The Brief

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Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmental activist and self-styled progressive candidate for governor, is on track to run the most expensive gubernatorial campaign in state history, having already spent more than $132 million.

He’s saturated the Internet and TV as special interest groups ramp up advertising of their own ahead of the June 2 primary and county officials prepare to mail out ballots.

Campaign finance disclosures filed late Thursday show that through mid-April, Steyer continued to outspend his opponents twenty- to thirty-fold, mostly to blitz the state with television ads that began airing early in the race. Nearly all of the money came from Steyer personally, $105 million of which he poured into the campaign from January through April 18.

He’s already dwarfed the $73 million Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign spent fighting the recall election against him in 2021 and surpassed the amount Newsom’s political committee spent last fall to pass Proposition 50, the Democratic gerrymander effort with intense national interest.

If Steyer continues at this rate, he is likely to come close to or exceed the $159 million record that former eBay executive Meg Whitman burned through — also largely of her own money — in her unsuccessful 2010 run for governor.

The campaign finance filings show that his competitor, tech-backed San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, dominated his fellow Democrats in fundraising over the past four months, bringing in $13 million. Former Rep. Katie Porter raised $2.8 million in that period, while former Attorney General Xavier Becerra brought in $1 million, former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised $707,000 and state schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond raised just $62,000.

Second from left, Katie Porter speaks during a gubernatorial candidate forum hosted by California Immigrant Policy Center, California Latino Legislative Caucus Foundation, and ACLU California Action at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento on April 14, 2026.

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Fred Greaves

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CalMatters

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On the Republican side, conservative television commentator Steve Hilton’s campaign said he raised $4.4 million while Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco raised $1.5 million. Both remain at the top of the polls.

Steyer’s outsized spending is a flashpoint in a race defined by wealth, inequality and California’s affordability crisis. Progressives are eager to tax billionaires this year; the resulting backlash to those proposals has prompted wealthy Silicon Valley executives like Google’s Sergey Brin and venture capitalist Michael Moritz to spend in earnest this election year.

Steyer is promising to rein in wealthy interests like them and corporations. He says he’ll implement publicly-funded universal health care, reduce electricity bills and raise corporate property taxes to pay for state services.

His own wealth is derived from a hedge fund where he once invested in fossil fuels and private prisons before pivoting toward liberal activism. It serves as both fodder for criticism from opponents across the political spectrum and an unlikely source of his own progressive credentials. He’s been able to convince several left-wing groups such as the California Nurses Association and the Bernie Sanders-founded political action committee Our Revolution that he “can’t be bought” by other special interests, earning him their endorsements. His ads have helped boost his standing among likely voters from relative obscurity to the top of the Democratic pack.

Democrats still tied

Yet he’s hardly broken away, continuing to be essentially tied in recent polling with other Democrats just behind the two Republican frontrunners, Bianco and Hilton.

Instead, in the wake of fellow frontrunner Rep. Eric Swalwell dropping out of the race this month over sexual assault and misconduct allegations from multiple women, it was Becerra who got a surge in support. The former Biden-era health secretary had been polling around 5% and fundraising poorly before getting a boost from small donors when Swalwell’s campaign imploded just two weeks ago.

Becerra surged enough in polls to be included in the first of a series of televised debates on Wednesday night, during which he was eager to attack his opponents but faced criticism for lacking policy specifics and for giving Newsom an ‘A’ grade “on effort” for his approach to homelessness. The number of Californians who are homeless has risen steadily during Newsom’s nearly eight years in office.

Becerra will have to keep raising money to remain competitive. His campaign spent four times what he brought in between January and April 18, and he ended the cycle with just $507,000 as the race entered its most expensive stage.

Porter, a former Orange County congressmember who has been stalling in the polls, raised less than she did in the second half of last year. But she still has $3.7 million on hand.

Aside from Steyer, Mahan raised the most over the past four months. Little-known around the state, he is running on a platform of making state government more efficient. He has promised not to raise any taxes, to suspend the state gas tax and tie state agency leaders’ pay to performance.

