The Brief

It's been nearly three weeks since we found out Californians decisively passed Proposition 50 to redraw the state’s congressional district maps. The Associated Press called the vote within minutes of polls closing, but the vote won’t become official until after results are certified in early December — and yes, votes are still being counted with about 12,000 to go statewide.

In the meantime, we’re keeping tabs on potential legal battles, the status of the national redistricting arms race, and how Prop. 50 is already shaping choices for the 2026 midterm elections.

Here's what's been going on so far.

Texas’ map is getting reviewed by the Supreme Court

• What happened: A federal court ruled that Texas cannot use its recently redrawn congressional maps in the 2026 midterm elections, finding it was racially gerrymandered. The Supreme Court has now taken up the case, and has temporarily allowed the map to stand while it figures out which map Texas should default to as the case goes under review.
• Wasn’t this the map that led to Prop. 50 to begin with? Yep. A quick refresher: Over the summer, President Donald Trump encouraged Texas officials to start an unusual mid-decade redistricting process to help Republicans gain five seats in the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms. After Texas’ state legislature produced those new maps, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that California would respond with a similar move to redistrict in favor of Democrats and neutralize Texas' map — which eventually became Prop. 50. 
• Does the case affect Prop. 50? No. But there's a separate challenge underway in California. More on that below. 
• What does this mean for the House elections in 2026? If Texas winds up having to use its older map drawn in 2021 for next year's midterms — either as a default while the Supreme Court reviews the case or a result of the newer map being struck down — Democrats will be ahead in the nationwide redistricting battle. But if the new map stands, Democrats and Republicans remain neck-and-neck in the redistricting battle.

California Republicans and the DOJ filed a lawsuit

• What happened: Shortly after Election Day, California Republicans announced they were challenging Prop. 50 in federal court, arguing the new district maps favor Latinos at the expense of other groups in violation of the Constitution. The federal Department of Justice filed last week to join the lawsuit.
• Does this change anything? Not at the moment. The lawsuit requests a preliminary injunction — essentially a pause on Prop. 50 going into effect — while the case gets reviewed, but it’s not clear if the court will grant one. Any injunction would have to happen very soon, since candidates are already gearing up for the 2026 elections.

Here’s how O.C. cities voted on Prop. 50

Voters wait to cast their ballots in the California Statewide Special Election at the Huntington Beach Central Library on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.

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• What happened: Prop. 50 won in Orange County, but data from the county's registrar’s office gives us a clearer picture of how that vote broke down across cities. 
• Who voted no? “No” votes led by more than 60% in Villa Park, a mostly residential enclave in the heart of Orange County, along with Newport Beach and Yorba Linda, traditional Trump strongholds.
• Supporting Prop. 50: The cities of Santa Ana, Irvine, Anaheim and Tustin were among those with the highest support for the measure. You can see the full breakdown of vote margins across O.C. here.

Prop. 50 moved an entire district out of the Inland Empire 

• What happened: The previously safe-Republican 41st Congressional District, which covered the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley in Riverside County, is now primarily in blue L.A. County, with some small slices of Orange County.
• What cities are in the new 41st District? It includes Downey, Lakewood, Sante Fe Springs and Brea. You can see a map of the district here. The 41st District currently stretches through Riverside County from Corona to Palm Desert. It’s represented by Republican Rep. Ken Calvert.
• Geographic changes this big are unusual, right? Yes — even though Prop. 50 shifted most California congressional districts, this change stuck out. As Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Fullerton College, told LAist: "The others, you could kind of understand how the borders changed and some segment of the district remained the same. But this one just wholesale was picked up from the Inland Empire and moved to Los Angeles, and it's a completely new district."
• Who could represent the new 41st District? So far, there's only one candidate in the race. That’s Democratic Rep. Linda Sánchez, who currently represents the 38th District. She could have chosen to run in either the newly drawn 38th District (covering Bell, Diamond Bar, Rowland Heights and part of Yorba Linda) or the new 41st District, since both include communities she currently represents. Here’s what she said when she announced the decision:
  

  “After Proposition 50 passed and split my current district, deciding where to run was an emotional but ultimately an easy choice — I chose home. Boundaries may change, but my commitment to fighting for the people I love will never waver.”

U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez speaks at the U.S. Capitol on May 10, 2023 in Washington, DC.

