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.

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Political persecution, threats of violence and the seizure of sensitive documents might sound like a plot line for a heist or thriller movie.

For California election officials tasked with enabling participatory democracy, these are now everyday realities — from Riverside County, where Sheriff Chad Bianco seized more than 650,000 ballots from his own county’s registrar of voters, to Shasta County, where threats of violence forced the longtime registrar to retire early.

The integrity of the state’s voting systems will be under intense scrutiny this year with control of the U.S. House on the line, as Californians could play a decisive role in which party wins the majority. Yet while timely and decisive results are more crucial than ever, California is famous for its ploddingly slow vote count.

That lengthy wait has increasingly sown distrust in the accuracy of California’s results, especially among Republicans, and particularly in races where a candidate leading on election day falls behind as more ballots are processed in subsequent days.

“Every day matters,” said Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. “Election security is about security in reality and also security in perception, and they're both equally important.”

During a panel Thursday on election integrity, presented by CalMatters and the UC Student and Policy Center, Alexander argued that election administrators are boxing themselves into a “false choice” if they sacrifice timeliness in the name of accuracy. When winners aren’t decided for days, sometimes weeks, the ensuing uncertainty leaves room for doubt to take root, speculation to grow and misinformation to spread.

It took eight days in 2024 for The Associated Press to be able to declare Republicans had won control of the U.S. House, partly because of outstanding votes in California races, Alexander said. Two years earlier, it took nine days. In 2020, it took the AP seven days to determine that Democrats would retain the House, she said. Each time, outcomes in California swing districts played a decisive role.

“We're creating a window of opportunity for people to make these claims,” Alexander said, referring to largely unfounded claims of systemic voter fraud and election rigging. “We have to acknowledge that.”

Fellow panelists defended California’s meticulousness as crucial to its election integrity. Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, Democratic chair of the Assembly elections committee and former Santa Cruz County registrar of voters, argued that county officials need time to verify voters’ signatures on vote-by-mail envelopes “so people don't get disenfranchised for penmanship or for failure to sign.”

“There's nothing in law that says, I need to meet your deadline,” Pellerin said of media outlets and journalists who are eager to call races on election night. “What the law says is that I need to count the votes accurately, securely. I need to check them, and double-check them, and audit them, and then I certify them.”

Matt Barreto, director of the UCLA Voting Rights Center, noted that counties have 30 days post-election to certify their results and submit them to the secretary of state. That process, he said, should be completed as quickly as possible but “not at the expense of the county registrars doing their job effectively to make sure every vote is counted.”

Catharine Baker, head of the UC Center, emphasized — pointedly to Pellerin — that counties need more money to make sure they’re sufficiently staffed and have the equipment they need to count efficiently.

They all agreed that voters can do one thing to speed up the count: turn in their mail ballots early so counties can process them before election day.

Large partisan divide over election integrity

California voters are highly polarized in their views on the status of democracy in their state and country, largely along party lines.

A new survey from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found a third of Democrats said they are “extremely satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the way democracy works in California, while only 4% of Republicans said they felt that way. Conversely, more than two-thirds of Republicans are not satisfied at all, compared to 10% of Democrats.

Those results are practically unchanged from voters’ responses in 2024, despite several major political events, including a presidential election that President Donald Trump won, a new presidential administration and a special election in California in which voters adopted more partisan gerrymandered congressional districts.

“It speaks to the fact that in a lot of ways our democracy is stuck,” said Eric Schickler, a UC Berkeley political science professor and co-director of the institute. “Republicans have one perspective on what's wrong — they make claims of voter fraud and slow ballot counts,” he said, “and Democrats have another, which is concerns about voter suppression.”

The poll also highlighted the partisan divide over a proposed ballot initiative from Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio of San Diego that would require Californians to show photo identification to vote. When asked whether they would support the measure, but without any context about who was for and against it, 56% of survey respondents said they strongly or moderately supported it, while 39% were strongly or moderately opposed.

But those shifted the more information voters were given. When told that DeMaio was the main proponent of preventing fraud and that Democrats argue the measure is part of Trump’s agenda to keep people of color from voting, the support flipped, with only 39% supporting the measure and 52% opposed.

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

Skunks aren’t exactly the most adored mammals in Southern California, but there's a cute reason they should be on your radar right now: It’s baby season.

That also means some changes in skunk behavior. Here’s what you should know about skunk life and how they care for their young around L.A. County.