His campaign is funded by a who’s-who of Silicon Valley executives, billionaires and groups known to clash with Sacramento’s powerful labor unions. They’re also funding a pair of independent political spending committees supporting Mahan that raised $25 million and spent $19 million on ads through April 18.

Other special interest groups are also ramping up their spending. A group opposing Steyer, funded by the state’s realtors, construction industry, electrical workers’ union and Pacific Gas & Electric, has spent $14 million on ads attacking Steyer’s prior investments. This week, PG&E and the California Chamber of Commerce poured in another $7 million. Steyer has proposed challenging PG&E’s monopoly status to lower Californians’ utility bills.

Swalwell used campaign funds to pay attorney

The filings also revealed that Swalwell used campaign funds to pay one of the attorneys defending him against the misconduct accusations.

His campaign paid $40,000 to Sara Azari, who sent press statements denying the accusations after he had already suspended his campaign and appeared on NewsNation, where she is a legal analyst, suggesting his accusers had “shame” or “regret” but that “doesn’t make it rape.”

Swalwell had also used at least two other law firms to send cease-and-desist letters to the women and others alleging misconduct; those firms do not appear in his campaign finance statement. His gubernatorial campaign has returned at least $43,000 in donations since its implosion.

Swalwell paid campaign funds to use his own campaign finance AI startup, and to cover about $22,000 in child care expenses, which he and his wife routinely did for years from his congressional campaign account. That is allowed under federal and California campaign finance law as long as the child care needs were campaign-related; Swalwell has been one of the biggest spenders in that category.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

At least seven wildfires burning around Southern California are sending smoke across the region. The South Coast Air Quality Management District has extended a smoke advisory warning of unhealthy air through 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

What does a smoke advisory mean?

Local health officials send out warnings when the air quality is unhealthy. The advisories encourage people to avoid outdoor activities and take other steps to limit contact with smoky air.

Where are the wildfires?

Wildfires are burning in Ventura, San Diego, Riverside, Santa Barbara and L.A. counties. You can keep tabs on the fires on the CalFire website.

How bad is the air?

Wildfire smoke is generally worse for your health than the kind of “garden variety urban pollution” Angelenos are used to, said Suzanne Paulson, an atmospheric chemist at UCLA. But air quality depends on where you live, and might change from hour to hour. The good news is that low-cost air quality sensors have made it easier to find out just how bad the air is in your neck of the woods. You can check PurpleAir, Clarity, and IQAir for real-time data on pollution levels, often down to the neighborhood level.

How to avoid breathing bad air

Staying indoors in the best way to avoid bad air pollution, Paulson said. You can also try to avoid the worst areas. “So for example, I ride my bike to work. I regularly look at the map and see if the air quality is OK, and sometimes I even change my route,” Paulson said.

The city of Santa Ana is just $85 short of closing what started as a $13 million budget deficit. On the chopping block: after-school programming, park maintenance and more.

The city manager’s office presented another round of cuts to balance the budget at yesterday’s City Council meeting. Officials reported that the current proposal avoids layoffs and furloughs. Most of the cuts will come from the Public Works Department at more than $3 million.

Santa Ana's current budget proposal includes an estimated $85 deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.

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More on what’s being cut 

The Police Department is seeing a proposed $2 million in cuts, but could still be allocated $4 million more than last year, according to the budget draft.

The city is looking to cut 20 vacant full-time positions and reduce part-time spending.

Five non-mandated commissions will also be dissolved, including the youth, parks and recreation, and arts and culture commissions. The move will save the city nearly $28,000.

Ambulance services will be cut down from a 24-hour unit to a 12-hour unit, saving $250,000, and fees will increase.

How did we get here? 

At a City Council meeting earlier this month, officials reported that the city’s revenue increased by 3% compared to last year, but spending is up 6%, with hikes in labor and pension/liability costs.

What’s the deal with youth programming? 

The Santa Ana Police Athletic and Activity League, also known as PAAL, costs the city more than $877,000, about 80% of which goes toward salaries for its current fiscal budget.

PAAL costs the city about $5,400 per child, compared to youth programs run by the Parks and Recreation Department, which cost about $100 per kid.

