in the legislation.

A Valadao spokesperson didn’t immediately respond for a request for comment Tuesday night.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) and Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills)

Nearly all of Calvert’s district was moved north, and now takes in the Los Angeles County communities of Pomona, Ontario and Fontana.

However, Calvert, 72, announced he would run for the newly formed 40th Congressional District, which includes western Riverside County and eastern Orange County, including his hometown of Corona, as well as Murrieta and Mission Viejo. It’s a strongly Republican district now shared by Republican colleague Kim of Anaheim Hills.

“Californians in the newly drawn 40th District deserve a proven conservative they can trust and a fighter who has delivered results for Riverside and Orange County for decades,” Calvert said in a statement Wednesday. “No one else comes close to my record of service to the new 40th. I’ve lived here my entire life and already represent the majority of this district in Congress.”

Calvert praised Trump’s economic record and efforts to “secure our borders,” a direct appeal to the president’s MAGA base living in the region.

Michael Moodian, public policy researcher at Chapman University, expects Calvert will face a “tough fight” with Kim in the 2026 election.

Calvert is the longest-serving Republican member of California’s congressional delegation and is well known among voters in the area, while Kim is a strong fundraiser and has a moderate tone given that her current district is politically divided, Moodian said.

Kim, 63, one of the first Korean American women elected to Congress, last year won a third term.

Kim on Wednesday boasted that she was one of the most prominent Republican fundraisers in Congress and had a proven record of winning tough races.

“I’m running because California needs proven fighters who will stand with President Trump to advance a bold America First agenda that restores law and order in our communities, strengthens our national security, and protects the American Dream for future generations,” Kim said in a statement.

Calvert has survived previous redistricting rounds, including in 2021, when the overwhelmingly liberal Palm Springs — the first city in the nation to elect an all-LGBTQ+ city council — was added to his district and the Republican-heavy Temecula was taken out.

In 2024, Calvert fended off former federal prosecutor Will Rollins, besting the young Democrat 51.7% to 48.3%.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall)

Post-Proposition 50, Issa’s Republican stronghold in Southern California becomes more narrowly divided among Democrats and Republicans and gets a larger share of Latino voters. Like Calvert and Kim, Issa may decide to run in the new Republican-majority seat in Riverside and Orange counties.

“California is my home,” Issa said Tuesday night. “And it’s worth fighting for,”

He called Proposition 50 “the worst gerrymander in history” and vowed to continue to represent “the people of California — regardless of their party or where they live.”

Issa, 72, lost a legal challenge last week over the new maps, which he sought to block.

According to the complaint filed in federal court, Issa claimed he would be harmed because he would lose “seniority advantages in committee proceedings” and have “reduced influence over legislative priorities and committee work affecting my constituents,” NBC7 in San Diego reported.

Democratic San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert and perennial candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar are among those challenging Issa in his new seat.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Noah Goldberg, with an assist from Libor Jany, giving you the latest on city and county government.

How do you spot a journalist?

The question lies at the center of a legal battle between Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto and the Los Angeles Press Club, as well as a political battle between Feldstein Soto and the City Council.

Two weeks ago council members called on her to give up her opposition to a federal judge’s order prohibiting LAPD officers from targeting journalists with crowd control weapons. According to the press club, dozens of journalists were excluded from public areas or attacked by police during chaotic summer protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Despite the slap down by the council, Feldstein Soto hopes to press forward. This week, in a confidential attorney-client memo shared with The Times by a source, she stressed to the council why she still wants to appeal the judge’s preliminary injunction, which she says makes virtually anyone a journalist.

In the injunction, U.S. District Judge Hernán Vera proposes “indicia” for LAPD officers to identify journalists, which include wearing distinctive clothing or carrying professional photographic equipment.

But the City Attorney’s Office, which is representing the city in the case, sees future issues.

“The problem with this vague definition is that anyone can claim they are a Journalist under the court’s definition,” Supervising Assistant City Atty. Shaun Dabby Jacobs wrote in the memo. “All a person needs to do is print out a badge that says ‘Press,’ or carry a camera … and they can go behind police line or into other restricted areas.”

The memo asks what clothing might identify a person as a journalist. “Is it simply that the person is wearing a suit or professional work dress? … It would be very easy for someone who is not a member of the media and is intent on causing trouble or harm to other peaceful protesters or to the LAPD, to pose as a journalist since they have some of these ‘indicia of being a Journalist.’”

Vera’s injunction imposes more onerous conditions on when police can use “less lethal” weapons than state law does, the memo also argued, allowing the “less lethal” force only when “danger has reached the point where deadly force is justified.”

The injunction also creates issues if the LAPD calls on mutual aid organizations, like the sheriff’s department or federal partners, since it applies only to the city’s police, the memo said. “The city could potentially be liable for our law enforcement partners’ actions if they act in a manner inconsistent with the terms of the injunction.”

All in all, the memo said, the judge’s injunction amounts to a “consent decree.”

With the nine-page memo in hand, Feldstein Soto headed to a closed session with the council Tuesday. Tempers flared when she and Chief Deputy City Atty. Denise Mills suggested that the press club’s lawyer, Carol Sobel, took on the case only to make money, according to two City Hall sources. (Feldstein Soto’s spokesperson, Karen Richardson, said the city attorney does not comment on closed session conversations but added that Feldstein Soto “absolutely did not say that.”)

Many council members, including Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, came to Sobel’s defense, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting.

“I’m trying to restrain myself right now,” Sobel said when she heard about the claim from Mills and the city attorney. “I’m really outraged. It is a baseless suggestion, and it doesn’t alter the fact that they’re shooting people in the head. Whether I get paid or not, they’re shooting people in the head.”

Sobel said she has taken on pro bono work frequently over her 40-year career and that when she is paid, it is partially to help fund future pro bono work.

Susan Seager, who also represents the press club in the case, took issue with Feldstein Soto’s continued pursuit of an appeal.

“She’s a cop wannabe,” Seager said. “She’s just a fake Democrat doing what [LAPD] Chief Jim McDonnell wants her to do.”

Richardson said Feldstein Soto has been a Democrat since 1976 and never worked with the police before she became the city attorney.

State of play

— FIRE BOMBSHELL: Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters told a battalion chief that parts of a New Year’s Day fire in Pacific Palisades still were smoldering the next day, according to text messages. Firefighters were told to leave anyway, and the blaze reignited on Jan. 7, killing 12 and burning thousands of homes. Interim LAFD Chief Ronnie Villanueva said the Palisades fire was not caused by “failed suppression” of the New Year’s blaze.

The story in The Times led to a tweet from sports critic Bill Simmons (bet you didn’t expect to see his name in bold in this newsletter!) blasting the city’s “indefensibly bad leadership,” which predictably led to a quote tweet from none other than Rick Caruso, who called Simmons’ tweet “spot on.” “The buck stops with Mayor Bass,” he added.

— TRASH ATTACK: Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner attacked Mayor Karen Bass over the rising cost of city services for Angelenos, calling out the City Council’s vote to increase trash collection fees. The mayor’s campaign responded that the hike was long overdue. “Nobody was willing to face the music and request the rate hikes,” said Doug Herman, spokesperson for Bass’ campaign.

— SAYONARA, SANITATION: The city’s top Bureau of Sanitation executive, Barbara Romero, stepped down this week. Romero, who was appointed by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2021, touted the agency’s accomplishments, including increasing sewer fees and championing the construction of a water purification facility expected to recharge the San Fernando Valley groundwater aquifer.

— FREE(WAY) AT LAST: A judge agreed to place 29 protesters who shut down the southbound 110 Freeway in 2023 into a 12-month diversion program, which would require 20 hours of community service each. If the protesters, who were demonstrating against Israel’s war in Gaza, comply and don’t break other laws, they will have their criminal charges dropped.

— PHOTO BLOCK: L.A. County is trying to block a journalist from obtaining photographs of about 8,500 sheriff’s deputies and other sworn personnel in the department. The dispute centers on a public records request filed by journalist Cerise Castle in 2023 asking for the names and official headshots of all deputies not working undercover. An L.A. Superior Court judge ordered the release of the photos, but the county is appealing.

— A DOZEN BUSTED: Federal prosecutors announced charges against 12 people who allegedly assaulted law enforcement officers during the chaotic protests this summer against the Trump administration’s immigration raids. Many of the charges stem from demonstrators throwing items at police from a freeway overpass on June 8.

— CANDIDATE ALERT: A new candidate has thrown his hat in the ring to be the city’s next controller. Zach Sokoloff works for Hackman Capital Partners, serving as “Asset Manager of the firm’s Television City Studios and Radford Studio Center.” Sokoloff is running against incumbent Kenneth Mejia as well as veteran politician Isadore Hall.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? There were no Inside Safe operations this week. The mayor’s team held a virtual town hall with Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky to engage with residents near nine operations in the West L.A. area, according to the mayor’s office.
• On the docket next week: Councilmember Curren Price will be in Los Angeles Superior Court for the preliminary hearing in his criminal case. The hearing is expected to last about five days.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Long Beach Poly, a 12-time Southern Section football champion, announced on Friday it will not participate in this season’s football playoffs despite finishing second in the Moore League. The school earlier this season had six transfer students declared ineligible for providing false information on paperwork to the Southern Section, a violation of CIF bylaw 202.

Here’s the statement from the Long Beach Unified School District:

“Long Beach Poly High School acknowledges the recent CIF ruling related to violations of CIF Bylaw 202 within its football program. In accordance with that ruling, and as part of an ongoing internal investigation, Poly will withdraw from postseason play.

“The school is fully cooperating with CIF and the District, as a thorough review of our processes and systems is conducted to ensure full compliance with CIF rules and District policy. While student and employee matters are confidential, our commitment remains to support our students while upholding the integrity of our athletic programs.”

San Juan Hills became the latest school to announce forfeits on Friday for using ineligible players. Two transfer students had been in the transfer portal listed as “under review.” The school will forfeit nine games and is now 1-9. Both players were held out of a game on Thursday.

Norco earlier this week forfeited six games, dropping to 1-9 after a win on Thursday.

This crackdown by the Southern Section against students providing false information started during the summer when schools began submitting transfer paperwork. The Southern Section is using new technological tools to verify information. Bishop Montgomery received the harshest punishment, with 24 players declared ineligible, forcing the school to cancel its football season.

Other schools found to have ineligible players this season include Long Beach Millikan, Compton, Bellflower, Victor Valley and Orange Lutheran.

Southern Section commissioner Mike West said last month, “We’ve had a real influx of fraudulent paperwork. It’s been significant and very disheartening.”

The Pride of Cumbria train carried me out of Piccadilly station and, eventually, beyond built-up Manchester. After Marple, everything turned green as the valleys narrowed. It was a classic northern autumn day: the clouds were low, the mizzle and mist were closing in and the world was grey-filtered but for the glow of dead leaves all around.

South-east of Manchester is a bit of an unknown for me. Between the city and the Derbyshire borough of High Peak, you don’t quite enter national park territory, but it’s nonetheless a charming and eye-calming landscape. The Mancunian Kinder Scout trespassers of 1932 probably came this way, as do Pennine Way-farers bound for Edale. But the region is also post-industrial and close to conurbations. The Steel Cotton Rail Trail, which officially launched earlier this month after several years of planning, hopes to bring together elements of the land and the heritage while also drawing walkers and cyclists to areas of the Peak District perhaps ignored by those who rush for the main spine of the Pennines.

The 62-mile (100km) trail has been split into 14 day-friendly sections between the rail termini at Manchester and Sheffield, with stops along the Hope Valley Line marking the start and end points. There’s something for everyone. Urban explorers will enjoy the metropolitan mooches at either end, summit fiends will love the middle hill and moor sections, while those with young families or old dogs can opt for canal and riverside walks.

I was the only passenger to alight at Chinley, a small, smartish-looking village in the Blackbrook valley. I soon found a sticker to show that I was on the right track; way marking is now complete along the route. I also had printouts of the handy pdf maps posted on the website. GPX files are available, but I didn’t want to spend the day looking phone-ward.

The route, sloping downward, took me past a cafe and on to the Peak Forest Tramway Trail. As anyone who has been out on a recent country walk will know, 2025 has been a mast year, with an abundance of fruit and nuts falling from trees. I could hear the loud crunch of dry acorns and beech nuts as I began my walk towards the west.

The tramway – serviced by horse and gravity-powered vehicles – opened in 1796 and carried on operating right up till the 1920s. Limestone, quarried all around the area, was taken out along these tracks. While much of the primary and heavy industrial plant has gone, I passed a polymer factory close to Chinley and I was rarely far from traffic (the mighty A6, England’s longest road once upon a time, was just beyond the curtain of trees) or light industrial units. Some people probably prefer the illusion of “real nature” but I like ambling through parts of the countryside where work and wilderness rub along. Anyway, I was always able to look down and let the golds, reds and ochres of leaf litter blur my ruminations.

Soon I came to Bugsworth Basin on the Peak Forest canal – once the largest and busiest inland port on the canal system and the only one to survive intact. An information sign alluded to “canal mania”, the period between 1790 and the 1810s when dozens of cuts were made across England and Wales by speculators banking on “faster” logistics. In 1808, workers shifted sufficient limestone to fill 2,000 canal boats. A vital raw material, it was used in buildings, chemical manufacturing and agriculture. Limestone historians will probably challenge the steel and cotton of the trail’s name – cities edging out town and country, as ever – but you could also make a case for calling it the Millstone Grit Trail or the Coal Trail; this part of the world produced so much for Victorian Britain.