Quick skunk facts

The skunks most people encounter in California are the striped species, which have jet black fur and two bright white stripes that run from the back of their neck to the base of their tail. (Yes, like Pepé Le Pew if he were a little less groomed.)

Ted Stankowich, a biological sciences professor at Cal State Long Beach, is a skunk expert. He said they’re nocturnal, omnivorous creatures that primarily come out around dusk or early evening to find food.

“They eat bugs, eggs, grass, fruit and anything they can find,” he said. “A lot of scavenging for trash among humans.”

These mammals are explorers that typically don’t venture that far. Females go up to a square mile away from home, while males can traverse up to four square miles.

They can have multiple dens with a particular favorite. Skunks can live in a variety of nooks and crannies, like rock piles, under homes or in bushes.

The creatures tend to have a bad rap because of the spraying, but Stankowich said a lot of that is based on misconceptions. The mammals aren’t usually aggressive.

“ I like to say that they have sort of a great attitude of the world — you leave me alone, I leave you alone,” he said. “But if you mess with me, I’m gonna come after you.”

As for lifespan, they live about two to four years in the wild. That’s shorter in cities because they’re more likely to be killed by drivers.

How baby season changes behavior

Baby skunks are called kits.

In warmer climates like ours, mating can start as early as January.  Mothers are pregnant for about 2 1/2 months, so if they mate in February, they’ll likely give birth to a litter of four to six kits around April.

These little ones are born blind, deaf and mostly hairless. They’re mostly helpless for the first few weeks of life and rely on their mother for milk.

A kit’s little body can make a droplet of oily musk within about a week. However, Stankowich said they can’t spray it properly until Week 3 or 4.

While skunks aren’t normally aggressive, lactating mothers are the exception. They leave the den at night to forage, so they can eat and keep up with milk production. That can make them “a bit more ornery,” Stankowich said.

“ They get more nervous. They get upset if they’re harassed,” he said. “Those animals are much more feisty than your normal non-lactating or pregnant skunk.”

Kits can be a little feisty too. When they’re in the den, they’re developing defensive behaviors. Stankowich has seen kits do foot stomps and hiss to act aggressive and strong.

The offspring start leaving the den and start exploring with the family at around 2 months old, meaning there are likely more skunks than usual around May to June.

Kits turn into adults around late summer and early fall when they venture off on their own.

What that means for you (and your pets)

Since skunks aren’t as big as coyotes, it’s easy to miss the increased activity. But you could still spot a mother with her kits wandering around her in a big group.

If you do see skunks out and about, Stankowich said you don’t need to turn tail and run. Instead, stay still, keep any pets on a leash and don’t try to feed the skunks.

“ They’re not there to bother you. They’re not there to attack you,” he said. “If they tell you to back up, you’ll know it.”

Now if you have the unfortunate gift of getting sprayed anyway, there are steps you can take to get rid of the smell on you or your pets.

First off, tomato baths are a myth and water activates more of the smell, making it worse. Instead, use a combination of these three things:

• A quart of hydrogen peroxide
• A quarter cup of baking soda
• Teaspoon of dish soap

You’ll wash yourself or your pets with this. Depending on how long your pet’s hair is, you might need a couple of rounds. If spray gets in your household, bleach can be used to knock out the smell.

On Wednesday, shovels hit the ground in Pomona, a city in the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, where construction has begun for a 10,000-plus capacity premier cricket stadium. It will serve as the venue for men’s and women’s games, played by six teams in each competition.

The stadium is being erected in the Fairplex fairgrounds as the home of the Los Angeles Knight Riders, a professional Major League Cricket team owned by the Mumbai-based Knight Riders Sports. The company is co-led by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

The groundbreaking kicked off with a “bhumi pujan,” a ritual rooted in Hindu tradition, which often marks the start of a construction project as a way of seeking divine blessings and forgiveness for disturbing the earth.

Cricket is already woven into the cultural fabric of U.S. diaspora communities from all over the world, particularly South Asia, where it is followed with religious fervor. In the U.S., cricket fans, coaches and players view a dedicated cricket stadium in a major sports market like Southern California as a huge milestone.

Investors hope momentum from local major league cricket games carries into the Olympics, taking the sport to a mainstream American sports audience. Many also believe that this newfound visibility will help carve out promising pathways for homegrown cricketing talent.

Olympics could make cricket mainstream in America

Venky Mysore, CEO of Knight Riders Sports, said establishing the Knight Riders Cricket Field is just the first step in getting the average American fan engaged. Mysore is convinced of the sport’s commercial potential.

