Several high-profile proposals are already positioned for the ballot or moving through final negotiations, with major political, labor and business groups weighing whether to fight expensive campaigns or settle disputes before voters are asked to decide.

Among the measures already eligible is a Republican-backed proposal requiring voter identification. Another would impose a tax on billionaires to support health care services, an effort backed by a major health care workers union.

A major affordable housing proposal also appears likely to go before voters after Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers reached agreement on an $11.25 billion bond measure. The plan would dedicate $10 billion to building, buying and preserving affordable housing. Another $1.25 billion would go toward helping veterans purchase homes.

Newsom’s administration says the bond could help more than 40,000 people buy homes while also creating or preserving tens of thousands of affordable units. The Legislature must still approve the bill to place the bond on the ballot, and Newsom is expected to sign it if lawmakers do so.

One expensive ballot fight that appears to have been avoided involved Uber and personal injury attorneys.

Since last fall, Uber had spent millions of dollars backing a proposed initiative that would have limited contingency fees for personal injury lawyers and restricted the amount crash victims could recover for medical costs. The proposal would have applied broadly to crashes in California, not only those involving Uber rides.

Trial attorney groups, doctors and medical providers strongly opposed the proposal and responded with their own measure aimed at increasing Uber’s liability in cases involving sexual misconduct against riders and drivers.

Instead, the two sides appear to have reached a compromise through legislation. The bill would limit medical cost recoveries in cases involving medical liens but would not cap attorneys’ contingency fees. Uber would be required to strengthen driver background checks and remove drivers from the platform if they have been convicted of certain violent crimes or found guilty of driving under the influence.

In other statewide developments, California is again suing the Trump administration over the state’s authority to enforce stricter air pollution standards.

The lawsuit focuses on four waivers previously granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama and Biden administrations. Those waivers allowed California to enforce its own vehicle and engine emissions rules. For more than five decades, California has had special authority under the federal Clean Air Act to set tougher standards because of the state’s severe air pollution problems.

Earlier this month, the EPA reclassified the waivers as “rules” rather than “orders,” a change that makes them subject to congressional review. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday the move was designed to give Congress a path to block the state’s clean-air policies.

“Trump and his EPA overreach is illogical, politically motivated and illegal,” Bonta said. “This is nothing more than Trump’s latest effort to circumvent the law, to punish California for defying his plans to drag us backward.”

The case is California’s 72nd lawsuit against the Trump administration during Trump’s second term. The state argues the EPA does not have authority to reclassify the waivers. California is also pursuing a separate lawsuit over three other waivers that were reclassified and later revoked in June 2025 with congressional approval.

In education news, Alberto Carvalho has resigned as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District amid an FBI investigation apparently tied to a failed artificial intelligence chatbot contract he had promoted.

Carvalho, who was widely credited with helping guide the nation’s second-largest school district through the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, announced his resignation Sunday. The Los Angeles Times first reported the decision.

“Placing students first has always guided my work,” Carvalho wrote in an open letter. “Because I believe our schools must remain focused on students and learning without distraction, I am resigning as superintendent of LAUSD.”

Carvalho, a formerly undocumented immigrant, had also become a prominent defender of immigrant students as the Trump administration increased immigration enforcement. Under his leadership, the district created a 24-hour hotline, hosted workshops on immigrant families’ legal rights, offered free legal help through local nonprofits and established a virtual academy for students afraid to leave home because of deportation concerns.

The FBI searched Carvalho’s home and office in February, shortly after the district renewed his contract. He had been on leave since then. Acting Superintendent Andrés Chait will continue leading the district while the school board searches for a permanent replacement.

Also in California education, the state prison system has distributed 30,000 laptops to incarcerated students over the past three years. Nearly half of those students are enrolled in community college courses. As more instruction and coursework move online, professors and incarcerated students are weighing whether remote learning can provide the same benefits as in-person classes.

In opinion and commentary, CalMatters columnist Dan Walters wrote that California’s Proposition 50 could help House Democrats gain some of the five congressional seats it was designed to influence, but its impact on control of Congress will depend on political developments in other states. Independent Los Angeles journalist Victoria Valenzuela argued that lawmakers should limit same-day visitation denials at California prisons for people who have made significant efforts to see incarcerated loved ones.

Original source: CalMatters

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You won’t be surprised to hear that Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in the Inland Empire. But Harris performed better here than you might have predicted.

In Riverside County, Harris had 48% of the vote as of Friday morning. In San Bernardino County, she had 46%. Sure, she lost, but in Kern County, she polled only 38%.

More predictable is how Steve Garvey fared versus Adam Schiff. If Garvey were representing the IE instead of the entire state, he’d be the new senator, and by a comfortable margin: He got 54% in San Bernardino County and 52% in Riverside County. Schiff won the state with 57%.

Now that’s the IE we know and love (or shake our head at).