I swerved right, joining the River Goyt. Despite its guttural name, the Goyt is a lovely river. It threads a pastoral squiggle from soggy moorland just west of Macclesfield all the way to Stockport, where it runs into the Mersey. As well as the new trail, I was also walking on sections of the Goyt Way and a long-distance path called the Midshires Way. The path passed close to Furness Vale station on the Manchester-Buxton line – an alternative railway option to get to this section of the trail.

It was a mellow, easy walk all the way to New Mills, a town I only knew hitherto as the home town of punk/Oi! band Blitz, but which is a very dramatic constellation of magnificent bridges and stone viaducts, vertiginous gorges, fast-flowing water, the oldest community-owned hydro scheme in the land, some lovely llamas in a bosky paddock, and the sweeping steel Millennium Walkway. I’d passed a couple of rural pubs already, but New Mills has plenty of food and drink for those stopping or pausing here.

I continued along the canyon – past Torr Vale Mill, the UK’s longest-running textile mill till its closure in 2000 – and used the Goyt Way to enter Mousley Bottom nature reserve, a pretty patch of woodland occupying an area previously used as a landfill site, gasworks and sewage works.

I left the river behind at Hague Bar, and headed for Strines, to complete my two-stage, 6.5-mile walk, where I knew the train was hourly (it’s half-hourly from the larger stations). As fate would have it, just when I needed to speed up, the path went up too – quite sharply, in fact, as it ascended a green lane. After all the level walking, the views were suddenly much bigger, and the mist had burned off too. I was half-tempted by the Fox Inn, a Robinsons’ pub in the tiny hamlet of Brookbottom, but given my now terrible thirst, bursting lungs and the one-hour wait, I knew the rest stop could easily morph into a three-pint siesta-inducer. So, I struggled on and actually jogged down to Strines to make the train for Piccadilly with three minutes to spare.

This new rail-pegged walking (and, along many sections, cycling) trail will be welcome in Manchester, where it links up nicely with the also quite new 200-mile orbital GM Ringway. It may also tempt Sheffielders to look beyond the obvious Edale-Kinder Scout hikes – though Edale is a start/finish point for a nice 7.5-mile leg of the Steel Cotton Rail Trail. More frequent, reliable trains would make these walking trails really attractive. But for an autumn amble, the 14 new walks are almost perfect. Choose your challenge and altitude, decide whether you want trees or moors, towns or fields, and you will catch several of the moods of this magical season.

Read more about and download guides at the Steel Cotton Rail Trail

WASHINGTON — Twenty-two days into the government shutdown, California Rep. Kevin Kiley spent an hour of his morning in Washington guiding a group of middle school students from Grass Valley through the empty corridors of the U.S. Capitol.

Normally, one of his staff members would have led the tour. But the Capitol is closed to all tours during the shutdown, unless the elected member is present. So the schoolchildren from Lyman Gilmore Middle School ended up with Kiley, a Republican from Rocklin, as their personal tour guide.

“I would have visited with these kids anyway,” Kiley said in his office after the event. “But I actually got to go on the whole tour of the Capitol with them as well.”

Kiley’s impromptu tour is an example of how members of California’s congressional delegation are improvising their routines as the shutdown drags on and most of Washington remains at a standstill.

Some are in Washington in case negotiations resume, others are back at home in their districts meeting with federal workers who are furloughed or working without pay, giving interviews or visiting community health centers that rely on tax credits central to the budget negotiations. One member attended the groundbreaking of a flood control project in their district. Others are traveling back and forth.

“I’ve had to fly back to Washington for caucus meetings, while the opposition, the Republicans, don’t even convene and meet,” Rep. Maxine Waters, a longtime Los Angeles Democrat, said in an interview. “We will meet anytime, anyplace, anywhere, with [House Speaker Mike] Johnson, with the president, with the Senate, to do everything that we can to open up the government. We are absolutely unified on that.”

The shutdown is being felt across California, which has the most federal workers outside the District of Columbia. Food assistance benefits for millions of low-income Californians could soon be delayed. And millions of Californians could see their healthcare premiums rise sharply if Affordable Care Act subsidies are allowed to expire.

For the California delegation, the fallout at home has become impossible to ignore. Yet the shutdown is in its fourth week with no end in sight.

In the House, Johnson has refused to call members back into session and prevented them from doing legislative work. Many California lawmakers — including Kiley, one of the few GOP lawmakers to openly criticize him — have been dismayed by the deadlock.

“I have certainly emphasized the point that the House needs to be in session, and that canceling a month’s worth of session is not a good thing for the House or the country,” Kiley said, noting that he had privately met with Johnson.

Kiley, who represented parts of the Sacramento suburbs and Lake Tahoe, is facing political uncertainty as California voters weigh whether to approve Proposition 50 on Nov. 4. The measure would redraw the state’s congressional districts to better favor Democrats, leaving Kiley at risk, even though the Republican says he believes he could still win if his right-leaning district is redrawn.

The Senate has been more active, holding a series of votes on the floor and congressional hearings with Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The chamber, however, has been unable to reach a deal to reopen the government. On Thursday, the 23rd day of the shutdown, the Senate failed to advance competing measures that would have paid federal employees who have been working without compensation.

The Republicans’ plan would have paid active-duty members of the military and some federal workers during the shutdown. Democrats backed a bill that would have paid all federal workers and barred the Trump administration from laying off any more federal employees.

“California has one of the largest federal workforces in the country, and no federal worker or service member should miss their paychecks because Donald Trump and Republicans refused to come to the table to protect Americans’ health care,” Sen. Alex Padilla said in a statement.

Working conditions get harder

The strain on federal employees — including those who work for California’s 54 delegation members — are starting to become more apparent.

Dozens of them have been working full time without pay. Their jobs include answering phone calls and requests from constituents, setting the schedules for elected officials, writing policy memos and handling messaging for their offices.

House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks about the shutdown at a news conference Thursday with other Republican House members.

(Eric Lee / Getty Images)

At the end of October, House staffers — who are paid on a monthly basis — are expected to miss their first paycheck.

Some have been quietly told to consider borrowing money from the U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union, which is offering a “government shutdown relief loan program” that includes a no-interest loan of up to $5,000 to be repaid in full after 90 days.

The mundane has also been disrupted. Some of the cafeterias and coffee carts that are usually open to staffers are closed. The lines to enter office buildings are long because fewer entrances are open.

The hallways leading to the offices of California’s elected officials are quiet, except for the faint sound of occasional elevator dings. Many of their doors are adorned with signs that show who they blame for the government shutdown.

“Trump and Republicans shut down the government,” reads a sign posted on the door that leads into Rep. Norma Torres’ (D-Pomona) office. “Our office is OPEN — WORKING for the American people.”

Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance, posted a similar sign outside his office.

A sign is posted outside of the office of Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, in Washington on Wednesday.

(Ana Ceballos / Los Angeles Times)

Rep. Vince Fong, a Republican who represents the Central Valley, has been traveling between Washington and his district. Two weeks into the shutdown, he met with veterans from the Central Valley Honor Flight and Kern County Honor Flight to make sure that their planned tour of the Capitol was not disrupted by the shutdown. Like Kiley’s tour with the schoolchildren, an elected member needed to be present for the tour to go on.

“His presence ensured the tour could continue as planned,” Fong’s office said.

During the tour, veterans were able to see Johnson as well, his office said.

Shutdown highlights deep divisions

California’s congressional delegation mirrors the broader stalemate in Washington, where entrenched positions have kept both parties at a negotiation impasse.

Democrats are steadfast in their position that they will not agree to a deal unless Republicans extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits expiring at the end of the year, while Republicans are accusing Democrats of failing to reopen the government for political gain.

Kiley is one of the few Republicans who has called on Johnson to negotiate with Democrats on healthcare. Kiley said he thinks there is a “a lot of room to negotiate” because there is concern on both sides of the aisle if the tax credits expire.

“If people see a massive increase in their premiums … that’s not a good thing,” he said. “Especially in California, where the cost of living is already so high, and you’re suddenly having to pay a lot more for healthcare.”

Rep. Robert Garcia, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, in a press event Wednesday with five other California Democrats talked about the need to fight for the healthcare credits.

Garcia, of Long Beach, said he recently visited a healthcare center in San Bernardino County that serves seniors with disabilities. He said the cuts would be “devastating” and would prompt the center to close.

“That’s why we are doing everything in our power to negotiate a deal that reopens the federal government and saves healthcare,” he said.

As the shutdown continues, many Democrats are digging their heels on the issue.

At an Oct. 3 event outside of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, for instance, Rep. Laura Friedman held a news conference with nurses and hospital staff and said she would not vote for a bill to reopen the government unless there is a deal on healthcare.

Last week, the Glendale Democrat said her position hasn’t changed.

“I will not support a shutdown deal that strips healthcare from tens of thousands of my constituents,” she said.

BRILLIANT sunlight flickered against a blue, cloudless sky. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for my 10km hike around Derwentwater, the third largest lake in the Lake District.

Trundling along the grassy trail with a flask of coffee in hand, every direction I turned in offered impressive sights of sweeping mountaintops and the motionless body of water below.

The views are simply spectacular and should have been reward enough for my valiant hiking efforts.

But I was already thinking about the pint waiting for me back at the newly refurbished Royal Oak.

Slap bang in the middle of Keswick, this pub with rooms re-opened only a few months ago following a £1million facelift by its owner, Thwaites. And what a good job they’ve done.

Downstairs, the bar area is full of cosy nooks with huge armchairs to relax in, while the dining area is awash with indoor plants and countryside- inspired touches that make it feel more like a home than a pub.

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Add a roaring fireplace and dog-friendly bedrooms to the mix and you’ve got a proper ramblers’ paradise.

I was staying in one of the upper-floor bedrooms, where the piping-hot showers are a soothing antidote to aching muscles after tackling the surrounding hilly landscape.

Each of the 18 rooms reflects a similar ambience to the main pub, with rustic wooden headboards backing plump beds and autumnal coloured curtains that give the space a woodland feel.

Modern bathrooms feature fancy toiletries from Lake District company Bath House, while flat-screen smart TVs make it all too easy to enjoy a lazy lie-in.

Make sure you don’t sleep too late, though, as you wouldn’t want to miss out on breakfast.

The kitchen dishes up cracking homemade grub, most of which is sourced locally. Think loaded fry-ups with fat, juicy sausages and pub classics like fish and chips with mushy peas.

I kept things simple at dinner with a 10oz rib-eye steak which came with a roasted vine tomato, mushroom, rocket and chunky chips that were very moreish – all washed down with a bottle of red.

If the food and decor aren’t enough of a selling point, then the location of the Royal Oak sure will be.

At the centre of a charming high street, the pub is within walking distance of quaint wine shops, boutique clothing stores and excellent bakeries, including the newly opened Snack Shack.

I’ve never seen more sausage rolls stacked in a window before! That was all the persuading I needed to buy one. A great idea – the pastry was buttery and flakey and the caramelised onion filling was a delicious touch.

If you’re visiting on a Saturday, take a wander to Keswick market, where you’ll find stalls selling all sorts of local food, products – and more flat caps than you’d see in an old folks’ home.

If you prefer to carry on rambling, I’d recommend making the journey to Cat Bells fell.

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SPICING UP

How ‘diva’ Geri’s ‘embarrassing’ saga with Christian reignited Spice Girls rift

But only if you’re up for a challenge, as the summit is equivalent in height to ten Big Bens stacked on top of one another. I reckon I was about seven high when I decided to give up.

People in the Lakes are made of sturdier stuff than I – it’s probably those sausage rolls.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Rebecca Ellis, with an assist from David Zahniser, Noah Goldberg and Matt Hamilton, giving you the latest on city and county government.

There is no shortage of budget-busting costs facing Los Angeles County, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath recently told guests at this week’s Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum luncheon.

There’s the costly fire recovery effort. And the deep cuts from the federal government. And a continuing homeless crisis.

As Horvath wrapped up her remarks, Emma Schafer, the host of the clubby luncheon, asked about yet another expenditure: What was up with that $2-million settlement to the county’s chief executive officer Fesia Davenport?

“We were faced with two bad options,” Horvath told the crowd dining on skewered shrimp.

Horvath said she disagreed with Davenport’s demand for $2 million, but also believed “that we have to focus on a functional county government and saving taxpayer money.”

Three months ago, all five supervisors quietly voted behind closed doors to pay Davenport $2 million, after she sought damages due to professional fallout from Measure G, the voter-approved ballot measure that will eventually eliminate her job.

Measure G, which voters passed in November, reshaped the government, in part, turning the county’s chief executive into an elected position — not one selected by the board. The elected county executive, who would manage the county government and oversee its budget, will be in place by 2028. Davenport, a longtime county employee, had been in her post since 2021.

Davenport, as part of her financial demand, said Measure G caused her “reputational harm, embarrassment, and physical, emotional and mental distress.”

Critics contend unpleasant job changes happen all the time — and without the employee securing a multimillion dollar payout.

“Los Angeles County residents should be outraged,” said Morgan Miller, who worked on the Measure G campaign and called the board’s decision a “blatant misuse of public money.”

Horvath, who crafted Measure G, promised during the campaign it would not cost taxpayers additional money. More recently, she voiced dissatisfaction with Davenport’s settlement, saying the agreement should have had additional language to avoid “future risk.”