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The other SoCal congressional candidates running in 2026

As expected, the Prop. 50 map is causing a big game of musical chairs among sitting congressional representatives now deciding which new districts to run in. New candidates are also jumping in to see if voters in freshly redrawn districts will elect them to office. Here’s what Southern California’s choices are looking like for the 2026 elections:

• Two sitting Republicans face off to represent O.C. and Riverside: The 40th Congressional District is one of the only districts that’s significantly more Republican under Prop. 50, so it’s prime territory for GOP candidates. 
• Previously in the 40th District: It covered eastern Orange County, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, including North Tustin, Chino Hills, Yorba Linda, Laguna Hills and Mission Viejo. It’s currently represented by Republican Rep. Young Kim. 
• The 40th District after Prop. 50: It hangs on to parts of Orange County, including Mission Viejo and Villa Park, but now includes large swathes of Riverside County, including Lake Elsinore, Murrieta and Menifee. 
• Who’s running in 2026: The 40th’s current representative, Republican Rep. Young Kim, will run for reelection. Republican Rep. Ken Calvert, who currently represents the Riverside County areas being added to the 40th District, says he will run against Kim in 2026, so voters will see a rare race between two incumbents from the same party.

An open seat in southeast L.A. County

L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis speaks at a press conference on Feb. 18, 2025 in Los Angeles.

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The mostly-blue 38th Congressional District seat is staying mostly blue, although it’s grabbed a larger piece of Orange County — and the seat is up for grabs.

• Previously in the 38th District: This L.A. County district included Montebello, Santa Fe Springs, Norwalk, Whittier and Diamond Bar, and is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Linda Sánchez.
• The 38th District after Prop. 50: It holds on to Montebello, Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights and part of Diamond Bar, and adds on Bell and part of Yorba Linda. It also loses Norwalk, Whittier, Santa Fe Springs and La Habra to the 41st District. 
• Who’s running in 2026: With incumbent Sánchez running in the 41st District, the 38th is open. L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solís, a Democrat, is already in the race. Solís previously served in the House from 2001 to 2009 before becoming Secretary of Labor under President Barack Obama and then being elected to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in 2014.

Huntington Beach moves to a Democratic stronghold

The city has an all-Republican City Council that’s supported voter ID laws and restrictions on children’s books in public libraries. Under Prop. 50, Huntington Beach will join the 42nd Congressional District, which includes a heavily Democratic swath of L.A. County.

• Previously in the 42nd District: It was in L.A. County alone, covering Huntington Park, Downey, Bell, Lakewood and Long Beach. It’s currently represented by Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia.
• The 42nd District after Prop. 50: It covers the coast between L.A. and Orange counties, starting at Long Beach and going south to Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. The new district includes significantly more Republican voters than before, but it still has a Democratic majority. 
• Who's running in 2026: Incumbent Garcia is running for reelection. If he wins, that would put the progressive Long Beach Democrat — who has directly challenged the Trump administration on immigration enforcement and spending cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — in place to represent some of the most conservative areas of Orange County.

This story was adapted from an issue of LAist's Make It Make Sense newsletter. You can sign up here.

Shifting control of L.A. city homelessness spending away from the agency long entrusted with it to a department in city government could take a year and a half, city officials said Wednesday.

Bringing that spending in house was one of several options discussed by city councilmembers during a meeting of their housing and homelessness committee. Another option they’re considering is having the money be managed by the county, which started setting up a homelessness department about a year ago.

The city directs roughly $300 million per year to the L.A. Homeless Services Authority. L.A. County supervisors voted last April to withdraw funding for the agency, citing ongoing problems with the agency's oversight of homelessness funds. Now 10 months later, city officials are debating what to do with the troubled agency.

Just after Wednesday’s discussion ended, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ office released a statement urging the council not to withdraw funding from LAHSA without a plan in place.

“Withdrawing from LAHSA too quickly, without a plan and without the capacity, will no doubt cause unintended consequences that will leave more Angelenos to die on our streets,” Bass said in her statement. “What we need is a serious, thoughtful transition plan — the last thing we need is a new department and more bureaucracy.”

What’s on the table?

A staff report presented to the homelessness committee last April included several paths forward. Those options are:

• not changing anything major
• keeping the city money at LAHSA but beefing up city oversight
• shifting the funding from LAHSA to direct city control
• shifting the city’s funding from LAHSA to the county homelessness department to administer it

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who sits on the council’s housing and homelessness committee, said he’d be open to having the county handle the city’s homelessness spending if the county doesn’t charge the city for overhead costs.

