The Brief

The race to represent State Senate District 25 has been shaping up to be one of the most hotly-contested in California.

There's an open seat in the largely-Democratic, ethnically-diverse district that sprawls from Glendale to Rancho Cucamonga with the San Gabriel Valley in between. The current senator, Anthony Portantino, is running to replace Rep. Adam Schiff in the 30th Congressional District.

That's set the stage for what's become one of the state’s most expensive and fractious battles. Ahead of the March 5 primary, more than $5 million in campaign contributions and spending by outside groups has flowed into a five-way race with four Democrats and one Republican.

One candidate has dug deep to fund her own campaign: Democrat Yvonne Yiu.

The most recent state fundraising reports show Yiu’s campaign funds total nearly $3.2 million, with $2.9 million — or 92% — coming from her own pocket and the rest from individual contributions.

That makes Yiu, a Monterey Park city council member who used to run her own investment banking firm, the biggest donor to any race in California — surpassing the California Democratic Party and influential unions representing construction workers and correctional officers, as first reported by CalMatters.

“The amount of money that one candidate has used for their own election is pretty astounding even at the state level of politics,” said Sean McMorris, who tracks transparency and accountability in politics for California Common Cause.

Only one other legislative candidate has generated more money. Kathryn Lybarger, who is running for state Senate District 7 in the East Bay, has raised more than $570,000 in contributions while independent groups are spending nearly $2.6 million to support her campaign.

Yiu is not getting help from outside groups. But some of her fellow candidates are, including Yiu’s main rival, fellow Democrat Sasha Renée Peréz.

Labor unions and other groups have spent more than $470,000 in support of Peréz — who’s raised more than $850,000 in contributions on her own.

Yiu, just with the money she gave her campaign, has outraised Peréz and the groups in support of Peréz by a margin of more than 2 to 1.

Yiu has invested in her own campaign before. During an unsuccessful 2022 run for state controller, she drew down nearly $6 million of her own funds.

Asked why she relies on her own money, Yiu told LAist that “first of all, as you all know, fundraising is not easy, and we all need money to run a campaign.”

She added: “I want to make myself a viable candidate and also be independent and not beholden with different interest groups.”

Main rivals

Yiu has used her hefty war chest to buy mass mailings and television and digital commercials in one of the country’s priciest media markets.

Her ads stress that Asian Americans, who make up 30% of the district's electorate, need more representation in the state Senate, especially with senators Dave Min and Janet Nguyen both leaving to run for other offices. Yiu also boosts her tough-on-crime messaging and endorsements by police unions.

Demcractic candidate Sasha Renée Pérez chats with campaign volunteers in Alhambra ahead of going out to meet voters.

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Her ads often target Peréz, the vice mayor of Alhambra, framing her as weak on public safety and juxtaposing her image in commercials next to that of L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón. His critics blame his progressive policies on cash bail and sentencing for emboldening criminals.

Peréz counters that she’s voted to fully fund the city’s police department, and has advocated for a program in which law enforcement works with mental health clinicians and social workers to help unhoused people.

Peréz’s ads tout her platform of reducing homelessness and expanding college opportunities, as well as endorsements by the California Democratic Party and Planned Parenthood.

Peréz has also fired back at Yiu in ads, spotlighting, for example, a $22,000 fine imposed on the investment banking firm that Yiu founded and led. Financial industry regulator FINRA found that Yiu’s firm had “improperly” deposited investor funds into a real estate account owned by a managing member. Yiu blames problems on financial advisers who worked for her firm, and said her own record is clean.

Peréz said she is in nonstop fundraising mode so she can keep advertising, which she recognizes is critical to winning over voters busy with jobs and feeding families.

“You don't want to spend several hours reading through people's websites,” Peréz said. “You want to make that decision as easy as possible.”

Democats Yvonne Yiu and Sasha Renée Pérez are the candidates sending out mailers to voters in Senate District 25.

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A random sampling of five voters across the district found that four of them recognized Yiu from ads but none of the other candidates. (The fifth voter didn’t know who any of the candidates were.)

Dana Chu, a marketing specialist from Alhambra, said she was online when an ad from Yiu made her perk up.

“It was different from the other advertisements I was getting when I watch YouTube — a campaign ad as opposed to an ad for Febreze or insurance,” Chu said.

UCLA political scientist Natalie Masuoka said ads give well-funded candidates an advantage especially in low-turnout, low-information elections like primaries.

“Advertising could inform swing voters and new voters who don't necessarily have really solidified views,” in contrast to highly partisan, motivated voters, Masuoka said.

But Matsuoka noted that self-funded candidates with advertising firepower are not guaranteed success at the ballot box.

Developer Rick Caruso sunk more than $100 million of his own money into his failed 2022 L.A. mayoral bid while former eBay CEO Meg Whitman lost a 2010 gubernatorial race after spending $170 million.