Horvath said in a statement she considered having the settlement agreement include language to have Davenport and the county part ways — to avoid the risk of litigating additional claims down the road.

Supervisor Janice Hahn, who pushed for Measure G alongside Horvath, said she voted for the settlement based on the advice of county lawyers.

“In the years I worked to expand the board and create an elected county executive, I never disparaged our current CEO in any way,” she said in a statement. “I always envisioned the CEO team working alongside the new elected county executive.”

Davenport has been on medical leave since earlier this month and did not return a request for comment. She has told the staff she plans to return at the start of next year.

It’s not unusual for county department heads to get large payouts. But they usually get them when they’re on their way out.

Bobby Cagle, the former Department of Children and Family Services head who resigned in 2021, received $175,301. Former county counsel Rodrigo Castro-Silva got $213,199. Adolfo Gonzales, the former probation head, took in $172,521. Mary Wickham, the former county counsel, received $449,577.

The county said those severance payments, all of which were obtained through a records request by The Times, were outlined in the department heads’ contracts and therefore did not need to be voted on by the board.

Sachi Hamai, Davenport’s predecessor, also received $1.5 million after saying she faced “unrelenting and brutal” harassment from former Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

Davenport’s settlement was voted on, but not made public, until an inquiry from LAist, which first reported on the settlement.

David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition, says the county is required under the Brown Act to immediately report out a vote taken on a settlement if the deal is finalized and all parties have approved it. But if it’s not, he says, they don’t need to publicly report it — they just need to provide information when asked.

“You don’t have to proactively report it out in that meeting. You still have to disclose it on request,” said Loy. “ I don’t think that’s a good thing — don’t get me wrong. I’m telling you what the Brown Act says.”

State of play

— DEMANDING DOCUMENTS: Two U.S. senators intensified their investigation into the Palisades fire this week, asking the city for an enormous trove of records on Fire Department staffing, reservoir repairs and other issues. In their letter to Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) showed much less interest in the Eaton fire, which devastated Altadena but did not burn in the city of Los Angeles. An aide to County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, said neither she nor other county offices had received such a document request.

— BUMPY BEGINNING: The campaign of City Council candidate Jose Ugarte is off to a rocky start. Ugarte, who is backed by his boss, Councilmember Curren Price, recently agreed to pay a $17,500 fine from the Ethics Commission for failing to mention his outside consulting work on his financial disclosure forms, But on Wednesday, two ethics commissioners blocked the deal, saying they think his fine should be bigger. (Ugarte has called the violation “an unintentional clerical error.”) Stay tuned!

— A NEW CHIEF: Mayor Karen Bass announced Friday that she has selected Jaime Moore, a 30-year LAFD veteran, to serve as the city’s newest fire chief. He comes to the department as it grapples with the continuing fallout over the city’s response to Palisades fire.

— LAWSUIT EN ROUTE: Meanwhile, the head of the city’s firefighter union has accused Bass of retaliating against him after he publicly voiced alarm over department staffing during the January fires. Freddy Escobar, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, said he’s preparing a lawsuit against the city. Escobar was suspended from his union position earlier this year, after an audit found that more than 70% of the transactions he made on his union credit card had no supporting documentation.

— HE’S BACK! (KINDA): Former Mayor Eric Garcetti returned to City Hall for the first time since leaving office in 2022, appearing alongside Councilmember Nithya Raman in the council chamber for a celebration of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. Garcetti, a former U.S. ambassador to India, described Diwali as a “reawakening,” saying it may be “the longest continuous human holiday on earth.”

— GENERATIONS OF GALPIN: The San Fernando Valley auto dealership known as Galpin Motors has had a long history with the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, the civilian oversight panel at the LAPD. On Wednesday, the council approved the nomination of Galpin vice president Jeffrey Skobin, to serve on the commission — making him the third executive with the dealership to serve over the past 40 years.

— AIRPORT OVERHAUL: Los Angeles World Airports is temporarily closing Terminal 5 at Los Angeles International Airport, carrying out a “complete demolition” and renovation of the space in the run-up to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. During construction, JetBlue will be operating out of Terminal 1, Spirit shifts to Terminal 2 and American Airlines lands in Terminal 4, the airport agency said.

— OUT THE DOOR: Two of the five citizen commissioners who oversee the Department of Water and Power have submitted their resignations. DWP Commissioner George McGraw, appointed by Bass two years ago, told The Times he’d been laying the groundwork for a departure for six months. McGraw said he found he could no longer balance the needs of the commission, where he sometimes put in 30 to 40 hours per week, with the other parts of his life. “I needed extra capacity,” he said.

— NO MORE MIA: DWP Commissioner Mia Lehrer was a little more blunt, telling Bass in her Sept. 29 resignation letter that her stint on the board was negatively affecting her work at Studio-MLA, her L.A.-based design studio. Lehrer said the firm has been disqualified from city projects based on “misinterpretations” of her role on the commission.

“As a result, I am experiencing unanticipated limitations on my professional opportunities that were neither expected nor justified under existing ethical frameworks,” she wrote. “These constraints not only affect my own business endeavors but also carry significant consequences for the forty-five professional and their families who rely on the continued success of our work.”

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to address homelessness went to Cotner Avenue near the 405 Freeway in Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s Westside district.
• On the docket next week: The board votes Tuesday on an $828-million payout to victims who say they were sexually abused in county facilities as children. The vote comes months after agreeing to the largest sex abuse settlement in U.S. history.

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s David Zahniser, with an assist from Rebecca Ellis, Noah Goldberg and the esteemed Julia Wick, giving you the latest on city and county government.

For nearly three years, Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia has been trying to use his office to dig deep on the city’s homelessness programs — how they’re run and, more importantly, how effective they are.

The road so far has been a bit bumpy.

Early in his tenure, Mejia sent staffers to the Westside to monitor Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program, which moves unhoused people into hotels and motels. He quickly pulled back after facing resistance within City Hall.

A year later, Mejia offered to have his office conduct a court-ordered audit of the city’s homelessness programs. The work went to a private firm instead, at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $3 million.

Mejia also promised to produce a “focused audit” on Inside Safe, the mayor’s signature homelessness initiative, which has not materialized.

At one point, he even posted an Instagram video of himself and his staff doing choreographed moves to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” to explain why he hadn’t audited the program. The video displayed the words: “We tried. We tried. We tried.”

But this week, the city’s top accountant got his big break, securing a plum role in the high-stakes legal battle over homelessness between the city and the nonprofit L.A. Alliance for Human Rights. That fight hinges on whether the city is living up to its commitment, enshrined in a legal settlement, to clear encampments and build more homeless beds.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter assigned attorney Daniel Garrie, an expert in cybersecurity and computer forensics, as a new third-party monitor to determine whether the city is truly on track to open 12,915 new homeless beds and remove nearly 10,000 encampments, as required by the settlement.

Carter tapped Mejia to serve as a liaison between Garrie and the city, calling him the “most knowledgeable person” on homelessness funding. In a six-page order, the judge said the city controller would support Garrie by “facilitating data access.” He also said Mejia would be less expensive than former City Controller Ron Galperin, who was also under consideration and expected to charge $800 an hour.

The judge’s order was well-timed, coming at a moment of heightened scrutiny over homelessness initiatives in L.A. and across the region.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors accused two real estate executives of misappropriating millions of dollars in state funds allocated in the region’s fight against homelessness. According to prosecutors, one of them engaged in bank fraud, identity theft and money laundering — purchasing a property on L.A.’s Westside and quickly flipping it for more than double the price to Weingart Center Assn., a nonprofit housing developer that received city funds to build interim homeless housing.

Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner, the former schools superintendent who spent some time at City Hall, also turned up the heat, calling this week for Bass to let Mejia audit the city’s homeless programs. He made that pitch after Rand researchers concluded that the region’s yearly homeless count is not accurately tracking homeless people who don’t live in tents or cars.

“The Mayor is blocking the elected Controller from auditing the City’s efforts,” Beutner said on X. “We need an immediate audit to tell us how much is being spent, on what, and whether it’s having any impact.”

Bass spokesperson Clara Karger, in an email to The Times, said the mayor and the city controller “work well together” on various issues, including a recent audit of the city’s housing department.

Asked whether Bass refused to participate in Mejia’s planned Inside Safe audit last year, Karger replied: “A city elected official should not conduct a performance audit of another elected official.”

“Inside Safe has robust oversight systems in place,” she said. “There are hundreds of pages of publicly available reports on Inside Safe and an assessment of Inside Safe was completed under the Alliance settlement.”

City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto declined to weigh in on Carter’s order. But she has previously pointed to a 16-year-old legal ruling barring the city controller from conducting performance audits of other elected officials.

“The legal advice from the City Attorney’s Office is known to our clients and has not changed over the years,” said Feldstein Soto spokesperson Karen Richardson.

The judge’s order may only be the beginning.

Mejia has been urging the city’s Charter Reform Commission to propose language that clearly gives him the power to audit programs overseen by his fellow elected officials. Such a move would erase any doubts about whether he has the legal standing to scrutinize Inside Safe.

The debate over the powers of the city controller goes back decades. In 2008, then-City Controller Laura Chick clashed with City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo over her attempt to audit his office’s workers compensation unit. The following year, right before Chick left office, a judge sided with Delgadillo and found that the controller lacked the authority for the audit.

In the short term, Carter’s order could give Mejia new leeway to identify lax oversight of L.A.’s homelessness programs, offering the public fresh insight into how closely they are tracked, and possibly identifying waste or fraud.

Mejia declined interview requests from The Times. Last month in federal court, he dazzled Carter with his office’s online dashboards, which show expenditures not just for Inside Safe but many other homelessness programs.

Carter praised the work of Mejia and his team, according to a transcript of the proceedings. Mejia, in turn, said his office enjoys the work but sometimes struggles to carry it out with its existing staff.

“Some of these contracts are 400 pages,” he said. “And so right now, we have a two-person team who is doing all of that and putting all this together.”

Attorney Elizabeth Mitchell, who represents the L.A. Alliance, welcomed the selection of Mejia, saying he’s clearly been pushing to get more involved in the case.

“My only concern is, I don’t know if he will engender a lot of cooperation from the city, because they don’t seem inclined to cooperate with him,” Mitchell said.

That wasn’t the message from Councilmember Tim McOsker, who voiced alarm in recent months over the costly bills submitted by the outside law firm handling the L.A. Alliance case for the city. McOsker, who spent several years in the city attorney’s office, expressed confidence in Mejia’s abilities and said the decision to pick him would be cost effective.

“It is imperative that we give value to the taxpayers of the city of Los Angeles,” he said.

State of play

— BEUTNERPALOOZA: After weeks of speculation, Beutner jumped into the June 2026 race for mayor. His team got off to a choppy start last weekend, uploading “Austin for LA Mayor” images to his social media accounts before he had even made a formal announcement, then abruptly taking them down. Hours later, Beutner formally went public, blasting Bass over the city’s handling of the Palisades fire, which destroyed his mother-in-law’s home and severely damaged his Pacific Palisades home.

By Monday, Beutner had released a video announcing his campaign, which assailed Trump over his immigration crackdown. Two days later, he appeared with supporters in San Pedro, repeating his warning that the city is “adrift.”

— DEFINE ADRIFT: The following morning, Bass joined former Councilmember Mike Bonin, director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs, to discuss politics, leadership and her tenure. She took issue with Beutner’s characterization of L.A. as “adrift,” saying the city has been through “multiple shocks this year,” including a catastrophic firestorm and “being invaded” by federal authorities in June.

The talk took place on the 72nd floor of the U.S. Bank Tower, offering a staggeringly beautiful post-rain city view, which offers a good excuse to revisit former California poet laureate Dana Gioia’s classic poem, “Los Angeles After the Rain.”

— FIERCE AMBITION: Is L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath running for mayor of Los Angeles? The former West Hollywood mayor hasn’t ruled it out — and moved to the city a few months ago.

— WE’RE NOT IN TEXAS ANYMORE: Two more plaintiffs in L.A. County’s $4-billion sex abuse settlement have come forward to say they were told to invent their claims in exchange for cash. The allegations follow a Times investigation published earlier this month that found seven plaintiffs who claimed they received cash from recruiters to sue the county over sex abuse. Downtown LA Law Group, which filed cases for the plaintiffs, has denied involvement with the alleged recruiters.

— BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE: Meanwhile, the county is preparing to pay out an additional $828 million to another group of plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused in county facilities.

— GETTING OUT THE VOTE: Real estate developer Rick Caruso, the is-he-or-isn’t-he potential mayoral/gubernatorial candidate, is sending mailers to more than 45,000 voters who lived in fire-damaged sections of Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena and now have temporary addresses. He advised them on how to update their voter registration by listing a temporary mailing address while also remaining in their original voting district, according to a Caruso spokesperson. Caruso is paying for the effort, which is nonpartisan and doesn’t mention any specific election. His team declined to provide the cost.

—SPEAKING OF CARUSO: Politico took a look at the mall magnate’s recent travels around the state, which have fueled speculation that he’s leaning toward a gubernatorial bid. The outlet reported that Caruso, who self-financed his 2022 mayoral campaign, recently met with Democratic megadonors Haim Saban and Ari Emanuel.

