Politics

Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village), left, and her GOP rival, Matt Jacobs are vying to represent California’s 26th Congressional District. (Associated Press/Cliff Owen) 1 The race in California’s 26th Congressional District, mostly based in Ventura County but with a sliver of Los Angeles County, features veteran Democratic lawmaker Julia Brownley facing off with former federal … Read more

Candidates running for California governor in 2026 include, clockwise from top left, state Sen. Toni Atkins, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former state Controller Betty Yee, and State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. (Associated Press; Los Angeles Times) If you’re tired of thinking about who’s going to be the next president, why not start thinking … Read more

State Controller Steve Westly released a decade of his tax returns Monday, showing the former EBay executive received nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in income during the 10 years, mostly from selling stock in the online auction house. Westly’s release of tax returns is designed in part to pressure Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and … Read more

SAG-AFTRA member John Schmitt, second from right, and others carry signs on the picket line outside Netflix in Los Angeles last month. (Chris Pizzello / Associated Press) The political fight over whether workers on strike should be allowed to collect unemployment benefits is reigniting in Washington. U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who is … Read more

Miya Yoshitani, executive director of the Oakland-based group Asian Pacific Environmental Network, has been part of California’s growing environmental justice movement. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) When Joe Biden last month was mulling over whom to name as his Interior secretary, entrusted with hundreds of millions of acres of public land, a network of … Read more

Regardless of what the future holds for our union, regardless of what the future holds for farm workers, our accomplishment cannot be undone. The consciousness and pride that were raised by our union are alive and thriving inside millions of young Hispanics who will never work on a farm. –Cesar Chavez in a 1984 speech … Read more

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a virtual meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sharply criticized U.S. aid to a group in his country hours before he met virtually on Friday with Vice President Kamala Harris, underscoring the difficulty … Read more

After decades on the political sidelines, liberalism is making a comeback. Polls show plunging support for Republicans and their brand of conservatism among young, independent voters and Latinos. But what kind of liberalism is emerging as the dominant voice in the Democratic Party? Well, it isn’t your father’s liberalism, the ideology that defended the interests … Read more

“Will that be turkey on rye? You want lettuce and tomato?” Patricia Ireland, head of the nation’s best-known women’s organization, laughs as she takes a visitor’s lunch order. “Can you tell I’ve waited on a lot of tables in my time?” She’s also been a flight attendant–back when they were called stewardesses and they “really … Read more

It appeared to be a classic example of indirect politics–giving to a minor party candidate to drain votes away from a major contender. A group of more than 40 contributors, many of them members of orthodox Jewish congregations in Los Angeles, gave $120,000 in the last two weeks of the campaign to an American Independent … Read more