The Brief

Campaign signs including the word "PORN" in big block letters were posted across Huntington Beach this week — and many have since been torn down — as the library culture wars heat up in Surf City.

What were the signs about?

The campaign signs were posted in the runup to a special election set for June 10 where the city’s voters will weigh in on two ballot initiatives, Measures A and B, that could determine who controls the city’s public libraries. The signs read “Protect our kids from porn” and urge a no vote on both measures.

What happened next?

The backlash was immediate. Residents, especially parents, criticized the prominent use of the word “porn” on signs placed near schools. One person fumed on a community Facebook group that the signs “got a whole city full of kids googling ‘What is Porn’ on their smart phones.”

What’s the backstory?

The beach city’s libraries have been a point of controversy since staunch conservatives took over city government and voted in late 2023 to establish a board of residents to review children’s books for the city’s public libraries and weed out ones they determine to have sexually inappropriate content — based on their own criteria.

Opponents say the job of choosing and classifying books for the library should be left to professional librarians — and they mounted a petition drive to get the board repealed, which resulted in Measure A.

Public library advocates mounted a second petition drive after the City Council flirted last year with outsourcing library operations to a private company. Measure B would prohibit the city from privatizing the city’s libraries.

Who put up the 'PORN' signs?

They’re from the "No on Measures A and B" campaign, paid for by a campaign committee opened by City Councilmember Chad Williams. Williams defended the signs in a video message posted on social media: “The people who are concerned about this word ‘porn’ being out in the public, I redirect your attention to the fact that this sexual content was pushed into the public library and that is what has pushed this into the public forum.”

Williams told LAist he won’t back down from the campaign.

“The bottom line is there’s pornography that’s available to minors in our public library,” he said. “I’m not going to dance around the subject, it needs to be addressed.”

He added that his own young kids had asked him about the word “porn” on the signs.

“I just told them it’s a bad thing they’re trying to protect us from," he said. "You don’t have to get into the details."

What has happened to the signs?

Some of the signs, which were put up over the weekend, had been taken down by community members by Tuesday morning. A spokesperson for the Huntington Beach Police Department said they had received four complaints of vandalizing political signs since Monday and that two people had received misdemeanor citations.

One of the sign vandals confessed in a video posted on social media, saying he supported Williams and voted for him in the last election, but that the ad campaign was “counterproductive.” He said he had removed the word “porn” from 12 of the signs.

“Frankly, it feels more like a tactic intended to provoke than a message grounded in conservative values,” the man, who said his name was Jason, said into the camera, quoting from an email he sent to Williams. “These signs, placed in clear view of elementary age children, may be legal, but it’s not appropriate."

How to keep tabs on Huntington Beach

• Huntington Beach holds City Council meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 2000 Main St.
  
• You can also watch City Council meetings remotely on HBTV via Channel 3 or online, or via the city’s website (you can also find videos of previous council meetings there).
  
• The public comment period happens toward the beginning of meetings.
  
• The city generally posts agendas for City Council meetings on the previous Friday. You can find the agenda on the city’s calendar or sign up there to have agendas sent to your inbox.

LAist take you deeper on the issues

• Why Huntington Beach keeps tackling library initiatives
• Why Huntington Beach residents want a say on libraries
• Huntington Beach pulls the plug on a controversial plan to have a private company manage its libraries

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Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has won the U.S. Senate election in Michigan, according to a race call by the Associated Press, a crucial victory in his party's quest to win back the Senate majority.

One of the most closely watched elections in the U.S., the race in Michigan tested how an antiestablishment candidate on the left would fare in a perennial Midwest battleground.

El-Sayed will be the first Muslim American to serve in the Senate.

The 42-year-old former public health official defeated former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers. Rogers lost his first bid for the Senate in 2024.

Harnessing anger over the cost of living and corruption, El-Sayed galvanized young and infrequent voters by focusing on passing single-payer healthcare and curbing the influence of corporate money in politics.

He is not a democratic socialist, unlike several candidates whose insurgent campaigns gained traction in primaries this cycle, though his campaign was backed by some of the biggest stars on the political left.

His positions on Israel alienated some Jewish voters, including comments after a truck-ramming attack at a synagogue preschool in metro Detroit — for which he later offered an apology — and campaigning during the primary with controversial left-wing streamer Hasan Piker.

Those were among the dynamics during a heated primary contest that turned into a stand-in for many of the broader debates fueling the direction of the Democratic Party after two years in the political wilderness.