— THREE’S COMPANY: East Hollywood resident Dylan Kendall filed paperwork this week to challenge incumbent Hugo Soto–Martínez in next year’s race to represent Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park and other neighborhoods. Kendall, a business owner who previously worked at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, cited quality-of-life issues as the impetus for her candidacy. Political consultant Michael Trujillo and fundraiser Kat Connolly have joined her campaign. (One of Soto-Martínez’s upstairs neighbors, Colter Carlisle, is also running.)

— MORE FALLOUT FROM G: L.A. County Chief Executive Fesia Davenport received a $2-million payout this summer after telling the county supervisors she had experienced professional fallout from Measure G, a voter-approved ballot measure that will soon make her job obsolete.

— 1,000 DAYS LEFT: Bass reminded Angelenos on Friday that the start of the 2028 Olympic Games is just 1,000 days away. Appearing in Venice, she signed an executive directive streamlining preparations for the international event.

— BYE, JULIA: We are super bummed to report that this was erstwhile City Hall reporter Julia Wick‘s last week at The Times. She will miss all of you. But she says please keep in touch!

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to combat homelessness went to Hollywood this week, focusing on the area around Santa Monica Boulevard and Heliotrope Drive in Soto-Martínez’s district.
• On the docket next week: The council’s public works committee takes up the issue of long-delayed sidewalk repairs, including the city’s obligations to make them wheelchair accessible.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Questionnaires were distributed to candidates this month. Answers have been edited to fit the available space.

Family Sick Leave

Q. Gov. Deukmejian recently vetoed legislation that would have granted workers as much as four months of unpaid leave every two years to care for sick children, spouses and other family members without fear of losing their jobs. Do you favor this type of legislation?

Margolin: Yes.

Michael: Yes.

Staley: Yes.

Teacher Salaries

Q. The Legislature approved a 4.7% cost-of-living raise for school employees, and Gov. Deukmejian reduced it to 3%, placing the difference in an account for special education programs. Should this money be used for salaries?

Margolin: Yes. Recruiting talented and dedicated teachers is critical to improving educational performance.

Michael: Yes, but only for teachers’ salaries. I do not consider an increase of 4.7% to be extravagant and do not believe the governor should have cut corners on teachers.

Staley: Yes. It should be used for cost-of-living raises.

Big Green

Q. Proposition 128, the so-called “Big Green” initiative on the November ballot, seeks to eliminate ozone-depleting chemicals by the year 2000, phase out pesticides known to cause cancer and require that trees be planted in all new developments. Do you support this initiative? Margolin: Yes. These significant reforms of our environmental protection laws represent a major breakthrough in the effort to halt the alarming deterioration of our environment.

Michael: Yes. We must eliminate toxic pesticides from our food, land and livestock and must cease endangering our farm workers and their families. This is the best aspect of Big Green.

Staley: Yes. Preservation of the environment is of the utmost importance.

Tree-Cutting

Q. Proposition 130 on the November ballot would restrict clear-cutting of forests, allow the sale of $710 million in bonds to preserve ancient redwood forests and provide $32 million to retrain unemployed loggers. Do you support this initiative? Margolin: Yes.

Michael: Yes.

Staley: Yes, but not as an alternative to 128.

Limited Terms

Q. Proposition 131 on the November ballot, authored by Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and Common Cause, would limit most statewide elected officials to eight consecutive years in office, and senators and Assembly members to 12 years. Proposition 140, sponsored by Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, is more stringent, limiting lifetime service to eight years in the Senate and six in the Assembly. Do you support limiting the number of terms state legislators can serve? If yes, how long should the limits be? Margolin: No. Term limits deprive the voters of the right to select their representatives. They also would expand the influence of the special interests who would clearly benefit from the turmoil artificial term limits would create.

Michael: Yes. I support Proposition 140. We must rid ourselves of the corrupt Legislature we have, and this will do that.

Staley: Yes. I favor shorter limits. Legislators will be less at the mercy of campaign contributors. They would give more citizens access to government and would help free legislators from constant campaign worries.

Sales Tax

Q. Proposition 133 on the November ballot would raise state sales and use taxes by 0.5% for four years to raise $7.5 billion for drug enforcement and treatment, anti-drug education , and prison and jail construction and operation. Do you support this initiative?

Margolin: Yes.

Michael: Yes.

Staley: No.

Liquor Tax

Q. Proposition 134 on the November ballot would substantially raise taxes on beer, wine and liquor, and dedicate the revenue from the tax hike to programs for the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse. Do you support this initiative? Margolin: Yes.

Michael: No.

Staley: No.

Inmate Laborers

Q. Proposition 139 on the November ballot would allow private companies to hire state prison and county jail inmates as laborers. Do you support this initiative? Margolin: No.

Michael: Yes.

Staley: No.

Death Penalty

Q. Do you support capital punishment? If so, do you think it should be imposed on those convicted of importing or selling drugs? Margolin: No.

Michael: Yes, I support capital punishment. No, I am not inclined to use it for simple drug-dealing, but would make it an option if a specific death can be clearly tied to a certain dealer’s drugs.

Staley: No to both.

Handgun Controls

Q. Do you support additional limits on handgun purchase or possession in California? Margolin: Yes. Senseless violence is made easy because of the virtually unrestricted access to handguns. I support waiting periods for their purchase and mandatory training programs. I also support increased penalties for illegal possession.

Michael: No. Gun laws do not work, as the cities of New York and Washington, D.C., readily prove. In addition, they are of questionable constitutionality.

Staley: Yes. A more thorough background check, a waiting period and proof of training should be rigid. Ultimately, handguns should be made illegal, but it is a decision voters must make.

Abortion Rights

Q. Do you support a woman’s right to unrestricted abortions within the first three months of pregnancy? Margolin: Yes.

Michael: No.

Staley: Yes.

Abortion Funding

Q. Do you support government funding of abortions for women who cannot afford them? Margolin: Yes.

Michael: No, except in cases of reported rape and incest, and where the life and/or health of the mother is in jeopardy.

Staley: Yes.

Day-Care Services

Q. Do you believe the state should require private employers to subsidize day-care services for employees who request them? Margolin: Yes. Better day care would allow working parents to improve their job performance. It serves the interests of both the employee and the employer.

Michael: No. The state should provide tax incentives for companies to provide day care. Mandatory requirements would promote discrimination against women in hiring.

Staley: Yes, as well as paid maternity leave.

War on Drugs

Q. Do you believe our present strategy of criminal prosecution, interdiction of supplies and imprisonment of users and dealers will ever significantly reduce the level of drug use in the United States? If no, what should be done? Margolin: No. While they are necessary steps, by themselves they are unlikely to succeed. Equal effort has to be applied to drug education and drug treatment if any long-term progress is to be made.

Michael: No. You must decrease the demand side through education. If the demand is still there, the law will not stop it alone.

Staley: No. The problem is not the users and dealers.

Drug Decriminalization

Q. Would you consider supporting the decriminalization of drug use? Margolin: No.

Michael: No, except for marijuana.

Staley: Yes.

Oil Exploration

Q. Do you think the present Mideast crisis justifies opening up additional parts of the California coastline to oil exploration? Margolin: No. New energy sources can be developed without desecrating our priceless coastline.

Michael: No. The economic crisis isn’t that bad, and we need to be less dependent on petroleum.

Staley: No. The United States has other reserves.

Parkland Exchange

Q. Should the National Park Service exchange 50 acres in Cheeseboro Canyon in southeastern Ventura County for about 1,100 acres of the neighboring Jordan Ranch owned by entertainer Bob Hope, permitting park agencies to buy another 4,600 acres of Hope’s land in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains for $10 million? Margolin: Yes.

Michael: Yes.

Staley: No, Mr. Hope should donate the land voluntarily.

Mandatory Ride-Sharing

Q. Do you favor mandatory ride-sharing in an effort to meet government air pollution standards? Margolin: Yes. Ride-sharing has proven to be an effective tool in reducing traffic congestion. Any mandatory program needs to be flexibly structured to meet the needs of Southern California commuters.

Michael: No. It’s unenforceable.

Staley: No. That would be a violation of civil liberties. Public transit should be improved and should be free.

Political Funding

Q. Do you support full or partial public funding of political campaigns? Margolin: Yes, if it applies to general elections and the level of funding is adequate for the candidates to effectively communicate their views to the electorate.

Michael: No. Taxpayer money should not go to campaign consultants and television stations.

Staley: Yes. Full funding for candidates who want it would make this process fairer and would help reduce the influence of campaign contributors. There should be spending limits, also.

Income Disclosure

Q. Are you willing to publicly release your income tax returns and those of your spouse prior to the November election? Margolin: No.

Michael: No.

Haley: Yes.

Porter Ranch

Q. Do you support development of the massive Porter Ranch project in the hills north of Chatsworth as presently configured? Margolin: No. Projects of this immense scale will add to the congestion that is already choking our streets and eroding the quality of life in Los Angeles.

Michael: No. The neighborhood doesn’t want it, and it’s simply a developer, money-making scheme which benefits no one else.

Haley: No. I do not support unlimited growth and I believe voters in the area should make the decision, not politicians.

CONTENDERS Burt Margolin, 39, a Democrat, has represented the 45th District in the state Senate since 1982. Previously, he worked for Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Howard. L. Berman (D-Panorama City).

Elizabeth Michael, 34, of Hollywood, is a businesswoman who has long been active in Republican party politics. She made an unsuccessful bid for the state Senate two years ago.

Owen Staley of Hollywood is the Peace and Freedom party candidate. He is a college instructor.

From paddling in Lake Windermere to scenic cruises, our wholesome Lake District escape had something for the whole family to enjoy: kids, grandparents and even our dog

The goal was a five-day UK getaway that three generations of our family would enjoy, so we ditched our usual Cornwall hotspot and instead headed north to the Lakes.

We stayed in Ada’s Hideaway, booked via Sykes Cottages, a tucked‑away barn conversion hidden in the rural countryside of Stainton near Sizergh, just a few miles from Kendal in Cumbria. It’s part of a cluster of luxury cottages on a working farm, meaning gentle agricultural life just adds to its charm (expect to hear livestock or see farm vehicles). From the back garden we had rolling views across fields and could see horses in adjacent paddocks – a quiet, pretty glimpse of country life that felt like a real treat.

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Because it is off the beaten track, having a car is essential as there isn’t anything on the doorstep. We stocked up at the local supermarket (there’s a Lidl and Asda in Kendal) as we wanted to keep costs down by making our meals every night – plus with young kids, we find evenings in, where they can run around the house and play games, is the easiest option.

What to do around Lake Windermere

One day we headed out to Fell Foot, a National Trust site on the southern tip of Lake Windermere. It’s a dream for families – huge lawns for picnics, shallow lake waters for paddling and swimming, and the option to hire boats or give paddleboarding a go. Visiting in warmer weather, the children loved trying out the water activities and paddling with Charlie, our cockapoo. After a row around the lake and plenty of splashing about, we tucked into a picnic, but there’s also a lovely café on site.

Another day we parked near the Beatrix Potter museum in Bowness and strolled down to the pier, where you can hop on a cruise that’s not only child‑friendly but dogs can also travel for free. We took the 75-minute ‘red’ package that goes via Ambleside. Gliding across the lake watching the kids wave at passing boats while their nan enjoyed the views of the striking peaks made it the perfect activity for all generations.

On a previous trip to Windermere we booked onto a different boat trip from the Jetty Museum, which we highly recommend too as it has an excellent café and a large car park – but we had our furry friend with us on this visit, and they’re not allowed on these restored boats.

Why it works for families

The Lake District is famous for its scenery, but what struck us most was how easy it was to include everyone. From dog‑friendly attractions to gentle walks, boat trips and open green spaces, nothing ever felt stressful. We could plan big adventures or simply slow down with ice creams by the water.

Ada’s Hideaway was an excellent place to base ourselves, and evenings spent here were relaxed and low‑key – board games, family meals and a glass of wine once the kids were tucked up. If your ideal break is part-cosy cottage, part-lakeside fun and part-quiet countryside reset, this really delivered.

How much does it cost?

Stays at Ada’s Hideaway start at £602 for seven nights. Book via Sykes Cottages.

For other options for Lake District cottages, have a browse of Holidaycottages.co.uk or Rural Retreats.

A divided Los Angeles school board has voted to shut down a popular charter school to make more space for its own program on the same Echo Park campus, pushing the boundaries of state law and school district authority over charters.

The 4-3 vote late Tuesday denied a renewal authorization for Gabriella Charter School, which means the 400-student school specializing in dance instruction, can’t operate beyond the end of the current school year.

Although county education officials could act independently to renew the charter, the L.A. school board decision still means Gabriella would be essentially evicted from the campus and the dance studios built for its use.

Board member Rocio Rivas, whose district includes the school, said the move was necessary to protect the interests of the district-operated school and the nation’s second-largest school system.

“This multiuse agreement has not worked,” Rivas said. “It meets the needs of Gabriella, but it’s not meeting the needs of the district. So as far as I’m concerned, this multiuse agreement should be nullified.”

A spokesperson for Gabriella said Wednesday morning that the school was considering its legal options.

The California Charter Schools Assn. spoke strongly in defense of Gabriella.

“This decision is a backhanded strategy to push Gabriella out of its longtime home on an LAUSD campus — a site the District itself invited Gabriella to share with a district-run school back in 2009,” said Keith Dell’Aquila, who leads advocacy work for the association in the L.A. area. “For 16 years, Gabriella has served countless students at that location with excellence and stability.”

