Good morning, it’s Wednesday, May 13 and you can expect an exuberantly nice day (low 70s).
Are we seeing a shift in California’s geography of political power?
Then-Congressman Xavier Becerra (left) during his 2001 campaign for mayor of Los Angeles. (Photo by David Bohrer/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The conventional wisdom in California politics, at least of modern vintage, has held that the road to the governor’s mansion — and, ultimately, national prominence — runs through Northern California.
The political hothouse of San Francisco (the Golden State’s fourth-largest city by population, but its premier seedbed for germinating stars) launched the careers of the state’s recent headliners: Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom. Californians last voted in an Angeleno for governor more than two decades ago, when they first elected Arnold Schwarzenegger. And he was an internationally famous action star who had never held public office — not exactly a product of the L.A. ballot cycle.
Newsom remains ascendant. But Feinstein is dead, Pelosi is finishing her last term in office and Harris is licking her wounds in Malibu. Meanwhile, as the state’s clown car of a gubernatorial race lurches toward the finish line, voters appear to have shrugged Xavier Becerra into presumptive frontrunner status.
Amid all the recent discussion of Becerra’s rise and record, one fact has largely been ignored: He’s sort of an Angeleno.
In our latest L.A. Material report, we examine the broader question of why the Bay Area has held political dominance of late — and whether that’s changing.
READING MATERIAL
SPEAKING OF BECERRA: The gubernatorial contender and quasi-Angeleno drew widespread criticism Tuesday, after a clip of him trying to steer a reporter’s questions went viral. (His opponent Matt Mahan quickly cut the clip together with a notorious Katie Porter interview to pound both of them.)
COLLINS DEAD AT 47: Jason Collins, the NBA’s first openly gay player and an ambassador for sports inclusion, died after battling an aggressive brain tumor. Collins and his twin Jarron began their basketball career at Harvard-Westlake before both went pro.
YOU’RE FIRED: Mayor Karen Bass quietly fired the city’s first L.A.’s chief heat officer last month with no replacement, reports Sammy Roth in Climate Colored Goggles. Bass’ office later told Roth they were in the “final stages” of appointing a successor.
MAY REVISE: Gov. Gavin Newsom will release a revised plan for his final budget as governor today. The L.A. Times previewed what’s at stake in a story last week.
CONAN’S BACK: Conan O’Brien will return to host the Academy Awards in 2027.
BALDONI AND LIVELY SCORECARD: Did Blake Lively or Justin Baldoni emerge the victor in their years-long dispute over what happened on the set of “It Ends With Us”? Veteran legal journalist Eriq Gardner parses the legal machinations, chest-thumping and dueling narratives to crown a winner: "Baldoni has come away from the settlement with the upper hand," he writes, while also clearly laying out what Lively's legal team is pushing for next.
STARTING OVER: After years of partying with “the likes of Paris Hilton,” the co-founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics has given up his life of luxury and will soon be ordained as a Catholic priest.
AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “Keats in California” by Philip Levine.
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