Worst Week In California Politics For The Week Ending 10/17
Every Week, We Look Across The California Political Landscape To Answer One Simple Question: Who Had The Worst Week In California Politics?
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Worst Week In California Politics
Another week, another podium….
California politics never lacks for candidates, but only three can earn a place on this week’s medal stand. Sometimes the biggest losers are politicians who suffer an election setback. Sometimes they’re public officials who find themselves in legal trouble. Other times, they simply have a week they’d rather forget.
As always, these awards are entirely subjective. If you disagree with my selections, that’s part of the fun. The conversation is half the point.
Let’s hand out this week’s medals.
🥉 Bronze Medal — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco
Campaigns are tough.
Tempers flare. Sharp words get exchanged. Candidates spend months drawing contrasts with one another in hopes of winning over voters.
Then the voters decide.
This week, former gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco reminded us that accepting the outcome can sometimes be the hardest part.
The news was first broken by my longtime friend Kira Davis of The Orange Report. During an interview on her program, Bianco was asked the obvious question: would he endorse fellow Republican Steve Hilton, the party’s nominee for Governor?
His answer: “At this point, no.”
That answer surprised many Republicans. Steve Hilton is not simply another candidate anymore—he is the Republican Party’s standard-bearer for governor. Once a primary is over, the expectation is that disappointed candidates rally behind the nominee and focus on defeating the other party in November.
No one is obligated to endorse the candidate who beat them. But politics is also about leadership. Republicans frequently argue that the party needs to unite after contested primaries if it hopes to compete statewide. That message rings a little hollow when one of California’s highest-profile Republican elected officials declines to support his party’s own nominee for governor.
Ironically, Bianco announced he would endorse Republican attorney general candidate Michael Gates. Which naturally raises the question: If party unity matters in one statewide race, why not the biggest one?
Bianco ran a strong and respectable campaign for governor, earning the support of hundreds of thousands of California Republicans. But one of the quickest ways to burn through that goodwill is to appear unwilling to accept the voters’ decision. Sure, the campaign between Bianco and Hilton became contentious at times. Competitive primaries often do. But once the ballots are counted, successful candidates put those differences behind them and help unify the team for the general election.
For refusing—at least for now—to endorse his own party’s nominee for Governor, Chad Bianco earns this week’s Bronze Medal.
🥈 Silver Medal — Former Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli
Who has ever heard of Windsor, California?
It’s a quiet Sonoma County town of about 27,000 people, better known for wineries like La Crema and Martinelli than political scandal.
But this week, Windsor found itself back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Former Mayor Dominic Foppoli’s civil sexual assault trial got underway in Sonoma County, bringing years of allegations—and one particularly damaging recorded remark—back into public view.
Seven women have accused Foppoli of sexual misconduct spanning roughly two decades, including allegations of rape and other nonconsensual sexual acts. Foppoli denies the allegations and maintains the encounters were consensual.
The opening week of the trial drew additional attention after the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted one of Foppoli’s own recorded remarks that is expected to be part of the proceedings: “You don’t need roofies if you give them enough wine.”
Whether the jury ultimately believes the plaintiffs or the defense will be decided in court over the coming weeks.
But politically, this was already a terrible week.
Dominic Foppoli entered the courtroom facing seven accusers—and carrying the burden of his own recorded words.
He may no longer hold elected office, but he’s still a former California mayor whose trial has once again put his hometown in the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
That earns Dominic Foppoli this week’s Silver Medal.
🥇 Gold Medal — Congressman Ro Khanna
This feature is only two weeks old.
Somehow, Congressman Ro Khanna has already managed to win two medals.
Last week, he took home the Silver Medal after two consecutive high-profile political endorsements imploded in spectacular fashion.
This week, he’s standing on top of the podium.
Khanna traveled to the West Bank on what was billed as a congressional “fact-finding” trip. Before long, he was telling reporters that armed Israeli settlers had surrounded his delegation and effectively detained them while Israeli soldiers looked on. Israeli officials quickly disputed that account, saying soldiers were dispatched after civilians blocked the road, dispersed the crowd and reopened access. Rather than backing away from the controversy, Khanna doubled down, accusing Israeli officials of misrepresenting what had occurred.
Israeli officials did far more than simply deny Khanna’s account. The Israel Defense Forces, Israel Police and Israel’s ambassador to the United States each released detailed explanations disputing key elements of his narrative, including how long the encounter lasted, whether soldiers prevented the delegation from leaving and whether any violence occurred. While the competing accounts differed sharply, all sides agreed there was no physical violence—making the episode less an undisputed international incident than a political controversy with conflicting versions of events.
Congressional CODELs already have a reputation as taxpayer-funded travel with questionable value. Ro Khanna somehow found a way to make one even more controversial. Before his delegation was even home, the trip had become less about the Middle East and more about Ro Khanna.
And then came the fundraising emails.
Before the controversy had even cooled, Khanna’s political operation was already using the incident to solicit campaign contributions. The appeals portrayed the confrontation as further proof of the political battles he was willing to fight, turning an unresolved international incident into campaign material almost in real time. Critics questioned not only the substance of Khanna’s claims, but also the speed with which his campaign sought to capitalize on them.
That’s what makes this such an unforced error.
Members of Congress are free to express their views on foreign policy. They are also free to criticize America’s allies. But when an overseas confrontation with disputed facts becomes a fundraising vehicle before the facts are fully established, the politician inevitably becomes part of the story. That’s exactly what happened here.
Khanna has spent years carefully cultivating the image of one of the Democratic Party’s most thoughtful rising stars and a potential future presidential candidate. Politicians with national ambitions are judged by how they handle high-profile controversies. This week, instead of projecting steady leadership, Khanna found himself at the center of an international political dispute with competing accounts of what occurred—and then quickly turned it into a campaign opportunity.
Winning one medal in this feature is unfortunate.
Winning medals two weeks in a row is an accomplishment nobody wants.
For turning an overseas political controversy into an almost immediate campaign and fundraising opportunity, Ro Khanna earns this week’s Gold Medal.
(A shout out to the California Post for their great coverage on this.)
The “Winners” Accept Their Awards…
Every week in politics produces winners and losers. This feature isn’t about who made the biggest headline—it’s about who had the worst week.
Sometimes it’s self-inflicted. Sometimes it’s bad judgment. Sometimes it’s simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever the reason, each of this week’s medalists gave Californians something to talk about—and probably something they’d rather forget.
We’ll see who makes next week’s podium!