The case highlights the resolve of school board members, aligned with the teachers union, to target a non-union charter school to further the aspirations of a district-operated campus.

Third-grade teacher Karla Balani helps with instruction at Gabriella Charter School.

(Karla Gachet/For The Times)

Why charter schools draw political controversy

Charters are privately operated public schools that compete for students. Charter supporters view their educational offerings as a way to spark innovation and provide needed public school competition — and simply to offer parents more choices.

Some supporters have also wanted a foothold to weaken the influence of teacher unions and build a bridge to more controversial school-choice strategies, including using public-school funds to pay for private school tuition.

Most charters are non-union and have typically been opposed by teacher unions.

Charters have enjoyed a degree of bipartisan support and were long able to shape California laws in their favor, but their political clout in the state has somewhat declined.

L.A. Unified oversees 235 charters, more than any school system in the country, and many of these started when school boards had little authority to reject them. About 1 in 5 L.A. public school students attend charters.

Gabriella has shared a campus with the district-operated Logan Academy for Global Ecology, which includes a dual-language program in Spanish and English. Both schools offer transitional kindergarten through eighth grade.

For the Logan community the charter has long been an unwanted detraction from their efforts. And they saw the renewal process as a chance to act because the board majority has become more strongly anti-charter.

Staff at Logan said Tuesday that they need more space to offer a full middle-school program on a campus that served only elementary grades for most of its 137-year history. The middle grades were added to help sustain the school.

Logan also has become a designated community school, which offers a wider range of support services for students and families, typically including health care, tutoring and counseling. And these services, too, require space.

“The fact that Logan Academy is a community school, is now a span school — circumstances for them have changed, and that is what we need to take into consideration,” Rivas said.

Third-graders practice dance in jazz class.

(Karla Gachet/For The Times)

State protections for charters

California law gives charter schools the right to use public-school facilities that are “reasonably equivalent” to those available to other public-school students.

The L.A. school board majority tested the limits of these state rules when it voted 4-3 in 2024 to give preferences to district-operated schools and ban outright the sharing of hundreds of campuses.

In a June 27 ruling, a judge concluded that the policy unlawfully “prioritizes District schools over charter schools and is too vague … To the maximum extent practicable, the needs of the charter school must be given the same consideration as those of the district-run schools.”

Under that ruling and others, courts have found that charters, such as Gabriella, are entitled to space for similar resources that the district would claim it for.

State law also sets up a process through which charter schools can request and share campuses. The process restarts every year and has resulted in annual uncertainty both for charters and others sharing the campuses.

School districts also have the option of reaching other sorts of agreements with charters. That is what happened at Logan, where the school district agreed to a multiyear lease. That lease has coincided with the full term of the charter renewal.

For Gabriella, the arrangement avoided the instability of having to move from place to place each year — especially because most elementary schools are not outfitted with dance studios.

Logan was specially modified to accommodate Gabriella’s unique program. A benefit to the district was that Gabriella became a feeder program to the district’s new arts-focused high school downtown.

Ending the multiyear lease for Logan was a high priority for Rivas.

“If this — the charter … is not renewed, then that pretty much severs their multiyear agreement,” Rivas said.

Students practice their dance at Gabriella Charter School.

(Karla Gachet/For The Times)

Impact of declining enrollment

Enrollment at Logan Academy has been trending downward, much like in the school system as a whole. Last year’s enrollment totaled 91 students in kindergarten through second grade. Three years earlier that comparable figure was 139 students.

In 2014, the school had 486 students. Last year the number was 362.

The charter school’s enrollment also is down — from a peak of 468 in the 2020-21 school year to 396 last year.

Official figures are not yet available for this year, but enrollment across the school system appears to be lower, per preliminary estimates.

Rivas said Tuesday that Gabriella had been an uncooperative tenant that flouted financially responsibilities and had, therefore, forfeited any inside track to renewal.

At the Tuesday meeting, it was brought up that the charter did not participate in a recent fire drill. It’s leaders have pledged to do so in the future.

More serious is a long-simmering dispute over whether the charter has paid an appropriate amount for use of the campus. As the charter renewal date approached, the charter leaders yielded and made an $800,000 payment to the school system. That issue has yet to be resolved.

One disputed issue is that the school district raised the usage fee retroactively — to cover a period of time that already had ended,

Board staff recommended a five-year renewal, saying the school had met the legally required academic performance standard. A charter school also can be denied renewal if it is fiscally unsound, but district staff concluded that, too, was not grounds for denial.

Board member Nick Melvoin, who voted to renew the charter, wanted to know the legal basis for rejecting it.

The answer from staff was that the decision could be based on the board’s citing of past financial disagreements that have not been entirely settled.

Melvoin strongly disagreed with the outcome.

“Co-locations are tough, and I have a lot of empathy and understanding for Logan,” Melvoin said. “I think that it’s really incumbent upon us, the adults who are the stewards of the children in this situation, to come to creative solutions on behalf of kids.”

“You have two K-8 schools that are pulling almost the same number of kids from that community,” he added, “and I think we owe it to them to try to work something out.”

Opposing the renewal were Rivas, Board President Scott Schmerelson, Karla Griego and Sherlett Hendy Newbill. Favoring renewal were Melvoin, Kelly Gonez and Tanya Ortiz Franklin.

WASHINGTON — Troops patrol train stations and streets in the nation’s capital. Masked federal law enforcement agents detain District of Columbia residents. Congress passes bills that further squeeze the city’s autonomy. And the one person who could act as a voice for Washington on Capitol Hill has been a rare sight.

Even longtime allies say Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s nonvoting delegate in the House, has not risen to the challenge of pushing back against the Trump administration’s intervention into her city. They cite her age, 88, and her diminished demeanor.

That has raised questions about the 18-term lawmaker’s future in that office and has led to calls for her to step aside and make way for a new generation of leaders. The race to replace her has began in earnest, with two members of the D.C. Council, including a former Norton aide, announcing campaigns for the 2026 contest.

“D.C. is under attack as at no other time in recent history, and we need a new champion to defend us,” Donna Brazile, a onetime Norton chief of staff, wrote in a Washington Post opinion essay.

Brazile acknowledged Norton’s legendary service and why she might wish to continue. “As I’ve told her in person,” Brazile said, “retirement from Congress is the right next chapter for her — and for the District.”

Norton has so far resisted that call. Her office declined to make her available for an interview, and her campaign office did not respond to requests for comment. The oldest member of the House, Norton came to office in 1991 and has indicated she plans to run next year.

Federal intervention created new demands

Washington is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed by Congress in 1973 that allowed residents to elect a mayor and a city council. But federal political leaders retain ultimate control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by that council.

That freedom came under further restrictions after Republican President Trump issued an emergency order in August. It was meant to combat crime as he federalized the city’s police department and poured federal agents and National Guard troops into the city. Trump’s emergency order expired in September, but the troops and federal officers remain.

While the D.C. delegate position is a nonvoting one, it grants the people of the district, who have no other representation in Congress, a voice through speechmaking on the House floor and bill introduction.

Even without a vote in Congress, “there are so many things that the delegate can do from that position, even if it’s just using the bully pulpit,” said Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a voting rights group. “Even if it’s just giving folks encouragement or showing that fight that a lot of people want to see.”

At public appearances, Norton has seemed unsteady and struggled to read from prepared notes, including at a recent committee hearing focused on stripping some of Washington’s independence on prosecuting crime.

During Trump’s monthlong security emergency and since, Norton has not been as publicly visible as city officials, who attended protests and held media events denouncing the intervention.

Without a push for party unity from congressional leaders on Washington’s interests, the delegate’s role has added importance, said George Derek Musgrove, associate professor of history at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

“The delegate really has to be a one-person whip operation to try and hold the caucus in line against this Republican onslaught,” Musgrove said.

City leaders step in

It is unclear what a more energetic delegate could have done, given Trump’s expansive view of executive power and Republican control of Congress. Nonetheless, some critics of her performance have suggested it might have helped the city avoid a recent federal budget plan that created a $1.1-billion budget hole earlier this year. Months later, Congress has yet to approve a fix for the shortfall, even though Trump has endorsed one.

With Norton quiet, other leaders in the Democratic-run city have filled the void since Trump’s emergency declaration.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has stepped in as the district’s main mediator with the administration and Congress, joined by the council, although that outreach has been fragmented. D.C. Atty. Gen. Brian Schwalb sued the administration in the most combative stance against the federal government’s actions.

As Norton left a recent House hearing about the district, she responded with a strong “no” when asked by reporters whether she would retire.

Among those seeking to challenge her in next year’s Democratic primary are two council members — Robert White Jr., a former Norton aide, and Brooke Pinto. Many others in the city have expressed interest. Allies, including Bowser and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, have declined to publicly endorse another Norton run.

A push for new faces

Norton’s life is a journey through American history.

In 1963, she split her time between Yale Law School and Mississippi, where she volunteered for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. One day during the Freedom Summer, civil rights activist Medgar Evers picked her up at the airport. He was assassinated that night. Norton also helped organize and attended the 1963 March on Washington.

Norton went on to become the first woman to lead the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which helps enforce anti-discrimination laws in the workplace. She ran for office when her predecessor retired to run for Washington mayor.

Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia and a staunch Norton ally who worked with her on a number of bills, said voters should know who she is and what she is capable of, even now.

“She saved the city,” he said, listing off accomplishments such as the 1997 act that spared the city from bankruptcy, as well as improving college access. “She was a great partner.”

Davis said both major political parties are yearning for new faces.

“She’s still very well respected. She’s got a lot seniority,” he said. “I think she’s earned the right to go out on her terms. But that’s gonna be up to the voters.”

Fields, Brown and Khalil write for the Associated Press.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Rebecca Ellis with an assist from Julia Wick, giving you the latest on city and county government.

Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors met for hours in closed session with attorneys Tuesday to ponder a legal quandary about as thorny as they come.

What do you do with a $4-billion sex abuse settlement when some plaintiffs say they were paid to sue?

On one hand, the supervisors emphasized, they want victims to get the compensation they’re owed for abuse they suffered at the hands of county employees. That’s why they green-lighted the largest sex abuse settlement in U.S. history this April.

But the allegations of paid plaintiffs, surfaced by The Times last week, have also raised concerns about potential misconduct. The supervisors stated the obvious Tuesday: They do not want taxpayer money set aside for victims going to people who were never in county facilities.

“The entire process angers and sickens me,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who first called for the investigation into the payout, at the meeting Tuesday. “We must ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

A Times investigation last week found seven people who said they were paid by recruiters to sue L.A. County for sex abuse. Two of them said they were explicitly told to fabricate claims. All the people who said they were paid had lawsuits filed by Downtown LA Law Group, or DTLA, which has about 2,700 clients in the settlement.

DTLA has denied paying anyone to file a lawsuit and said no representative of the firm had been authorized to make payments. The Times could not reach any of the representatives who allegedly made the payments for comment.

“We have always worked hard to present only meritorious claims and have systems in place to help weed out false or exaggerated allegations,” the firm said in a statement.

The allegations dropped a bomb on the nearly finalized legal settlement, leaving county attorneys and plaintiffs lawyers scrambling to figure out the best path forward.

Some have called for the county to get out of the settlement half a year after announcing it. Technically, it can. The settlement agreement, reviewed by The Times, has a clause that allows the county to pull out unless all but 120 of the plaintiffs agree to the terms — a number attorneys could almost certainly surpass with more than 11,000 plaintiffs.

But the county does not appear to be relishing the thought of blowing up a settlement that took months of negotiations, countless hours in a courtroom and one can only guess how much in billable attorney hours. Many of these cases, attorneys for the county warn, could cost tens of millions in a trial. Clearing them all at once for $4 billion could, believe it or not, end up sounding like a bargain.

No decision was made Tuesday after hours in closed session. The only news out of it was the announcement that Fesia Davenport, the chief executive, would be going on medical leave for the next few months. She will be temporarily replaced by Joe Nicchitta, the office’s second-in-command.

Davenport emphasized the reasons for her absence were personal and had nothing to do with the settlement after rumors immediately swirled connecting the two.

“I am deeply disappointed that I have to address baseless allegations that my leave is somehow related to the County’s AB 218 settlement — which it is not,” she said in a statement. “I am on medical leave and expect to return to work in early 2026.”

Next Tuesday, the supervisors plan to meet again in closed session to grapple with the settlement, according to the board agenda.

In the aftermath of the investigation, some county watchdogs have called for the government to better screen the claims it’s poised to pay out.

“There was a lack of the basics,” said Eric Preven, a local government observer, who said he’s worried about the effect of unvetted lawsuits on the government. “What have we done?”

“We’re glad the supervisors are finally doing their jobs, but what took them so long?” said the Daily News editorial board.

County counsel says they’re working on it. They’ve demanded “evidentiary statements” for each victim and search for whatever documentation exists, the office said in a statement.

“But the simple truth is this: Los Angeles County is facing more than 11,000 claims, most of which are decades old, where evidence is scarce or nonexistent,” the statement read. “Survivors and taxpayers deserve a process with integrity, not one that rewards coercion, shortcuts, or abuse of the system.”

Some victims say they’re concerned the allegations of paid plaintiffs will taint the settlement and delay justice for legitimate survivors.