When Yiu ran for controller as a self-funded candidate in 2022, she received 15% of the vote, not enough for her to advance to the general election. 

Running with fewer resources

The other candidates in the state Senate race are Republican Elizabeth Wong Ahlers, a Crescenta Valley Town Council member and two other Democrats: Sandra Armenta, a Rosemead City Council member and Teddy Choi, who is a real estate agent from Pasadena, according to his campaign website.

Elizabeth Wong Ahlers is the lone Republican running in State Senate District 25.

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Ahlers, who’s been endorsed by the California Republican Party, is hopeful that the four Democrats will split the vote in the nonpartisan primary and she can land in the top two and advance to the general election.

“It's been kind of fun watching (the Democrats) squabble among themselves and I just stay on course and speak my message,” said Ahlers. Her priorities are to rein in inefficient state spending and ban the teaching of “gender ideology” to schoolchildren.

Ahlers has generated the third-largest amount of money in the race: $207,000 with $122,000 in outside spending to support her campaign.

Armenta, who has raised $126,000 with no outside support, says it’s been frustrating to see rivals with far more resources, whether through self-funding or getting help from unions, which she said should be investing money in its membership rather than on political mailers.

“There's many great elected officials that will never be able to be legislative members because they don't have the finances or they're not ‘the chosen one,’” Armenta said.

Armenta said she hasn’t quit as she still hopes to make it to Sacramento and push for greater investment in police training and workforce development opportunities, starting in high school.

Sandra Armenta is one of four Democrats trying to win a spot in the general election.

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Choi, who did not respond to requests for an interview, has not filed any fundraising reports with the state.

Courting Asian American votes

Yiu, a Hong Kong immigrant who speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, said she is hoping to consolidate the Asian American vote.

Yiu, formerly a Republican who said she switched her registration to Democrat several years ago, urged Asian American Republicans to vote for her instead, saying she is a more viable candidate than Ahlers in the safely-Democrat district.

Ahlers, who is fifth-generation Chinese American, also has been courting Asian American conservatives, texting them fundraising appeals in Chinese.

Democrat Teddy Choi is one of three Asian Americans running to represent the 25th state senate district, where Asian Americans make up about 30% of the vote.

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Teddy Choi campaign website

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It is a rare race with three Asian American candidates. Research shows that some Asian Americans have a propensity to vote for someone who looks like them. But in a district with as much ethnic and socioeconomic diversity as the 25th, Asian Americans may not coalesce behind a single candidate, said UCLA’s Masuoka.

Masuoka compares the wealthy Asian Americans living in San Marino to working-class Asian Americans in Monterey Park. Both cities have Asian majorities but their residents “have different socioeconomic interests and different immigration-related interests” that will inform their votes, Matsuoka said.

Emily Kim of La Crescenta said for her a candidate’s race is not a deciding factor. She is looking for elected leaders who prioritize education and will stand up to anti-Asian discrimination.

“I do want someone to represent my race, my voice,” said Kim, who is Chinese American and married to a Korean American. “But we do research for every single person.”

Voters have until 8 p.m. on March 5 to get educated and cast their ballot.

Maloy Moore contributed to this story.

Joseph Babbitt of Springfield, Mo. has a pretty good deal when it comes to health insurance. He works as a senior financial controller for West Plains Veterinary Supply, which employs about 50 people and distributes pet food, toys and vet supplies across the region.

Like about 157 million Americans, Babbitt gets insurance through his job. Unlike most Americans, his job has exceptionally generous benefits. "Our owners are very nice — they give all of our employees healthcare and they pay for it," he says. The company offers several different plan options and covers most or all of the monthly premium cost.

So why, even with free premiums, does it still feel like health costs are way too expensive? "Everybody talks about healthcare and how much it's costing them," says Babbitt. He explains that even without monthly premiums, a high deductible can be brutal — that's the amount the patient has to spend out-of-pocket before the insurance company starts paying for doctors visits and procedures, etc.

Now age 60, he remembers a time when it wasn't so bad. "Back in the '90s, our deductibles were $250 [or] $500 — now they're $5,000," he says. "That seems like a lot."

"We are the only country on our planet that forces people into bankruptcy because they get sick," he adds.

The cost of a new car, every year

Healthcare costs are rising fast in the U.S., and even workers with solid healthcare benefits through work are feeling it, according to an annual survey of nearly 2,000 employers about their health benefits. The report was published Thursday by KFF, a nonpartisan health research organization.

"The average health insurance premium for a family of four is now $28,000, which is just a ton of money," says Matthew Rae, associate director for the Health Care Marketplace Program at KFF. "It's basically the cost of a new car every year just to keep a family of four insured." Of that total for family premiums, workers pay about $7,000 per year on average and employers pay the rest.

