Top Ten Winners & Losers In California Politics For The Week Ending 4/10 - Who Had The Worst Week? Hint: He Wears A Gun On His Hip
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, I tend to find more losers... Just saying.
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. This week, being Spring Break, I have been light on the paywalls (look for this “preview week” to be over come Monday). So at the bottom of this post is our “Worst Week In California” special feature. It's me, in rare form, on video, going on why someone’s week sucked.
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⏱️ 5-minute read
This is where we examine state and local politics (or national issues with a California angle) and highlight individuals (or groups) who have achieved notable success or had a particularly challenging week. I strive to call balls and strikes fairly and objectively, which sometimes makes assembling this list difficult.
Top Winners & Losers This Week in California Politics
⬇️ LOSER: RICARDO LARA, CALIFORNIA INSURANCE COMMISSIONER
Instead of confronting the regulatory mess that drove insurers out of California and shrunk consumer options, Lara is doubling down on the same Sacramento instinct that created the crisis in the first place: more mandates, more bureaucracy, and more political posturing. A new bill, SB 876, sponsored by Lara, boils down to this: trust me. But Californians already know where that road leads — fewer carriers, higher premiums, and a market so fragile that every new state-imposed burden risks making a bad situation worse.
⬆️ WINNER: STEVE HILTON, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR
President Trump’s endorsement gives Hilton a real boost in a crowded Republican field. It strengthens his standing with GOP voters, draws additional media attention, and reinforces the case that he is a serious contender for the top two. In a race where visibility and validation matter, this is the kind of development that can help a candidate sharpen his profile, raise more money, organize supporters, and build broader momentum at a key point in the California Republicans’ statewide campaign.
⬇️ LOSER: TOM STEYER, GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE
For a Democrat running as a progressive reformer, this is exactly the kind of baggage that hurts. Under Steyer’s leadership, Farallon Capital built a massive stake in the company now known as CoreCivic, which today operates major ICE detention facilities in California. He now calls that investment a mistake, but the problem is obvious: you do not get to posture as morally outraged about a system after helping make money from it. And this does not even begin to get into all of Farallon’s fossil fuel investments. That is not a clean conversion. It looks like a political cleanup.
⬇️ LOSER: KAREN BASS, MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES
Karen Bass gets hit from two directions at once this week, and both cut to the same underlying problem: competence. Her much-hyped Inside Safe homelessness program has now burned through more than $300 million, yet the Los Angeles Times reports that about 40% of participants had returned to the street by December. At the same time, Los Angeles is reeling from a major data breach involving sensitive LAPD files, adding another damaging management failure to her watch. At some point, these stop looking like isolated setbacks and start looking like the record of a mayor who is in over her head.
⬆️ WINNER: HARMEET DHILLON, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR THE DOJ CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION
With Pam Bondi out as Attorney General, Dhillon’s profile just got a lot bigger. She is now being discussed as a possible successor, or at least part of the top-tier conversation, for what comes next at DOJ, which is a major visibility boost for a California lawyer who already holds a high-profile post in the administration. Even if she is not ultimately chosen, being on the short list elevates her stature, expands her influence, and marks a clear political win this week.
⬇️ LOSER: ANDRE MOUCHARD, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
This is the kind of story that tells readers plenty about the pain of spending restraint while telling them almost nothing about the fiscal recklessness that made restraint inevitable. Mouchard lays out the coming healthcare fallout in human terms but gives readers no serious accounting of the nearly $40 trillion national debt that is driving the entire debate. That is not balanced reporting. It is narrative journalism that treats government spending cuts as the story while treating the spending crisis itself as if it barely exists. That this kind of one-sided story would come from the Assistant Managing Editor of the paper is alarming.
⬇️ LOSERS: LA28, LOS ANGELES OLYMPICS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
LA28 sold Southern Californians on the idea of a hometown Olympics with affordable access, then delivered sticker shock, glitchy access, scarce low-cost seats, and a bloated 24% service fee. Worse, there was no real effort to warn people in advance about just how expensive this would be. Tens of thousands of fans entered a portal with minutes to decide, only to be hit with sky-high prices and astronomical fees. That is not public trust. It is a bait-and-switch problem.
⬆️ WINNER: JACK KAVANAUGH, FOUNDER OF RTUMBLE.COM
For years, Jack Kavanaugh has done the unglamorous but valuable work of helping politically engaged Californians keep up with the daily flood of news, commentary, and reporting. That kind of behind-the-scenes contribution rarely gets the recognition it deserves. So credit to Mark Barabak for shining a light on it. For those of us who understand what it takes to build and maintain a California political news aggregator over decades, this tribute feels especially well earned. Good for Jack.
⬇️ LOSER: MATT MAHAN, SAN JOSE MAYOR AND GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE
When a campaign starts talking about a $35 million outside rescue mission while also shedding a top strategist, that is not momentum. It is a distress signal. Mahan was supposed to be the fresh technocratic Democrat with elite money and crossover appeal. Instead, he looks like a heavily financed candidate who still cannot break through and now appears to need a donor-engineered bailout to remain viable. And oh yeah, his “strategist” was let go. Who’s next up? That is a very bad look in a governor’s race.
⬇️ LOSER: SCOTT WIENER, STATE SENATOR AND CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS
Politics can be a strange business. In this case, Wiener, who is about as progressive as they come, managed to lose the backing of SEIU over his opposition to San Francisco’s Proposition D, the so-called Overpaid CEO Act. The union had previously issued a dual endorsement, but now backs only Connie Chan, turning this into a clear political setback. In a labor-heavy Democratic race, losing a major public employee union over a tax-the-rich measure is a particularly awkward kind of loss.
THE WORST WEEK IN CALIFORNIA POLITICS AWARD GOES TO…
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As always, ping me with any ideas you have for this column, but I need input by midday each Thursday. All input is treated as anonymous.
Jon