In the primary, El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens by about 1 percentage point, despite Michigan heavyweights like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and retiring Sen. Gary Peters backing his opponent.

Mike Rogers speaks to supporters during a campaign event at Hoffman Farms Winery on Oct. 9 in Highland Township, Mich.

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Chip Somodevilla

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Getty Images

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In the general election's closing days, Stevens reversed course and announced she was endorsing Rogers, after initially saying she would support the Democratic ticket, underscoring the rocky path to uniting the Democratic coalition in Michigan. After the primary, polls showed a tight race with Rogers, despite Democrats having held the Senate seat since 1979.

During the campaign, El-Sayed criticized his opponent and other Republicans, including President Trump, for targeting him with Islamophobic rhetoric.

Trump early on endorsed Rogers, who has embraced some of the president's false claims about widespread election fraud, despite previously condemning them, including after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. As November neared, Rogers tried to distance himself from some of the president's policies, including the war in Iran.

El-Sayed, a Michigan native who ran the health departments in Wayne County and the city of Detroit, first arrived on the political stage in 2018 with an unsuccessful bid for governor.

Now as Democrats wrestle with their party's identity, El-Sayed has signaled that he intends to be a prominent voice, especially given Michigan's prime position in the presidential nominating process in 2028.
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Democrats had an overwhelming comeback on election night, recapturing both the House and Senate and shattering expectations in some longtime GOP strongholds. Democrats also had strong showing in gubernatorial races across the nation.

President Donald Trump has said he will accept results and blamed GOP candidates for their own losses.

House of Representatives

Senate

Governors

California state leaders will be able to put away more money when its economy is booming.

On Tuesday, 60% of voters supported Proposition 2, which seeks to shore up the state’s reserves for an economic downturn, with 40% of voters opposing the measure. With 46% of votes counted, The Associated Press declared the measure had passed.

California’s booming stock market is bringing in billions of dollars in unexpected tax revenue.

Prop. 2, or the Save for California’s Future Act, aims to shore up the state’s rainy day fund by allowing state leaders to save up to 20% of the state’s general fund tax revenue, up from the current ceiling of 10%.

The state will also be required to save more when revenue is growing faster, and allow state lawmakers to use some of it to pay down California’s $20 billion in federal unemployment insurance debt.

Supporters say saving more now would help the state weather a future economic downturn.

California has been stuck in a boom-or-bust state budget cycle because its tax revenue depends heavily on wealthy residents’ stock market earnings. Some economists have warned the current economic boom may not last, and the state could face deeper budget uncertainties due to federal budget cuts and potential tax filing delays triggered by natural disasters.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislators spearheaded Prop. 2, which is also endorsed by labor unions, chambers of commerce and a coalition of advocates for healthcare, housing and transit.

“If you don’t have a rainy day fund, then what happens is you get forced to contemplate cuts to core essential services,” said Assembly Budget Chair Jesse Gabriel, an Encino Democrat.

But opponents, including most Republican lawmakers, say saving more would only embolden legislators to spend more. The state should refund taxpayers during a good year, not set the money aside, they argue.

“When they say we’re here for fiscal responsibility, it’s like the devil offering a Bible study. Don’t buy it,” said Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican.

California leaders and voters have historically established reserves several times, but always quickly withdrew all the funds during budget crises. In 2014, voters approved a law that required the state to save more aggressively and made it harder to withdraw money.

The law requires the state to set aside 1.5% of its general fund revenue and any spikes in capital gains tax revenue each year for reserves and paying down debts. State lawmakers are allowed to withdraw up to half the balance from the reserves when the governor declares and the Legislature ratifies a budget emergency, unless they’ve already done that the previous year and the emergency remains. There are no limits on what lawmakers can spend the money on.

Prop. 2 would keep those rules and allow the state to save more. Critics say state leaders have too much leeway in spending the money.

David Crane, a former economic adviser to former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the rules let “governors bake in spending based on optimistic forecasts, knowing they can always dip into reserves if revenue falls short.”

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

President Donald Trump has congratulated Democrats for their string of victories but maintains that the midterm elections are not a referendum on him.

“The Democrats did a good job. They fought hard,” he said in a phone interview with Fox News.

Several Trump-backed candidates lost in places that he won easily in 2024. But he blamed the candidates themselves, not policies of his that voters have looked on unfavorably, like the economy and Iran war.

“I don’t view it as a hit on me,” he said. “We’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency.”

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