PAAL’s after-school and summer programs serve 87 children, and more than 200 are mentored and coached through its sports programming. The program’s budget will be slashed by about half.

Councilmember Johnathan Ryan Hernandez said this move should not be seen as a cut to youth services.

“Through this new proposed recommendation, we’ll reinstate exercise instruction at four different elementary schools, and we will increase the services from 228 children to 2,200 children,” Hernandez said. “We are not cutting youth services, we're actually adding youth services while saving money for our city.”

Mayor Valerie Amezcua said the library and parks departments can do the same programs, but not the way PAAL does.

“I just want to make sure whatever cuts we're making, that we continue to include our Police Department. To me, that's very important for the public trust,” Amezcua said.

What’s next? 

The city isn’t completely in the clear when it comes to its finances. Measure X, a voter-approved sales tax, will be reduced in 2029, resulting in the loss of at least $30 million in annual revenue before completely expiring in 2039. The City Council, aside from Councilmembers David Penaloza and Jessie Lopez, has supported asking voters if the tax should be made permanent.

A public hearing to review the drafted budget will be held on June 2. Details will be posted on the city’s website.

At least 20 detainees have launched a hunger strike at Desert View Annex, an immigrant detention center in Adelanto, California, where about 400 people are being held.

At a news conference Wednesday, immigrant rights groups, including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said the strikers were motivated by the detention center’s inadequate response to life-threatening health conditions among detainees, “decreasing portions of food” as commissary prices rise and “retaliation and suppression” against those who’ve spoken out against conditions inside. The media event included family members and legal representatives, who described hearing from detainees about how the hunger strike began.

The strike follows the recent release of a critical report from the California Department of Justice. Grounded in interviews with 194 detainees across the state, the report details how the surge in immigrant apprehensions strained conditions and access to medical care at all of the facilities operating in California. State investigators also described the recent deaths of multiple detainees.

The annex strikers’ demands include:

• bond reform
• remediation of mold, repair of water infrastructure, clean water and functioning facilities
• timely medical appointments, “appropriate treatment for chronic conditions” and “substantive mental health support”
• “a diet that sustains basic physical health”
• accountability for detainee deaths, including a man who died shortly after being released 
• “The ability to meet collectively, speak with outside advocates, and communicate with family and the public without interference or retaliation.”

Desert View Annex is operated by The GEO Group, a private prison company, under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. No one at the press conference could confirm whether any detainees at the main Adelanto detention facility were on a hunger strike, too.

What is the response from authorities?

In response to a request for comment, The GEO Group referred LAist to the federal government. In an emailed statement, an unnamed Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said: “There is no hunger strike at Adelanto.”

The department also added: “For the record: During hunger strikes, ICE continues to provide three meals a day, delivered to the detained alien’s room, and an adequate supply of drinking water or other beverages.”

The department also said: “It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health services as available, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. For many illegal aliens this is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives.”

What do detainees experience?

Caleb Soto, an attorney with the National Day Labor Organizing Network, represents people currently detained at the Adelanto detention center. He said he goes inside the facility every week.

“I watch [detainees] deteriorate week by week,” he said. “The food they're given ... provides almost no nutrition. Medical appointments can take weeks or even months to be approved, and often last 60 seconds ending with the prescription of Tylenol, Advil or even a salt packet. People with serious conditions go untreated, and I've watched people age in front of me in a matter of months.”

Soto also described his experience with the bond system. “Discretionary releases have fallen 87%,” he said. “And for those who do get a bond hearing, the average bond is now over $14,000, which is a stark increase from the previous administration.”

Detainees have filed grievances, raised formal complaints and written officials about the conditions they’re experiencing, Soto added. “A hunger strike is not a first resort," he said. "It's what people do when every other option has been taken from them.”

Detainees say staff use solitary confinement to retaliate against those who speak out against these conditions, and to isolate detainees who are experiencing mental health crises.

Earlier this year, a coalition of immigrant rights groups filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of detainees, calling for conditions at Adelanto to be improved. The coalition has since requested an emergency court order to prevent further harm. A hearing is scheduled for July 10.