 ”If they're doing that, then I might be willing to say, 'OK, let's give them some of our money.' … That's going help our programs and give us a more efficient route,” Blumenfield said. “We also need to get down to brass tacks and understand what it means financially.”

Currently, about 3.6% of the city’s spending through LAHSA goes to administration costs, according to LAHSA’s budget. That rate is 8% for the county’s funds at LAHSA, which will be pulled from the agency July 1 and shifted to the new county department.

Councilmember Tim McOsker said he was leaning toward working with the county on a limited number of programs, like interim housing.

City officials said they currently lack staff dedicated to advising them on homelessness policy and setting up the infrastructure to potentially take on direct oversight of the spending.

“There are no dedicated policy staff on homelessness in the city [government],” said John Wickham, a legislative analyst official at the city who presented the staff report of options to the committee Wednesday.

Additional accountability

The statement from Bass’ office encouraged the city council to develop a “thoughtful transition plan” before shifting funds away from LAHSA.

The statement touted a new Homelessness Bureau the city created for the budget that started last July to focus on “oversight, accountability and results” to the city’s homelessness spending.

But city officials noted at Wednesday’s committee meeting that no one has been hired yet at the bureau, nine months after the council approved its funding.

“We have not hired a single person for the bureau yet,” said committee chair Nithya Raman, who championed the bureau a year ago. “We need more capacity to be able to manage this work at the city and to make sure that every dollar is working well. We just do. We're not staffed to be able to handle that right now.”

Limited time for discussion

Wednesday’s discussion didn’t start until just before 4 p.m., following two hours of discourse on other items at the meeting and lasted about 45 minutes.

“It's getting very late,” Raman said around 3:45 p.m., before the committee began talking about the possible funding shift from LAHSA.

It’s been two years since Councilmember Monica Rodriguez introduced the item that was up for discussion Wednesday, with the staff report of options delivered almost a year ago. She told councilmembers Wednesday that they’ve been wasting precious time and need to be decisive.

 ”In the 316 days since this report was issued, we are finally here engaging in this conversation,” Rodriguez said. She recently criticized Raman, the committee’s chair, for not scheduling the discussion sooner.

“ No longer can we afford indecision in making decisive actions around how we change this system. We must act. We must act now,” she said.  ”We still have a broken and dysfunctional system without a singular entity directing our work around homelessness.”

Raman has said she plans to hold one more discussion — expected to be March 18 — before the committee decides next steps. From there, it will be up to the full city council to decide. The committee’s recommendations are influential, as the panel’s five members are one-third of the full council and most of what it would take to form a deciding majority on the council.

No written agreement

Officials also noted Wednesday that under their current approach, there’s no written agreement laying out what LAHSA and the city’s responsibilities are. They said one is in the works.

“What I've seen in my short period is that … if we didn't ink it, nobody could think it and then they get away with not doing the work,” said Councilmember Heather Hutt. “I think we need to be more intentional about identifying roles.”

LAHSA is in ‘crisis,’ CEO says

LAHSA was created by the city and county in 1993 to oversee homeless services. It’s governed by a CEO who reports to a commission of 10 members. Half of the members are appointed by the mayor and the other half by each of the five county supervisors. Bass also serves on the commission, having appointed herself in fall 2023.

While it’s long-faced criticism, it’s been under particularly close scrutiny for more than a year.

An audit and court-ordered review found it failed to properly track its spending and whether services were being provided.

LAHSA also has been facing criticism more recently for months-long delays in paying tens of millions of dollars to reimburse service providers — a problem officials vowed to fix nearly two years ago. Several providers recently told LAist they've had had to dip into reserves or take on debt.

While addressing the commission that oversees the organization last Friday, CEO Gita O’Neill said LAHSA was “in crisis. And I say this not as a criticism to any of our really hardworking staff. They've built what they were asked to build.”

O'Neill added of LAHSA staff that “morale is very low.”

More than a year-and-a-half after promising to provide up to 40 free carts to eligible street vendors, Long Beach hasn’t even made it halfway to that goal and now plans to cut funding for the program.

