Top Ten Winners & Losers In California Politics For The Week Ending 3/13 - Who is the Biggest Loser?
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. Under the paywall, however, is our “Worst Week In California” special feature. It's me, in rare form, on video, going on why someone’s week sucked. Pithy? You bet! We also hit two-runners up this week.
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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 it difficult to assemble this list.
Top Winners & Losers This Week in California Politics
⬇️ LOSER: KAREN BASS, MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles residents just got another reminder that when City Hall raises costs, the public eventually pays. The Los Angeles World Airport Commission — appointed by the mayor (and her predecessor) — approved a significant hike in fees charged to ride-share companies, taxis, and limousines operating at LAX. Those charges are expected to rise as high as $12 per trip and will inevitably be passed along to travelers. At a time when Angelenos are already struggling with affordability, the city is making it more expensive simply to get to and from their own airport.
⬇️ LOSER: BOB HERTZBERG, FORMER STATE SENATE MAJORITY LEADER AND ASSEMBLY SPEAKER
After decades of Sacramento policies that made it harder and more expensive to build housing, this former legislative leader is now promoting a $25 billion government-backed mortgage program to help buyers cope with the consequences. The initiative effort, which appears to have turned in enough signatures, would place a measure on the November ballot to issue $25 billion in state bonds and subsidize home purchases with state-backed loans requiring as little as 3 percent down. But California’s housing problem is not financing — it is supply. When government policies restrict home construction, giving buyers more borrowed money simply drives prices higher while shifting risk onto taxpayers. Thanks to his efforts, this massive bond measure is now likely to appear on the November ballot, doubling down on the same misguided policymaking that is making California increasingly unaffordable.
⬆️ WINNER: ALEXANDRA MACEDO, CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLYMEMBER
While many politicians are content to issue statements and hold press conferences, this Central Valley assemblywoman took a more direct approach. Working with California Courier investigative reporter Christian Hartsock, she personally visited multiple Los Angeles County addresses associated with hospice and home healthcare agencies that billed Medi-Cal. What they found raised serious questions: empty offices, deteriorating buildings, and locations that hardly resembled functioning healthcare providers. With billions in suspected Medi-Cal fraud tied to hospice operations in the region, her willingness to conduct a firsthand field investigation stands out as the kind of oversight taxpayers rarely see from Sacramento.
⬇️ LOSER: GAVIN NEWSOM, GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA AND ASPIRING PRESIDENT
California’s governor — who has spent years championing some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country — recently received a new handgun as a gift: a SIG Sauer P365 X-Macro pistol. But here’s the irony: the maze of gun-control laws he helped create may make it difficult for him to actually take possession of it. Meanwhile, criminals face no such regulatory hurdles. For law-abiding citizens in California, buying a firearm can be a bureaucratic obstacle course — one that the governor himself is now discovering firsthand.
⬇️ LOSERS: MARÍA ELENA DURAZO, STATE SENATOR, AND JOAQUIN ARAMBULA, ASSEMBLYMEMBER
Just as California faces mounting budget pressure and the cost of Medi-Cal continues to balloon, these two Democratic lawmakers are pushing legislation to restore taxpayer-funded health care for citizens of other countries who are in the United States in violation of our immigration laws. California should not and cannot afford to give the consumer product of health insurance to anyone, let alone people who are in this country illegally.
⬆️ WINNER: ORANGE COUNTY LINCOLN CLUB
A decades-old Orange County political organization (of which I am a member) is suddenly getting national attention for reinventing itself in the digital age. A recent report highlighted how the club’s affiliated Lincoln Media Foundation has built a network of online publications and advertising campaigns designed to shape political debate well beyond California. The effort has rapidly expanded, with the foundation’s revenue growing from roughly $400,000 in 2021 to nearly $4 million by 2024 — a tenfold increase that underscores the group’s growing influence in modern political messaging.
⬇️ LOSER: CYNTHIA TENIENTE-MATSON, PRESIDENT, SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY
When federal investigators concluded that San Jose State University violated Title IX in its handling of a transgender volleyball player competing on the women’s team, the university’s leadership faced a choice: address the concerns of female athletes or fight Washington. Instead, the president chose litigation. By suing the federal government rather than correcting course, the university has reinforced the criticism that protecting ideological positions now takes precedence over protecting women’s sports and the equal opportunities Title IX was meant to guarantee.
⬇️ LOSER: MATT MAHAN, MAYOR OF SAN JOSE AND GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE
San Jose’s mayor is running for governor while positioning himself as a pragmatic “moderate” Democrat, but his newly released housing plan suggests otherwise. While it includes a few measures to ease construction costs, the proposal largely doubles down on the same centralized planning philosophy that created California’s housing crisis in the first place. Much of the plan’s regulatory relief is tied to dense infill housing in government-designated zones — reinforcing Sacramento’s belief that planners should decide where housing gets built.
⬇️ LOSER: RUSTY HICKS, CHAIRMAN, CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY
For the second week in a row, the chairman of the California Democratic Party earns a spot in the loser column for essentially the same misfire. Last week it was an open letter urging Democratic candidates for governor to drop out of the race — a plea that none of the serious contenders bothered to follow. Now he has doubled down with a new plan for the party to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on polling intended to pressure weaker candidates to reconsider their campaigns. The problem is that campaigns built over months of fundraising, staffing, and donor commitments do not simply shut down because party leadership releases a poll suggesting they should.
⬇️ LOSER: ANDREW DO, FORMER ORANGE COUNTY SUPERVISOR
Now sitting in federal prison serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to a bribery conspiracy involving the misuse of COVID relief funds, the former Republican supervisor’s scandal appears even worse than previously known. A newly released forensic audit commissioned by Orange County suggests corruption in his office went far beyond the charges already filed. The report describes a broader pattern of questionable contracting, political favoritism, and weak oversight — a betrayal of taxpayers on an epic scale.
Now below the paywall is the BFD - my weekly pithy video where I nail the two runners-up for the Worst Week In California Politics — and then I let the Big Loser have it! What? Not a paid subscriber? Try the free week trial below! And see the video now!
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