“People who watch the Olympics are not necessarily cricket fans,” Mysore said. “When cricket becomes an Olympic sport, that takes interest and awareness to the next level.”

Knight Riders Sports operates multiple teams worldwide — in India, the Caribbean and the United Arab Emirates. But the Pomona venue is the only stadium they’ve built from scratch, Mysore said. Only three international-level cricket stadiums operate in the U.S. — in Texas, Florida and North Carolina. The sport is also played in other multi-purpose venues like the Oakland Coliseum.

L.A. is one of a handful of dedicated US cricket venues

Peter Della Penna, who has been covering cricket in the U.S. for the past two decades, says this is the first time an international cricket event in the U.S. will have a dedicated venue. In 2024, a high-capacity modular stadium was specifically built for the T20 World Cup in New York, but was dismantled after the event.

But during the L.A. Olympics, it would not be ideal to hold the cricket matches in another part of the country, he said.

“Cricket players would want to be in the Olympic Village, walk shoulder to shoulder with U.S. track and field athletes, swimmers and basketball players,” he said. “Cricketers in America have not had such prominence and U.S. cricket really needs that.”

Cricket has had a long, rich history in the U.S. The first international cricket match was played between the U.S. and Canada in 1844 at St. George’s Cricket Club in Manhattan, New York. Canada beat the U.S. by a slim margin before thousands of spectators, with large wagers placed on the event.

A high point came in 2024, when the U.S. national team achieved a stunning upset over Pakistan in a T20 World Cup match.

Debjit Lahiri, a Wisconsin-based cricket historian, said Olympic cricket was last played in 1900 in Paris where the Summer Games were a chaotic sideshow to the World’s Fair, featuring events like live pigeon shooting. Cricket never made it to the 1904 Olympic Games held in St. Louis.

Cricket in Los Angeles began around 1900 with local clubs. It gained prominence in the 1930s with the Hollywood Cricket Club formed by expat British actors, drawing big names like Errol Flynn, Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant and Boris Karloff. The club’s original home at Griffith Park was torn down to build an equestrian center for the 1984 Olympics. It moved to Woodley Park in the San Fernando Valley, where several aspiring cricketers learned to play the game, including Ayan Desai, a 22-year-old rising star who hopes to play for Team USA in 2028.

Desai, whose family owns a motel near the future Knight Riders stadium, said he was thrilled to hear about a world-class cricket venue almost in his backyard.

“To play the Olympics is special, but to do it in front of your home crowd, in your home city, that would be amazing,” he said.

Desai, a left-arm fast bowler, plays for the Seattle Orcas major league team and has competed in four international games as part of the U.S. national team.

“This is what we’ve needed to grow cricket in Los Angeles,” he said.

Questions remain about cricket’s sustainability

Antigua native Reggie Benjamin, a former U.S. cricketer and longtime coach based in Los Angeles, remains skeptical.

“I’m happy to see cricket get an opportunity to showcase itself here,” he said. “But if you can’t get average Americans to come to a game and sit in the stands for three hours, or if you can’t get American kids to play cricket, the game is not going to grow.”

Benjamin said he’s been disappointed to see homegrown talent and grassroots efforts cast aside as players from other countries are brought in to play for major league teams and the national team. He also points to poor management that has beset U.S. cricket and raised concerns about cricket’s inclusion in the 2028 Olympics.

Last year, those challenges came to a head as USA Cricket, a nonprofit tasked with developing the sport in the United States, filed for federal bankruptcy protection after ending a contract with American Cricket Enterprises, the group that created Major League Cricket. Since then, the International Cricket Council, which oversees cricket worldwide, has been temporarily running the U.S. national cricket team. ACE also filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination of the contract.

Yet big investors like Mysore are optimistic that a cooperative relationship is possible between USA Cricket and Major League Cricket. Both feed off each other, he said. National selectors often look to major league teams for star players.

“A strong national team is important because it keeps interest alive in the sport,” he said.

Walter Marquez, CEO of the Fairplex, says he believes in cricket’s future. A diehard baseball fan, Marquez said he’s been boning up on cricket recently. He now knows what a “yorker” means, and he sees real potential for the game to grow.

“For those who don’t know cricket, given an opportunity, they will learn what an exciting game it is, especially the T20 format,” said Marquez, referring to the truncated format the Olympics will use in 2028.

“We like home runs. We love the long ball. Cricket has a lot of those. American sports fans just don’t know they’re cricket fans yet.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.