As of late February, Long Beach had supplied 11 free carts, with six more applicants waiting for final approvals. Health officials say this is because out of the 123 applicants, the vast majority haven’t completed all the steps necessary.

Long Beach originally allocated $429,500 for the free-cart program, but the City Council recently approved reducing that by $200,201, citing “low participation” and the need to balance a city budget that’s facing deficits.

Applications are still open for vendors seeking a free cart, but city officials are reviewing “the application process and overall program,” Health Department spokesperson Jennifer Ann Gonzalez wrote in an email.

Vendors, for their part, say the process was plagued by delays and complications.

Anita McCoy, who sells pastrami and hot dogs through her business Lucky Bee, said it took roughly eight months to receive a cart that was worth about $17,500. She was grateful but said it took countless emails and phone calls to the Health Department to finally get the finished product.

“I had to be diligent in my pursuit,” McCoy said.

De’Mon Tyndell, who runs The Quesadilla Calling, received his cart roughly a year after applying.

At one point, after months of email exchanges and “doing applications on applications,” Tyndell told city staff, “I don’t even want to do this anymore.”

Although he has the cart, Tyndell said he doesn’t use it for his various pop-ups throughout the week because the roughly 800-pound mobile kitchen is not “user friendly” to transport.

De’Mon Tyndell says the free cart he received from the city hasn’t been practical to use.

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Moving it requires a trailer with a winch because the cart’s built-in wheels are too small for it to be towed around, Tyndell said.

As a result, the cart has been sitting in storage for the past six months while he uses a flattop grill and tables he can easily load in his van.

The free cart program was aimed at small-time entrepreneurs who needed help complying with new rules the city drafted on street vending. To qualify, applicants needed to live in Long Beach, have no more than two full-time employees and operate only one cart. If approved, they could receive one of four types: fruit carts, grilled food carts, tamale carts and ice cream carts.

But many people trying to run a low-margin business don’t have time for a complicated application process.

For McCoy, selling pastramis and hot dogs from a corner in North Long Beach is just one of her side businesses. That means she doesn’t have to be out every day to bring in enough cash to sustain her operation. That flexibility gave her the time to pursue the free cart with a sense of urgency.

“I was begging them [to give me a cart] because I knew the program was going to be cut,” McCoy said.

Meanwhile, since early last year, the city has begun penalizing street vendors who don’t comply with its rules.

Health Department officials say it’s a necessary step to prevent food-borne illness caused by vendors who haven’t gone through a health inspection.

From early last year through Feb. 23, city staff seized and discarded food from 72 vendors and issued 103 administrative citations against vendors without an active business license. In 71 cases, they’ve also impounded street vendors’ equipment.

Penalties for the citations range from $100 to $500, depending on how many times a vendor has been cited.

Enforcement is carried out based on complaints. The Health Department says its staff first tries to educate vendors on how to comply, then they issue a notice of violation and finally an administrative citation. If vendors don’t heed that citation, a team responds to discard food and impound equipment.

Starting in 2022, California banned cities from outlawing street vendors altogether, but municipalities are still allowed to regulate when, where and how they can sell for health and safety reasons.

Since Long Beach adopted its rules, the city has received 358 applications from vendors seeking a business license to operate legally. As of Feb. 23, the city has granted just 55 (15.4%).

Rather than risk being cited, Tyndell limits his selling to pop-ups at farmers markets, outside bars and various events around the city where he can more easily get permits. Recently, he got a spot selling inside Good Times Billiards — a pool hall in Lakewood — and hopes to add a second location inside another pool hall on Broadway in Alamitos Beach.

That business is awaiting city approval, but Tyndell said he aims to open by the end of the month. There, he says, he’ll finally use his free cart to serve up gourmet quesadillas.

A Vietnam War memorial that became a symbol of government corruption was torn down Wednesday in Fountain Valley.

Former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do had awarded $1 million in taxpayer dollars for the memorial in 2023 — to a nonprofit where his daughter, Rhiannon Do, was an officer.

The project was never completed.

When LAist visited the memorial last year, it was unfinished and cracked. And an architect who visited the site with LAist estimated that the monument cost a fraction of the taxpayer money awarded to build it.

Do is currently serving a five-year prison sentence in Arizona after admitting to directing money to several nonprofit groups and businesses that then funneled some of that money back to himself and family members for personal gain. LAist has been investigating the alleged corruption since 2023.