Tanina Evans, 47, said she spent her childhood bouncing around county-run juvenile halls and group homes. She sued the county after she said she was sexually abused multiple times, including once at Eastlake Juvenile Hall, where she says she was forced to give a staff member oral sex in the shower. When she refused, she said, the staff member had the teenagers she was incarcerated with beat her up.

She said she worries experiences like hers will now be looked at with new skepticism.

“People are so quick to justify not penalizing anyone. Are they looking for a loophole?” Evans said. “And it’s like, no, you guys know it’s real.”

State of play

— PALISADES ARREST AND FALLOUT: Federal prosecutors filed charges Wednesday in the Palisades fire, accusing Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, of starting the initial fire on New Year’s Day that rekindled to become the devastating blaze days later. This latest revelation is fueling debate over whether the city of L.A. or the state of California can be found civilly liable for its role in the fire, our colleague Jenny Jarvie reports.

—NEW FINDINGS: With the federal investigation tied up, Mayor Karen Bass’ office released a long-awaited after-action report finding that firefighters were hampered by an ineffective process for recalling them back to work, as well as poor communication, inexperienced leadership and a lack of resources.

—2022 NEVER ENDS, SCREENTIME EDITION: Speaking at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference Wednesday, Bass characterized her former mayoral opponent and frequent critic Rick Caruso as “sad and bitter.” Earlier in the day, Caruso had put out a statement in response to the charges filed against Rinderknecht that called the Palisades fire “a failure of government on an epic level, starting with Mayor Bass.” During a separate appearance at the Screentime conference, Caruso shot back at Bass, saying anger was an appropriate response to the contents of the report. Caruso still hasn’t said whether he plans to run for mayor or governor next year, or sit out the 2026 election.

—BUT THEY WEREN’T JUST FIGHTING! A day later, Bass called on the City Council to adopt an ordinance that would help establish a one-time exemption to Measure ULA, the city’s so-called “mansion tax,” for Palisades fire-affected properties, to speed up sales and spur rebuilding and rehabilitation of the area. Bass’ office said her letter to the council followed a meeting with Caruso, who had “proposed ideas to help address this issue.”

—FAREWELL, FORKISH: LAPD public information director Jennifer Forkish resigned Thursday at the request of Chief Jim McDonnell, amid accusations from the region’s top federal prosecutor that her office was leaking information. But Forkish vehemently denied the “baseless allegation” that she had leaked anything.

—GARBAGE MONEY: City Council voted Tuesday to finalize a dramatic fee increase for residential trash collection, after giving the fee hike preliminary approval back in April. This is the first time the fees have been raised in 17 years and the city was heavily subsidizing the program, at the cost of roughly $500,000 a day.

—PAYOUT IN SPOTLIGHT: The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to launch an investigation into possible misconduct by “legal representatives” involved in sex abuse litigation. The county auditor’s office also will set up a hotline dedicated to tips from the public related to the lawsuits.

— MUSICAL CHAIRS: Former FBI agent Erroll Southers plans to step down from the L.A. Police Commission, my colleague Libor Jany reported Friday. Southers has been a member of the panel since 2023, when Bass picked him to serve out the term of a departing commissioner. His appointment to a full five-year term was supposed to come before the City Council a few weeks ago, but instead the council continued the matter — setting off a bizarre bureaucratic chain of events that led to Southers essentially being confirmed by default due to city rules and the council’s inaction (too complicated to fully summarize here, but Libor explained it all in his story at the time).

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? Bass’ initiative addressed an encampment on Lincoln Boulevard in Westchester, in partnership with Councilmember Traci Park’s office.
• On the docket next week: The board will vote on a state of emergency over recent federal immigration actions to provide the supervisors with more power to assist those affected by the flood of deportations. And, over in City Hall, the council’s public safety committee will consider the mayor’s appointment of Jeffrey Skobin to the police commission on Wednesday.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

As California voters receive mail ballots for the November special election, which could upend the state’s congressional boundaries and determine control of the House, billionaire hedge-fund founder Tom Steyer said Thursday he will spend $12 million to back Democrats’ efforts to redraw districts to boost their party’s ranks in the legislative body.

The ballot measure was proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California Democrats after President Trump urged Texas leaders to redraw their congressional districts before next year’s midterm election. Buttressing GOP numbers in Congress could help Trump continue enacting his agenda during his final two years in office.

“We must stop Trump’s election-rigging power grab,” Steyer said in a statement. “The defining fight through Nov. 4 is passing Proposition 50. In order to compete and win, Democrats can’t keep playing by the same old rules. This is how we fight back, and stick it to Trump.”

Steyer’s announcement makes him the biggest funder of pro-Proposition 50 efforts, surpassing billionaire financier George Soros, who has contributed $10 million to the effort.

Steyer founded a hedge fund whose investments included massive fossil fuel projects, but after he learned of the environmental consequences of these financial decisions, he divested and has worked to fight climate change. Steyer has spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Democratic candidates and causes and more than $300 million on his unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign.

Steyer plans to launch a scathing ad Thursday night that imagines Trump watching election returns on Nov. 4 and furiously throwing fast food at a television when he sees Proposition 50 succeeding.

“Why did you do this to Trump?” the president asks. The ad then shows a fictional TV anchor saying that the ballot measure’s success makes it more likely that Trump will be investigated for corruption and that the records of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein will be released. “I hate California,” Trump responds.

The advertisement is scheduled to start airing Thursday night during “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The late-night show was in the spotlight after it was briefly suspended by Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC last month under pressure from the Trump administration because of a comment Kimmel made about the slaying of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The esoteric process of redistricting typically occurs once every decade after the U.S. Census to account for population shifts. The maps, historically drawn in smoke-filled backrooms, protected incumbents and created bizarrely shaped districts, such as the “ribbon of shame” along the California coast.

In recent decades, good-government advocates have fought to create districts that are logical and geographically compact and do not disenfranchise minority voters. At the forefront of the effort, California voters passed a 2010 ballot measure to create an independent commission to draw the state’s congressional boundaries.

But this year, Trump and his allies urged leaders of GOP-led states to redraw their congressional districts to boost Republicans’ prospects in next year’s midterm election. The House is closely divided, and retaining Republican control is crucial to Trump’s ability to enact his agenda.

California Democrats, led by Newson, responded in kind. The state Legislature voted in August to call a special election in November to decide on redrawn districts that could give their party five more seats in the state’s 52-member congressional delegation, the largest in the nation.

Supporters of Proposition 50 have vastly outraised the committees opposing the measure. Steyer’s announcement came one day after Charles Munger Jr., the largest donor to the opposition, spoke out publicly for the first time about why he had contributed $32 million to the effort.

“I’m fighting for the ordinary voter to have an effective say in their own government,” Munger told reporters. “I don’t want Californians ignored by the national government because all the districts are fortresses for one party or the other.”

A longtime opponent of gerrymandering, the bow-tie-wearing Palo Alto physicist bankrolled the 2010 ballot measure that created the independent commission to draw California’s congressional districts.

Munger, the son of a billionaire who was the right-hand man of investor Warren Buffett, declined to comment about whether he planned to give additional funds.

“I neither confirm nor deny rumors that involve the tactics of the campaign,” Munger told reporters. “Talk to me after the election is over.”

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Julia Wick and David Zahniser, giving you the latest on city and county government.

It’s been a minute since Hugo Soto-Martínez and Colter Carlisle last bumped into each other in the laundry room of their apartment complex.

Not since before Carlisle, who serves as vice president of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, filed paperwork Monday to challenge Soto-Martínez for his L.A. City Council seat.

“I am wondering if it will be the most awkward moment of my entire life,” Carlisle said of his inevitable laundry room run-in with his new opponent. “But we’ll see how it goes.”

A sitting council member being challenged by a member of a neighborhood council is far from an unusual occurrence. But this is the first time, to our knowledge, that a council member will face off against their upstairs neighbor.

“I want to be clear that me running has zero to do with the fact that he’s my downstairs neighbor,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle, who works in freelance legal sales and has served on the neighborhood council since 2021, will face a vertiginously steep path in his quest to unseat Soto-Martínez.

Soto-Martínez ousted an incumbent in 2022, expanding the council’s left flank to represent a densely packed collection of neighborhoods that includes Silver Lake, Echo Park, Atwater Village and Hollywood.

A former union organizer, Soto-Martínez has deep support from the city’s powerful labor unions and the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America. He is one of the few renters on the council and was running unopposed until Carlisle entered the race.

It was “a massive coincidence,” Carlisle said, that the neighborhood council member (who won his 2023 election with 16 votes) and the City Council member (who won his 2022 election with 38,069 votes) lived in the same East Hollywood complex in the first place.

“After he won, we were both kind of like, ‘Wait, are we, like, co-workers now?’” Carlisle recalled. “When that happened, it was sort of like, OK, I don’t want to bother him at home. I don’t want him to come home and worry he’s going to run into me. Both of us need to come home and decompress.”

Carlisle voted for Soto-Martínez for 2022, he said, but housing issues catalyzed his decision to challenge his neighbor in 2026.

Carlisle argues that the city’s push to build more housing is displacing long-term residents. He thinks the payouts the city requires for tenants who are pushed out by new construction are insufficient.

“I don’t believe that knocking down the rent-controlled apartments is going to lead to more affordability in Los Angeles,” Carlisle said.

He takes particular issue with Soto-Martínez’s support for Senate Bill 79 — a housing bill on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk that would override local zoning and allow far more density near transit stops.

Carlisle vehemently opposes the bill, contending that new construction will come at the expense of existing rent-stabilized units. (The bill exempts most rent-stabilized buildings, but not duplexes.)

He also thinks Soto-Martínez should have fought a planned eight-story apartment building on Carlton Way. The development will require demolishing a number of small rent-stabilized apartment buildings to build 131 new apartment units — 17 of which will be set aside for low- or very low-income residents.

Soto-Martínez spokesperson Nick Barnes-Batista said the council member’s office had been working closely with the tenants on Carlton Way and that the project followed affordability guidelines. Although the remaining 114 units in the building will be market rate, they will all fall under the city’s rent-stabilization ordinance, Barnes-Batista said.

Barnes-Batista also clarified that his boss did not take an official position on SB 79: He merely voted to oppose a resolution opposing it, rather than voting to support it.

(We apologize that you will have to read the prior sentence twice, slowly, to understand what the heck it means. The semantic distinction is there, but it’s a narrow one.)

“Renters make up over 60% of the city, yet they’ve historically been left out of decision-making at City Hall. We’re changing that with a full-time team helping tenants facing eviction stay in their homes, and we have a motion in committee right now to hopefully cap rent increases at 3% for every rent-stabilized tenant in Los Angeles,” Soto-Martínez said in a written statement.

And for those keeping track at home, Councilmember Tim McOsker is now the only incumbent running unopposed.

State of play

— PAYING PLAINTIFFS? Seven people told The Times they were paid to sue Los Angeles County over sexual abuse at juvenile halls. The claims were part of a $4-billion payout — the largest sex abuse settlement in U.S. history. A Times investigation found that a nebulous network of vendors ushered people desperate for cash toward a law firm that could profit significantly from the business.

— SCRUTINIZING SB 79: Gov. Gavin Newsom still hasn’t decided the fate of Senate Bill 79, the aforementioned landmark housing bill that would upzone scores of neighborhoods across the city, paving the way for taller, denser buildings near public transit. But the scramble is already on by homeowners, renters’ rights advocates and even politicians to figure out which locations are covered by SB 79 — a task made difficult by the bill’s various exemptions and deferrals.

— HOUSING SLUMP: Apartment construction in L.A. has dropped by nearly a third over the last three years, as real estate developers struggle with unprofitable economics and continued uncertainty around city and state housing laws. “L.A. has been redlined by the majority of the investment community,” said Ari Kahan, a principal of California Landmark Group.

— RAISING THE WAGE: Speaking of new regulations, six members of the City Council are looking at increasing the hourly pay of private sector construction workers with a law that would give them a $32.35 per hour minimum wage and a $7.65 per hour healthcare credit. Under their proposal, the council would need to authorize a study of the idea first.

— AUTOMATIC APPROVAL: One of Mayor Karen Bass’ appointees on the Board of Police Commissioners has secured another term, but not because he was approved by the City Council. The mayor’s reappointment of Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent turned top USC security official, showed up on several council agendas. But the council, facing protesters at several meetings, never actually acted, allowing Southers’ approval to become automatic.

— FAREWELL, ZACH! Bass is losing her top press deputy. Deputy Mayor Zach Seidl has taken a job as managing director of Click Strategies, a political consulting firm based in L.A. run by former Newsom comms chief Nathan Click. Seidl, who departs Oct. 17, has been an aide to Bass over the last decade, working for her in the U.S. Congress, on the campaign trail and inside City Hall. Bass has named Samuel Jean, a communications strategist, as her interim communications director.

(Fun fact: Back in December, Seidl helped Click pull off his marriage proposal to his now-fiance and Seidl’s then-colleague, former Bass deputy mayor Joey Freeman, on the observation deck of City Hall.)

— RESISTING THE RVS: A proposed RV park in L.A.’s Harbor City neighborhood has been met with fierce opposition from local residents, spurring a lengthy battle inside and outside City Hall.

— FINDING THE BEDS: A new tracking system at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority was supposed to modernize an antiquated process for filling beds inside L.A. County’s homeless shelters, ensuring that more people get off the streets. But the nonprofits who run the shelters say the data produced by the system are often inaccurate.