Welcome to my post-election roundup. The above aside, the idea is to offer a few thoughts on local outcomes or trends, some of which might pass with little notice otherwise.

For starters, out in Needles, voters have — OK, just kidding. Let’s stick a bit closer to home. And we’ll begin with an unusual one.

In Menifee, the District 3 race’s ballot had a rarity, an official write-in candidate. Jay Sno-Fly as of Thursday had collected, ah, six votes. Sadly, Sno-Fly was no shoo-in.

More seriously, in many cities, council incumbents were returned without opposition, such as in Corona (Tony Daddario, Tom Richins), Chino Hills (Cynthia Moran) and Upland (Shannan Maust, Bill Velto). Or without breaking a sweat, such as in Claremont (Corey Calaycay, Sal Medina) and Ontario (Debra Porada).

Some contested races weren’t remotely close. Longtime Chino Mayor Eunice Ulloa creamed Paul Rodriguez, 72% to 28%, running over him like a tractor. In Rancho Cucamonga, Lynne Kennedy did even better, collecting 74% against Steven Lacey.

A few incumbents might have lost if not for a lucky break: having two challengers, not one. Again in Rancho Cucamonga, Ashley Stickler won with 41%, topping Luis Cetina and Erick Jimenez. This means 59% effectively voted against Stickler, but she won anyway.

Same in Fontana, where council outlier Jesse Sandoval, who often casts protest votes, won with 42% support, with two opponents splitting the anti-Sandoval vote.

Sometimes a candidate almost seems like an incumbent, even if they technically aren’t.

In Temecula, Matt Rahn had given up his council seat in 2022 to run unsuccessfully for state Assembly. He was back on the ballot Tuesday for his old council seat and won handily. It’ll be as if he never left.

In Pomona, John Nolte was trounced by Debra Martin, another familiar name who’d previously served a single term on the council from 2012-2016.

In San Bernardino, city of contrasts, two candidates who had once been incumbents both lost.

Henry Nickel, who was booted from his council seat in 2020, sought to return to the 5th Ward but lost to Kim Knaus. Jim Penman, who had been the elected city attorney until 2013, lost the 7th Ward race to Treasure Ortiz.

Name recognition can help but can do only so much.

Occasionally a city election is almost a free-for-all. In Norco, six candidates sought three seats, one of them open.

Robin Grundmeyer keeps her seat as the top vote-getter. Two newcomers, Greg Bowen and Fia Sullivan, will fill the other two slots. The other incumbent, Kathleen Aleman, who was opposed by most of the establishment and was passed over twice to be rotated into the mayor’s seat, finished fourth. Politics is a rough business.

The conservative tilt among some school boards remained or intensified. In Chino Valley Unified, the board’s lone dissenter, Don Bridge, opted not to run again after being on the losing end of dozens of 4-1 votes, and who could blame him? With the reelection of Andrew Cruz and James Na, and the election of John Cervantes, the board may go 5-0 to the right.

A few local ballot measures caught my attention.

In Riverside, voters approved Measure L, which establishes a city-selected government watchdog. We’ll have to keep an eye on that.

In Pomona, Measure Y, which was put on the ballot by nonprofits, would gradually shift an additional 10% of the city budget toward children. And away from what, exactly? Some 72% of the budget goes to public safety. This strikes me as a “defund the police” measure in disguise.

A one-cent sales tax appears headed for approval in Fontana, where Measure T was getting 52% support, and in Yucaipa, where Measure S had 60%. Each would put millions of dollars a year into city coffers.

Faced with an identical tax, Upland said: “Not so fast.” Measure N got clobbered, mustering only 35% support. City Hall would have gained $20 million a year to hire cops and pave the city’s notoriously potholed streets.

Uplanders, it seems, prefer to save their pennies, then give them directly to criminals and tire centers.

Lastly, if you’re among those who wonder if your vote matters, check out these two examples to the contrary.

In the Chino Valley Independent Fire District, incumbent John DeMonaco was at war with the firefighters union, which backed Andrew Romaine, a retired firefighter, with contributions the Chino Valley Champion reported as topping $77,000.

That’s a veritable firehose of cash. Also, it’s a lot of lettuce for Romaine.

Anyway, Romaine was ahead Wednesday by 35 votes, until things flip-flopped Thursday and DeMonaco was on top by four votes. His lead, such as it was, widened Friday to six votes.

Then consider the City Council in Montclair (pop. 36,000).

For the second of two seats on the ballot, incumbent Tenice Johnson and candidate Xavier Mendez on Wednesday were tied at 1,703 votes apiece. What were the odds? That shifted Thursday when Mendez inched ahead by eight votes, a lead cut to six votes on Friday.

Montclair’s Ben Lopez, meanwhile, had 2,416 votes as of late Friday. Lopez, the council’s pariah, who has been censured for misconduct and has cost City Hall more than $700,000 in legal payouts, is the top vote-getter? His showing must be satisfying for him, if not so much for his colleagues.

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