Do was also ordered to pay $878,230.80 in restitution for his role in the bribery scheme that saw millions in taxpayer dollars diverted from feeding needy seniors, leading authorities to label him a “Robin Hood in reverse.”

Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who now represents Do’s former district, which includes the memorial site, said it would have been too expensive to repair or relocate it.

“Let’s restart and do it right,” she said at the time.

Go deeper ...

Here's a look at some of LAist's coverage of one of the biggest corruption scandals in Orange County history:

LAist investigates: Andrew Do corruption scandal
Ex-Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do is ordered to pay $878,230.80 in restitution
'Robin Hood in reverse.' O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do resigns and will plead guilty to bribery conspiracy charge
Former OC Supervisor Andrew Do turns himself in, begins 5-year federal prison term
6 questions we still have after disgraced former OC Supervisor Andrew Do’s sentencing
A quiet retreat for the judge married to disgraced OC politician Andrew Do

How to watchdog your local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention. Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

• Read tips on how to get involved.
• The Orange County Board of Supervisors meets on alternating Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. at 400 West Civic Center Drive, Santa Ana. You can check out the O.C. Board of Supervisors full calendar here.
• Learn how to submit a public comment to the O.C. Board of Supervisors.

Low-polling Democratic candidates for governor of California struck a defiant tone Tuesday in the face of mounting pressure from party leaders to drop out before a key deadline this week.

With nine major Democrats still vying for the state’s top job, party insiders have fretted for weeks about a splintered primary vote that could result in the two leading Republicans — commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — finishing first and second in the June 2 primary and ensuring a GOP victor in November.

In an open letter to campaigns published Tuesday, California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks called that scenario implausible but “not impossible” and urged Democratic candidates to make an honest assessment of their chances before Friday — the deadline to file and officially appear on the ballot in June.

“If you do not have a viable path to make it to the general election, do not file to place your name on the ballot for the primary election,” Hicks wrote.

But candidates who have been mired in single digits for months, including state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former state Controller Betty Yee, showed no immediate signs of heading toward the exits.

At the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office in Oakland, Yee filed the paperwork to officially place her name on the ballot.

“When I was signing the declaration of candidacy, my hands were shaking because I just thought about my mother, who is 102, and how within a generation she’s able to see her daughter do this,” Yee told KQED. “We’re undergoing a process of constant assessment, and every time we do that, we just see that this is still a wide-open race.”

Thurmond, who is Black and Latino, accused the state party of “essentially telling every candidate of color in the race for governor to drop out.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be the party who embraces democracy — a party of, by and for the people?” Thurmond said in a video posted to social media. “Well, the establishment might not be, but our campaign is, and that’s why we’re in this race to win it.”

Hicks did not call on any specific candidates to leave the race but asked those who continue their campaigns beyond this week to “be prepared to suspend your campaign and endorse another candidate on or before April 15 if your campaign cannot show meaningful progress toward winning the primary election in the coming weeks.”

The chair’s plea comes weeks after Democratic delegates failed to agree on an endorsement at the state party convention in San Francisco.

Since then, polling in the race has been largely static, with investor Tom Steyer (who has spent tens of millions of dollars on television ads) being the only Democrat to see significant traction in recent surveys.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter and Steyer were the top polling Democrats in polls released last month by Emerson College and the Public Policy Institute of California.

Below that trio is a crowded field of Democratic hopefuls that includes Thurmond and Yee, along with former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San José Mayor Matt Mahan and former Assemblymember Ian Calderon.

Meanwhile, Hilton and Bianco have faced little competition for the Republican primary vote.

Jon Slavet, a GOP tech entrepreneur who was polling at around 1%, suspended his campaign Tuesday.

“The last few months have been a gift,” said Slavet, in a video posted on social media. “It’s also shown me that building a winning coalition, brick by brick, will take time.”

With Slavet out of the field, a primary election simulator created by Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc., put the chances of a Republican vs. Republican general election at roughly 25%.

In his letter, Hicks said a Bianco-Hilton general election would not only upend Democratic leadership of state government but also depress Democratic turnout in the California congressional districts the party is hoping to flip in November.

“The result would present a real risk to winning the congressional seats required and imperil Democrats’ chances to retake the House, cut Donald Trump’s term in half, and spare our Nation from the pain many have endured since January 2025,” Hicks wrote. “We simply can’t let that happen.”