— POLICE BLOTTER: LAPD officers apprehended a man on Friday who drove a car onto the Spring Street steps of City Hall and wouldn’t come out of his vehicle for about two hours.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to address homelessness did not launch any new encampment operations this week.
• On the docket next week: The City Council votes Tuesday on whether to finalize a big increase in trash fees for single-family homes and small apartments. Meetings will be canceled on Wednesday and Friday so members can attend the annual League of California Cities conference.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a new U.S. House map into law Sunday as part of President Trump’s plan to try to hold on to a narrow Republican majority in next year’s midterm elections.

Kehoe’s signature puts the redrawn districts into state law with a goal of helping Republicans win one additional seat. But it may not be the final action. Opponents are pursuing a referendum petition that, if successful, would force a statewide vote on the new map. They also have brought several lawsuits against it.

U.S. House districts were redrawn across the country after the 2020 census to account for population changes. But Missouri is the third state this year — following Texas, which then triggered a response from California — to try to redraw its districts for partisan advantage, a process known as gerrymandering.

Republican lawmakers in Texas passed a new U.S. House map last month aimed at helping their party win five additional seats. Democratic lawmakers in California countered with their own redistricting plan aimed at winning five more seats, though it still needs voter approval. Other states also are considering redistricting.

Each seat could be critical, because Democrats need to gain just three to win control of the House, which would allow them to check Trump’s agenda and carry out oversight investigations. Trump is trying to stave off a historical trend in which a president’s party typically loses seats in midterm elections.

Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats. The new map targets a seat held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by shaving off portions of his Kansas City district and stretching the rest of it into Republican-heavy rural areas. It reduces the number of Black and minority residents in Cleaver’s district, which he has represented for two decades after serving as Kansas City’s first Black mayor.

Cleaver has denounced the gerrymandering plan for using Kansas City’s Troost Avenue — a street that has long segregated Black and white residents — as one of the dividing lines for the new districts.

Kehoe has defended the new map as a means of boosting Missouri’s “conservative, common-sense values” in the nation’s capital, ignoring Trump’s unabashedly partisan justification for it.

“Missourians are more alike than we are different, and our values, across both sides of the aisle, are closer to each other than those of the congressional representation of states like New York, California, and Illinois. We believe this map best represents Missourians, and I appreciate the support and efforts of state legislators, our congressional delegation, and President Trump in getting this map to my desk,” Kehoe said in a statement.

Kehoe signed the new law during an event that was closed to the public.

Opponents are gathering petition signatures seeking to force a statewide referendum on the new map. They have until Dec. 11 to submit around 110,000 valid signatures, which would put the map on hold until a public vote can occur sometime next year.

Meanwhile, opponents also are pursuing a variety of legal challenges. Several lawsuits by voters, including a new one announced Sunday by a Democratic-affiliated group, contend that mid-decade redistricting isn’t allowed under Missouri’s Constitution.

“It was not prompted by the law or a court order; it was the result of Republican lawmakers in Missouri following partisan directives from politicians in Washington, D.C.,” said Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

A previously filed lawsuit by the NAACP contends that no “extraordinary occasion” existed for Kehoe to call lawmakers into session for redistricting.

A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union also asserts that the new Kansas City-area districts violate state constitutional requirements to be compact and contain equal populations. It notes that the redistricting legislation lists a “KC 811” voting precinct in both the 4th and 5th congressional districts, which it asserts is grounds to invalidate the new map.

But Kehoe’s office said there is no error. It said other government agencies had assigned the same name to two distinct voting locations.

Lieb writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Noah Goldberg, with an assist from Rebecca Ellis, giving you the latest on city and county government.

A majority of the Los Angeles City Council believed that an expansion of the L.A. Convention Center was absolutely necessary.

The venue was losing out on event bookings to smaller cities like Anaheim and Las Vegas. But the expansion would be one of the most expensive publicly-financed projects in city history, and taxpayers would be paying down the debt for the next three decades.

The year was 1985. The number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 list was — and it couldn’t have been more apt — “We Built This City” by Starship.

That year, the council approved construction of the Convention Center’s South Hall, which Angelenos now know for its curving green facade facing the 110 Freeway. The project added hundreds of thousands of square feet of event space at a price tag of $310 million — though it ended up costing $500 million.

Now, history seems to be looping around again in last week’s debate about another Convention Center expansion, this time across Pico Boulevard to link the center’s two buildings.

The City Council voted last Friday to move forward with a $2.6-billion expansion that city budget advisers warned will draw taxpayer funds away from essential city services for decades. Any construction delays could endanger plans to host judo, wrestling and other Olympic competitions in 2028, triggering financial penalties if the venue isn’t ready in time.

In 1985, only Councilmember Joel Wachs voted against the expansion — though he told The Times he couldn’t remember the exact reason. It’s been 40 years, after all.

“That said, I’m not at all surprised I opposed it … as I did other projects where I felt the city would be on the hook for untold costs with no real meaningful assurances of benefits that could possibly justify it,” he said.

Wachs said that barring any convincing arguments on the other side, “I would also likely vote against it if I was on the council now.”

In 1985, Wachs was concerned about the long-term effects of the Convention Center upgrade on the city’s general fund.

The South Hall was finished in 1993, and the city made a nearly $42-million payment the next year, continuing to pay between $13.1 million and $48.4 million a year until 2023.

Just a few years after that old debt was finally paid off, the city is set to start payments on a similar project.

“History is repeating itself, because it’s become necessary to compete with other convention centers around the world again,” said Doane Liu, executive director of the city’s Tourism Department. “I’m certain it was a hard decision to make in [1985].”

While debating the new expansion, some on the City Council wondered how the two projects matched up and whether the 1985 vote could provide guidance for the current moment.

Councilmember Tim McOsker asked City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo to report on the cost of the 1985 expansion.

McOsker compared the numbers, arguing that the annual payments were similar, if adjusted for the growth of the city’s general fund over time.

The city’s first $42-million payment for the old expansion was about 1.7% of its $2.48-billion general fund.

Payments for the new expansion ratchet up over a three-year period, starting with around $40 million in 2029, then jumping by 2031 to about $192 million a year until 2055.

Each $192-million annual payment would be about 2.3% of the city’s current general fund.

The similarities go further than the general fund percentage, McOsker said, alluding to the nearly $1-billion deficit that city officials recently faced.

“You know what else we had in ‘94-’95 and ‘95-’96? A $1-billion deficit that we were struggling with,” he said at a council budget hearing on Sept. 16. “It was a tough time then, and I know that we may hear that maybe we shouldn’t have done it, but we did do it, and 30 years later, we have a Convention Center that needs it again.”

But was it worth it?

Former Councilmember Zev Yaroslavsky has come to regret his vote in favor of the 1993 expansion.

“I think I did make a mistake,” he said. “I regret that I drank the Kool-Aid.”

Yaroslavsky said the council was convinced in 1985 that the expanded convention center would generate enough revenue to pay off the bond issuance, and then some.

But after 30 years of payments, Yaroslavsky said he saw no evidence that he and his fellow council members were correct.

“That didn’t happen.”

State of play

— FRESNO-NO: Councilmember Ysabel Jurado found herself in the crosshairs of Fresno politicians this week after she suggested that L.A. should not be ceding major events to the city. “We can’t keep losing out to Fresno. Shakira ended her world tour in Fresno,” she said at a press conference in which she voiced support for the Convention Center expansion.

Fresno shot back. “There’s no need to degrade or make fun of other cities that literally feed Angelenos by picking the fruits and vegetables sold at the DTLA markets daily,” Fresno County Supervisor Luis Chavez wrote on Instagram.

— LAX DELAYS: The Automated People Mover that will connect travelers between airport terminals and the Metro could be delayed even further, the CEO of LAX told The Times. The train, which was supposed to open in January 2026, may now be delayed until June 2026 or later, imperiling the goal of opening in time for the World Cup.

— NO LAYOFFS: Mayor Karen Bass announced Tuesday that the city has managed to avert all 1,650 layoffs she proposed in April as part of her plan to close a nearly $1-billion deficit. Bass negotiated for months with labor unions, who made concessions to help stave off hundreds of the layoffs. Budget reductions from the City Council also helped save jobs.

— BATHROOM POOH-POOHED: The city’s plan to install a bathroom at popular hiking destination Runyon Canyon has come under fire from locals who worry it may bring unwanted smells and safety issues. Bass said the city has received requests from hikers for years asking for a bathroom in the park. The bathroom will be ready by summer 2026.

CHIMP INFANT: Two chimpanzees born at the L.A. Zoo in August and September and are the first chimp births at the zoo in 11 years. They do not yet have names.

DROPOUT: Last week’s newsletter mentioned Jake Rakov as a congressional candidate; he dropped out of the race earlier this month.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program hit two locations this week. On Tuesday, it brought people inside from West 88th Street and South Grand Boulevard in South Los Angeles. On Thursday, the program went to Roscoe and Balboa Boulevards in the San Fernando Valley. Over the two operations, nearly 60 Angelenos were brought off the street.
• On the docket next week: L.A. County supervisors will hear about the findings of a long-awaited report from the McChrystal Group into what went wrong during the Eaton fire. The 132-page report found that poor communication, understaffing and a lack of adequate planning amid the chaotic conditions contributed to the failures.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Two prominent Latino Democratic elected leaders are battling to become a new member of Congress. The race to represent a swath of Southern California that sweeps from southeastern Los Angeles cities to Long Beach will be among the state’s most contested intraparty battles, with the winner earning a perch that could become a springboard to higher office.

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and state Assemblymember Cristina Garcia are running to represent the new 42nd Congressional District, a Latino majority district that was created in December by the state’s redistricting commission as California loses a congressional seat for the first time in its history.

“It’s fair to say this is one of the more prominent Democrat-on-Democrat races” on the ballot, said Robb Korinke, a Democratic strategist who lives in Long Beach and is not aligned with either candidate. (Korinke was appointed by Robert Garcia to the city’s Technology and Innovation Commission in 2015.)

The new district combined pieces of the areas currently represented by Reps. Alan Lowenthal and Lucille Roybal-Allard to account for population loss in Los Angeles County without eliminating a district where Latinos could elect a candidate of their choice.

Roybal-Allard’s district, which included much of South Los Angeles, the Eastside and southeast L.A. County, was the most Latino in the nation. Lowenthal’s straddled Los Angeles and Orange counties. Both announced their retirements in December, creating a rare open seat to represent California in the U.S. House of Representatives. Robert Garcia and Cristina Garcia revealed their intentions to seek the seat soon after.

Cristina Garcia and Robert Garcia are both 44, the children of immigrants and the focus of national attention for their work. They are vying to be the most progressive in the heavily liberal district and will face off in a June 7 primary where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will advance to compete in the November general election. No prominent Republican is running in the race; the filing deadline is in March.

Robert Garcia’s home is in Long Beach’s Belmont Heights neighborhood, a collection of Craftsmans and beach cottages in walking distance of Colorado Lagoon and the restaurants and boutiques of the city’s 2nd Street entertainment district.

About 14 miles north, Cristina Garcia lives in Bell Gardens — not far from where she grew up — on a working-class block of modest houses with security bars on the windows and a backyard rooster that rousts the neighborhood.

The communities they live in reflect the district’s disparate constituents: Along the coast, affluent residents are focused on issues such as climate change and solar tax credits, while inland, lower-income workers worry that their children suffer higher asthma rates because of their proximity to pollution-spewing industries. Other parts of the district include Downey and Bellflower, the post-World War II tract homes of Lakewood, and Long Beach’s Art Deco airport, Cal State campus and port.

More than half of the new district’s residents are Latino citizens of voting age, but redistricting experts warn that turnout, particularly during nonpresidential elections, might disadvantage that electorate. Though Latinos live throughout the district, they are more concentrated in the southeastern Los Angeles cities.

“The core of the voting base is not in the area that is most heavily Latino and where Voting Act protections lie,” said Democratic strategist Paul Mitchell, referring to the landmark federal legislation that prohibits the disenfranchisement of minority communities.

Voters most likely to turn out are those who live in Long Beach, Lakewood and Signal Hill in the southern part of the district, which Mitchell and other strategists who are not aligned with any candidate in the race say benefits Robert Garcia.

The Peruvian-born, gay Latino mayor of Long Beach is widely considered the front-runner.

He has been endorsed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Lowenthal and several unions. In the two weeks after he announced his campaign on Dec. 17, Garcia raised more than $323,000.

Additionally, at least two independent expenditure committees that can accept unlimited donations are supporting his bid — one funded by business and development interests and the other by LGBTQ activists and labor.

Garcia received national attention for his handling of the pandemic while grieving the loss of his parents to COVID-19. The New York Times called Long Beach “a Model for the Vaccine Rollout”; schools there reopened earlier than in much of California because the city, which has its own health department, prioritized vaccinating teachers early.

“I have proven that as mayor that I can lead a large complex organization and that it can be done in a way that has both common sense and is progressive,” said Garcia, who was among a handful of local officials given a prime-time speaking slot at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

He has been accused of being too beholden to powerful donors and criticized for registering as a Republican in 2002 — less than a decade after Proposition 187, the GOP-backed ballot measure that sought to deny taxpayer-funded services to those in the country illegally.

He was a California youth coordinator for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign and founded the Long Beach Young Republicans in 2005. Garcia downplays his involvement in both, although media clips from the time quote him proudly playing a prominent role in the club. He also notes he was in high school during Proposition 187 and wasn’t involved in politics then.

