Top Ten Winners & Losers In California Politics For The Week Ending 5/15 - And We Present The Worst Week In Politics Video…
Every week I'm closely following politics here in the Golden State. This is a weekly feature where we call out ten winners and/or losers. Actually, this week it's an "all losers" edition!
Below is our Top Ten List of Winners and Losers for the Week. This feature is available to all of our subscribers, free and paid. At the bottom of this post is our “Worst Week In California Politics” special feature. It's me, in rare form, on video, going on why someone’s week sucked. It is below the paywall for our paid subscribers, though. Please support my independent calling of balls and strikes, and unlock lots of content by upgrading today! It’s only $7 a month (or $70 for an entire year).
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⏱️ 5-minute read
Top Winners & Losers LAST Week in California Politics
WINNERS AND LOSERS OF THE WEEK!
⬇️ LOSERS: 14 BAY AREA AIR DISTRICT BOARD MEMBERS
Fourteen Bay Area Air District board members either supported moving forward with this costly gas water heater mandate or could not be bothered to show up to object. The rule that is advancing would force homeowners, when replacing failed equipment, toward electric heat pump water heaters, which district estimates show cost about $3,500 more than standard gas models. Supporters talk about air quality, but affordability is already crushing California families. And for all the pain, California’s climate crusades still make only a microscopic dent in worldwide human-made emissions. This is exactly how regulators turn ideology into household bills.
⬇️ LOSER: GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM
Newsom tried to sell his May Revision as a “balanced” and “fiscally disciplined” budget, but Katy Grimes with the California Globe points out the fine print tells a very different story. His plan includes roughly $322 billion in total spending, a projected $12 billion deficit, and a $5 billion hit on employers tied to California’s unpaid federal unemployment insurance debt. The LAO is warning about chronic multiyear deficits — including projected shortfalls of $27 billion, $22 billion, and $23 billion in the out years. Newsom calls that balance. Californians should call it fiscal gaslighting with consequences.
⬇️ LOSER: GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM - TWO-TIME LOSER!
Gavin Newsom’s “free” diaper plan is classic Sacramento theater. Under his Golden State Start program, California will give 400 diapers to families with newborns, leaving participating hospitals with enough for roughly five weeks. Taxpayers are spending about $12.4 million this year, after $7.4 million last year, so Newsom can call this “what affordability looks like.” No. Affordability would mean families keeping more of their own money instead of needing a government-branded diaper box. California’s ruling class makes housing, gas, electricity, insurance, groceries, and childcare more expensive — then asks for applause when it hands back diapers.
⬇️ LOSERS: THE LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL
The Los Angeles City Council created this mess, and now it is scrambling to contain the damage. After pushing a union-backed $30-an-hour wage for hotel and airport workers tied to the 2028 Olympics, city leaders are panicking because business groups qualified a measure that could blow a roughly $740 million first-year hole in the general fund. City officials now warn of layoffs, police cuts, a fiscal emergency, and endangered Olympic preparations. Meanwhile, this is the same council that voted 14-0 to advance restrictions on LAPD officers performing traffic stops, treating cops enforcing the law as the real threat. Governing by ideology instead of consequences eventually catches up with you.
⬆️ WINNERS: TOM STEYER, XAVIER BECERRA, AND STEVE HILTON
California’s governor’s race remains wide open, but these three are currently best positioned for the top-two runoff. The latest Emerson College poll shows Becerra at 19%, with Hilton and Steyer both at 17% — all within the survey’s margin of error. That means there is no real frontrunner, no commanding lead, and no reason for anyone to declare the race settled. But in a crowded field, being clustered at the front matters. Right now, Becerra, Hilton, and Steyer are the candidates everyone else is trying to catch.
⬇️ LOSER: DANA WILLIAMSON, EX-CHIEF OF STAFF TO GAVIN NEWSOM
Dana Williamson, Governor Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff and a longtime Sacramento power player, just pleaded guilty in a corruption case involving money siphoned from Xavier Becerra’s dormant campaign account. Federal prosecutors said Williamson conspired with Becerra’s longtime chief of staff and another lobbyist to divert $225,000, while she also agreed to pay $500,000 in restitution to the IRS. Prosecutors are expected to seek roughly 2½ to 3 years under federal guidelines. In Sacramento’s insider culture, this is not just a personal legal collapse. It is another ugly window into how the ruling class operates.
⬇️ LOSER: EILEEN WANG, FORMER MAYOR OF ARCADIA
Eileen Wang resigned as Arcadia mayor after reaching a federal plea agreement over accusations she acted as an unregistered foreign agent for China. Prosecutors say Wang helped run a website that posted Chinese government-directed propaganda, including content denying Uyghur persecution in Xinjiang, then reported back to Chinese officials with screenshots and view counts. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli called it exactly right: people who secretly do the bidding of foreign governments undermine American democracy. The conduct happened before she was elected, but the damage is obvious. Arcadia deserved better, and Beijing’s long game just got exposed.
⬇️ LOSER: FORMER GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE STEPHEN CLOOBECK
Former California gubernatorial candidate Stephen Cloobeck’s political and personal unraveling took another ugly turn this week after he was arrested on felony charges tied to allegedly intimidating witnesses connected to his fiancée’s criminal burglary case. Prosecutors allege Cloobeck threatened individuals tied to the case in an effort to stop testimony. Cloobeck — a former Eric Swalwell supporter and outspoken admirer of the late Harry Reid — posted $300,000 bail and is denying the allegations. What once looked like a flashy outsider political brand now looks more like a cautionary tale about ego, celebrity politics, and personal chaos colliding in public view.
⬆️ WINNERS: SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS PRESIDENT RAFAEL MANDELMAN AND THE BOARD MAJORITY
San Francisco’s government has become infamous for a bloated bureaucracy, overlapping commissions, and endless advisory bodies that slow decision-making and diffuse accountability. This week, Board President Rafael Mandelman and the Board majority finally did something about it, voting to eliminate 43 commissions, advisory groups, and task forces as part of a broader City Hall streamlining effort. This is not an endorsement of the Board majority, which still gets plenty wrong. But on this issue, they made the right call. Supervisors Connie Chan, Chyanne Chen, Shamann Walton, and Myrna Melgar voted no and instead chose to defend more of the existing bureaucracy and process-heavy status quo.
⬇️ LOSER: TOM STEYER, GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE
Tom Steyer is already trying to pull off the difficult political trick of being a billionaire populist attacking billionaires. Now his campaign has another problem. A Los Angeles Times report linked current Steyer campaign spokesman Kevin Liao to the production chain behind the leaked Katie Porter video that damaged her campaign last fall. Steyer’s campaign denies involvement in leaking the footage, and Porter’s conduct on the video remains her own responsibility. But politically, this still smells bad. If your campaign benefits from a rival’s damaging private footage while one of your own senior operatives is tied to the original recording process, voters are going to wonder exactly how clean your operation really is. There is an “art” to politics, and this was most unartful.
THE WORST WEEK IN CALIFORNIA POLITICS “AWARD” GOES TO…
Below is my weekly pithy video about the person in California politics who has had the worst week! You do NOT want to miss this rant — seven minutes of pure Jon. Upgrade today!
Who had the worst week in California politics last week? We have a runner-up, and then the “grand prize” winner!
