Politics

Patrick Murray of Appleton, Wis., cast his ballot for Donald Trump in 2016 but won’t do so again. He plans to watch the Democratic National Convention this week to decide how to vote in November. (Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times) In 2016, a fed-up Patrick Murray cast his presidential ballot for Donald Trump, … Read more

The state Senate will get a new leader today and nobody is quite sure what to expect. The first day should be pretty routine. Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) will be nominated by the Democratic Caucus to become president pro-tem, succeeding Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), whose 13-year reign is being severed by legislative term … Read more

Iranian demonstrators chant slogans and hold a poster of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at an anti-Israel gathering Saturday in Tehran. (Vahid Salemi / Associated Press) Iran faces a complex dilemma over whether to attack Israel directly or use its string of proxy armies — as weakened as some of those now appear — … Read more

High-flying ex-state Sen. Alan Robbins, driven from the Legislature in 1991 as an admitted felon, has quietly resurfaced here in a fight to save his legacy. Robbins is waging a low-profile campaign to kill an extraordinary bill that would remove his name from the official title of every state law memorializing him as its author. … Read more

Jack Grubman emerged from the working-class neighborhoods here more than 30 years ago with little more than an aptitude for numbers and a reputation as someone who was going places. That place was Wall Street, where Grubman became one of the most influential and highest-paid securities analysts of the 1990s, pulling down a reported $20 … Read more

Voters cast early ballots in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 8. (Paul Vernon / Associated Press) In the final stretch of an exceedingly tight presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump are targeting people’s fears as they barnstorm across the country to eke out wins in seven battleground states where polls show razor-thin … Read more

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) speaks with reporters after a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus in January 2020. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call) Twenty years ago, Rep. Barbara Lee stood before her House colleagues and pleaded with them not to give President Bush a blank check to wage war against the remote, lawless nation accused … Read more

Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu stands at the podium on the abbreviated first day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. (Win McNamee / Getty Images) Republicans hope to use their convention to spotlight some of the party’s rising Latino stars — Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico … Read more

The Bush administration is strongly considering nominating veteran Republican Rep. Christopher Cox of Newport Beach and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl for highly coveted seats on the federal appeals court based in San Francisco, according to political and legal sources. The staunchly conservative Cox, 48, is an honors graduate of Harvard … Read more

Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, will be one of the leaders of a group of moderate Democrats. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP) The informal but increasingly powerful cadre of business-aligned Democrats in the Legislature tapped two assemblymen to lead their caucus Tuesday afternoon after last week’s decision by the group’s current chairman to leave office at the … Read more