Garcia said he followed his family’s lead in supporting the GOP because of their fondness for President Reagan, whose immigration policy provided the pathway for their citizenship.

He registered as a decline-to-state voter in 2007, two years before he won a City Council seat; and as a Democrat in 2010, four years before he successfully ran for mayor, according to the Los Angeles County voter registration database.

“People are allowed to grow and change,” and former Republicans shouldn’t be treated as “second-class Democrats,” Garcia said, pointing to his refusal to take corporate PAC money and support for single-payer healthcare. “What matters is your record.”

His rival, Cristina Garcia, says that his history concerns her.

“Everyone needs to run as a progressive these days. But is that what our record has shown?” she said. “How committed are you to all of this corridor, not just Long Beach?”

Garcia organized opposition to Proposition 187 while in high school. After college, she became a math teacher and moved away. Then her mother had a heart attack, prompting Garcia to return home.

She became involved in local politics, lost a City Council race in her hometown and became a vocal activist in the corruption scandal in neighboring Bell. That helped propel her to a 2012 victory in an Assembly race over a prominent fellow Democrat who vastly outspent her.

During her time in Sacramento, Garcia focused on environmental justice, notably the cleanup of the toxic lead-tainted soil near the shuttered Exide Technologies battery recycling plant in Vernon.

She was also dubbed the “tampon queen” or “period princess” — titles she embraced — because of her efforts such as making sure menstrual products are available for free at public schools in California.

The motivations that led her to run for the Legislature also made her decide to run for Congress, Garcia said.

“This region has been ignored for all my life. This is a front-line community,” she said, adding that elected officials give a lot of lip service to the concept of equity. “But how do we make sure we’re putting actions behind that?”

As the leader of the Assembly’s women’s caucus, Garcia was an outspoken advocate for victims when the #MeToo movement rocked the statehouse in 2017 and 2018. She was featured in a Time magazine photo collage of female leaders as part of its “Person of the Year” issue because of her work to hold lawmakers accountable for inappropriate sexual behavior.

Then she was accused of similar behavior. Two Assembly investigations found that, although she had violated the Assembly’s sexual harassment policy and was “overly familiar” with a staff member while intoxicated, her behavior was not sexual.

Garcia, while accepting blame for some allegations, noted that the more serious claims of groping were not substantiated.

In other controversies, she admitted to calling former Assembly Speaker John A. Perez a “homo,” though she said she didn’t mean it as a slur. (Perez has endorsed Robert Garcia.)

She was also accused by other Democrats of making a derogatory statement about Asian Americans during a debate about affirmative action. Cristina Garcia said her remark — reportedly, “This makes me feel like I want to punch the next Asian person I see in the face” — was taken out of context. She said she was trying to explain how the debate was creating unnecessary, “unhealthy” divisions among ethnic groups.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, whose Lakewood home is in the district, rebuked Garcia during her controversies. But he has endorsed her congressional run, as have Secretary of State Shirley Weber, Treasurer Fiona Ma, several state legislators and elected officials from southeast Los Angeles communities.

She did not begin fundraising until after the first of the year, so her campaign finances will not be known until spring.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been out-fundraised, and we have been successful,” she said, pointing to her 2012 Assembly race, in which she ran out of money two weeks before the election. Volunteers hand-delivered tens of thousands of fliers.

“We don’t need dollar for dollar,” she said. “We need enough dollars.”

A handful of seats are all that keep Republicans in control of the House, giving President Trump untrammeled sway over, well, pretty much everything, from the economy to the jokes on late-night TV to the design of the Cracker Barrel logo.

It’s a number that’s both tantalizing and fraught, depending on your political perspective.

For Democrats, that eyelash-thin margin means they’re thisclose to regaining power and a political toehold in next year’s midterm election. All they need is a gain of three House seats. For Trump and fellow Republicans, it means their hegemony over Washington and life as we know it dangles by a perilously thin thread.

That tension explains the redistricting wars now blazing throughout our great land.

It started in Texas, where Trump pressured Republicans to redraw congressional lines in hopes of handing the GOP as many as five additional seats. That led California Democrats to ask voters, in a Nov. 4 special election, to approve an eye-for-an-eye gerrymander that could yield their party five new lawmakers.

Several other states have waded into the fight, assuming control of the House might be decided next year by just a few seats, one way or the other.

Which could happen.

Or not.

Anyone claiming to know for sure is either lying, trying to frighten you into giving money, or both.

“History is on Democrats’ side, but it’s too early to know what the national political environment is going to be like,” said Nathan Gonzales, one of the country’s top political handicappers and publisher of the nonpartisan campaign guide Inside Elections. “We don’t know the overall mood of the electorate, how satisfied voters [will be] with Republicans in power in Washington or how open to change they’ll be a year from now.”

A look back offers some clues, though it should be said no two election cycles are alike and the past is only illuminating insofar as it casts light on certain patterns.

(Take that as a caveat, weasel words or whatever you care to call it.)

In the last half century, there have been 13 midterm elections. The out party — that is, the one that doesn’t hold the presidency — has won 13 or more House seats in eight of those elections. Going back even further, since World War II the out party has gained an average of more than two dozen House seats.

In Trump’s last midterm election, in 2018, Democrats won 40 House seats — including seven in California — to seize control. (That was 17 more than they needed.) A Democratic gain of that magnitude seems unlikely next year, barring a complete and utter GOP collapse. That’s because there are fewer Republicans sitting in districts that Democrats carried in the most recent presidential election, which left them highly vulnerable.

In 2018, 25 Republicans represented districts won by Hillary Clinton. In 2026, there are just three Republicans in districts Kamala Harris carried. (Thirteen Democrats represent districts that Trump won.)

Let’s pause before diving into more numbers.

OK. Ready?

There are 435 House seats on the ballot next year. Most are a lock for one party or the other.

Based on the current congressional map, Inside Elections rates 64 House seats nationwide as being at least somewhat competitive, with a dozen considered toss-ups. The Cook Political Report, another gold-plated handicapper, rates 72 seats competitive or having the potential to be so, with 18 toss-ups.

Both agree that two of those coin-flip races are in California, where Democrats Adam Gray and Derek Tran are fighting to hang onto seats they narrowly won in, respectively, the Central Valley and Orange County. (The Democratic gerrymander seeks to shore up those incumbents.)

You really can’t assess the 2026 odds without knowing how the redistricting fight comes out.

Republicans could pick up as many as 16 seats through partisan map-making, Inside Elections forecasts, a number that would be reduced if California voters approve Proposition 50. Erin Covey, who analyzes House races for the Cook Report, puts GOP gains as high as 13, again depending on the November outcome in California.

Obviously, that would boost the GOP’s chances of hanging onto the House, which is precisely why Trump pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade redistricting.

But there are many other factors at play.

One huge element is Trump’s approval rating. Simply put, the less popular a president, the more his party tends to suffer at the polls.

Right now Trump’s approval rating is a dismal 43%, according to the Cook Report’s PollTracker. That could change, but it’s a danger sign for Republicans. Over the past three decades, every time the president’s net job approval was negative a year from the midterm election, his party lost House seats.

Another thing Democats have going for them is the passion of their voters, who’ve been flocking to the polls in off-year and special elections. The Downballot, which tracks races nationwide, finds Democratic candidates have far surpassed Kamala Harris’ 2024 performance, a potential harbinger of strong turnout in 2026.

Those advantages are somewhat offset by a GOP edge in two other measures. Republicans have significantly outraised Democrats and have limited the number of House members retiring. Generally speaking, it’s tougher for a party to defend a seat when it comes open.

In short, for all the partisan passions, the redistricting wars aren’t likely to decide control of the House.

“Opinions of the economy and Trump’s handling of it, the popularity (or lack thereof) of Republicans’ signature legislation” — the tax-cutting, Medicaid-slashing bill passed in July — as well as “partisan enthusiasm to vote are going to be more determinative to the 2026 outcome than redistricting alone,” Amy Walter, the Cook Report’s editor-in-chief, wrote in a recent analysis.

In other words, control of the House will most likely rest in the hands of voters, not scheming politicians.

Which is exactly where it belongs.

There are now just two City Hall incumbents who remain unopposed in their bids for reelection.

So how did Councilmembers Tim McOsker and Hugo Soto–Martínez get so lucky, at least for now? And what do they have in common?

At first glance, not a ton. One is a boomer grandfather who has forgotten more about City Hall machinations than most of us will ever know.

The other is a millennial leftist who ousted an incumbent three years ago.

McOsker, the City Hall veteran and proud son of the San Pedro docks, hails from one of the more conservative districts in the city, which stretches from Watts through Harbor Gateway down to San Pedro. Soto-Martínez, the democratic socialist former union organizer, represents what is arguably the most progressive (and hippest) district in the city: a densely packed collection of neighborhoods that includes Silver Lake, Echo Park, Atwater and Hollywood.

In our new era of L.A. city politics, where incumbents are far less inviolable than they once were, it’s rare to see two go entirely unopposed.

Of course, it’s very possible that one or both of the men get opponents before the June primary, which is still more than eight months away. But in the meantime, let’s explore a few factors that may be keeping the wolves at bay:

• Both council members are heavily backed by labor, one of the most powerful forces in Los Angeles politics. (A dozen different union locals and labor groups have already contributed to McOsker’s reelection campaign; Soto-Martínez previously worked at Unite Here Local 11, a group with deep influence on the council.) That could be one component of what’s discouraging potential challengers, particularly because labor groups would be all but guaranteed to go hard in either race.

• Four members of the current council, including Soto-Martínez, won their seats by ousting an incumbent. All four hit their opponents from the left, with digital organizing savvy and the support of grassroots progressive groups.

  Sure, someone could technically oust an incumbent without being a millennial endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. But no one’s done it in a couple of decades. Which brings us back to Soto-Martínez’s race: There’s not much room to challenge him from the left, given that he’s already been endorsed by the rest of the council’s left bloc. A more moderate challenger is arguably the likelier option, and there has been plenty of talk about a potential business-backed candidate. No takers yet, though.

• Moving our theorizing south to the harbor area, San Pedro doubles as the financial and power base of the 15th council district. It’s also a place where the McOsker name is ubiquitous — second, perhaps, only to Hahn in terms of local clout. The councilman also appears to be genuinely well-liked on his home turf.

  It’s certainly possible that an opponent could arise from Watts, Harbor Gateway, Harbor City or Wilmington. But it’s hard to imagine a San Pedran with the muscle necessary to wage a serious City Council campaign going against McOsker (and, by extension, the local San Pedro political machine).

All of which is a very long way of saying that anything could happen in the months to come. But for now, Soto-Martínez and McOsker are both on a glide path to another term.

“Since we took office, we’ve worked to grow our coalition to build a city that works for working people. We’ve proud of our first three years, but we know there’s so much more work ahead,” Soto-Martínez said Friday.

McOsker said he remained focused on bringing resources to every corner of the district, from Watts to the waterfront.

“Representing the people of the One-Five has been one of the greatest honors of my professional life, and, for as long as I’m entrusted with this responsibility, my focus will be on lifting up our neighborhoods and delivering as much as we can for our residents,” he added.

State of play

—CONVENTION CONTENTION: L.A.’s political leaders took what is, in the view of their own policy experts, a risky bet: pour billions of dollars into its aging Convention Center in the hope that it will breathe new life into downtown and the region’s economy. As my colleagues David Zahniser and Noah Goldberg report, the City Council approved a $2.6-billion expansion plan Friday in an 11-2 vote, despite warnings from their own advisors that the project will draw taxpayer funds away from city services for decades to come. There was huge pressure from labor to support the project. Only Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Katy Yaroslavsky opposed.

— MEJIA PLAYS DEFENSE Former state legislator Isadore Hall announced his bid for city controller this week, meaning Controller Kenneth Mejia may have an actual race ahead of him.

— WHITHER, MONICA? After whipping up a frenzy about her 2026 intentions, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez finally filed paperwork to fundraise for her council reelection. She did not answer when asked if this means she has ruled out a bid for controller or mayor.

— BILLABLE HOURS: Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s hefty legal bills submitted to the city on a high-stakes homelessness case drew the ire of some members of City Council. But despite those concerns, the council still approved a fivefold increase to its contract with the law firm this week.

— STILL NO PERMANENT FIRE CHIEF: The council voted Tuesday to extend interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva‘s contract for another six months.

— MUZZLING CRITICISM? A new policy requires L.A. County oversight officials to have many communications “reviewed, approved and coordinated” before going public. As my colleague Connor Sheets reports, critics are raising concerns about the policy and its implications.

— VALLEY BATTLE: Encino Neighborhood Council member Josh Sautter announced Friday that he’ll challenge Rep. Brad Sherman in next year’s election. Jake Levine, a one-time special assistant at the National Security Council, is also trying to unseat the 70-year-old incumbent.

— COMPETITION INCOMING: We’ve learned a little more about the New York Post’s westward expansion in recent days, as they’ve dropped a number of job listings. The list includes a full-time reporter slated to cover Los Angeles City Hall.

— TAKE A SEAT: After a year of virtual meetings, the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council will return to in-person meetings at Boyle Heights City Hall beginning next week, the Boyle Heights Beat reports.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? Bass’ initiative addressed an RV encampment in Harbor City, according to the mayor’s office.
• On the docket next week: City Council will be on recess Tuesday and Wednesday. Friday’s meeting will be in Van Nuys.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.