A glimmer of positivity is that the costs for plans isn't growing as fast as it has in years past, he explains. "We're seeing a 5% increase in family health insurance premiums, which continues a period of modest growth," he says. That increase is roughly on par with worker wages and inflation.

However, "a 5% increase on a big number is still a lot of money," Rae points out. Plus, the growth for the portion of the premium costs that workers pay was 9%. "If this is the beginning of a shift of costs onto workers, that would be a big deal in terms of affordability," he says.

"We are asking people to chip in a lot of money," Rae adds. "Many people are committing a big chunk of their income to health insurance."

The uninsured rate is rising 

Another report published Thursday demonstrates the way these high costs affect people's health. The survey, conducted every two years by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit foundation that supports independent research, is entitled "The State of Health Insurance Coverage in 2026."

Even for workers fortunate enough to have health benefits, "about 43% of them said that they didn't get healthcare because of cost over the past year, and about 31% reported that they had medical debt," says Sara Collins, lead author of the report.

Another key finding was that the overall uninsured rate rose in the last two years. Collins says that's significant but not surprising, because of federal policy decisions like letting extra federal subsidies for people enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans expire, and people losing Medicaid after the pandemic emergency ended.

Federal data shows millions of people have lost health coverage already from either Medicaid or the ACA marketplaces. When work requirements take effect next year, millions more people are projected to lose Medicaid.

"There is a, I think, a strong feeling across the country that something probably does need to be done to the situation that people are facing in their health and health insurance — both on the cost side and then also on these coverage losses," Collins says.

"We asked people whether the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all Americans have coverage and nearly three quarters said yes to that — that included about 45% of Republicans, 93% of Democrats and 76% of independents."

Copyright 2026 NPR

Mike Obedoza’s Lumpia Smash Burger begins with the flavorful marinade his mother uses for making lumpia, a crispy Filipino spring roll. He folds it into a beef patty, then tops it with a fried lumpia wrapper, creamy avocado slices and fresh jalapeño.

For Obedoza, who grew up in Carson as the son of Filipino immigrants and now resides in Tustin, the burger is more than a winning recipe. “This is me on a plate,” he said.

Fresh off back-to-back Best Burger wins at the Old Towne Burger Fest in Orange County, Obedoza has landed a residency at Grand Central Market in downtown L.A. as Banger Lumpia.

He attributes his current success to the broader Filipino American food moment happening in Southern California, from Lord Maynard Llera of Kuya Lord winning Best Chef: California at the 2024 James Beard Awards to other Filipino food business upstarts' local success, including San & Wolves in Long Beach.

Mike Obedoza works the griddle, making Filipino-American Smashburger dreams come true.

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“I’m one component of a whole movement that’s happening right now,” he said.

His residency closes this weekend as part of Filipino American History Month, capping off a whirlwind couple of months Obedoza doesn’t take for granted, especially the love he's received from his own community.

“We get a lot of Filipinos that pass by us glowing. … They’re stoked that there’s some Filipino representation,” he said.

Building the burger

Before Banger Lumpia, Obedoza’s pop-up was called Banger, and he folded Filipino flavors like sisig into tacos. Once customers learned the food was Filipino, they kept asking for the classics. “Where’s the lumpia? Where’s the pancit?” he recalled.

Since lumpia filling is marinated ground meat, a burger felt like the natural next step. Obedoza took the marinade from his mother’s lumpia recipe (onions, carrots, soy sauce and fish sauce) and worked it into an all-beef smash patty.

Back-to-back wins: Obedoza’s Lumpia Smashburger took home Best Burger at the Old Towne Burger Fest in 2025 and 2026.

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Jalapeño and avocado add a California finish. “It’s like this perfect blend of being Filipino and Californian,” Obedoza said.

The idea has deep roots in Southern California. Obedoza points to Kogi, the Korean taco truck Roy Choi launched in L.A., which Choi said drew on a kind of local terroir. “I don’t see mustard plants and sheep grazing,” Choi said in a 2014 CNN segment with Anthony Bourdain. “I see barbed wire and telephone poles.”

“It’s a representation of the soil we were raised in," Obedoza said. “I think the Lumpia Smash burger is just my version of that.”

From skater to chef

Growing up in Carson, Obedoza found his creative outlet in rollerblading, competing and filming for sponsors. His favorite skater was Jon Julio, a Filipino American legend of the sport. “That was big for someone, a Filipino growing up in America,” Obedoza said. “I can’t think of anyone else at that time that was a representation of that.”

Obedoza studied hotel and restaurant management at Cal Poly Pomona, where a broken ankle from a skate competition pushed him to get serious about cooking. After graduating in 2007, he completed an accelerated program at the Culinary Institute of America in Greystone in St. Helena. Then, in 2008, he took a trip to the Philippines with his dad that reshaped how he saw himself.

From the skate park to the griddle, Banger Lumpia’s Mike Obedoza puts his whole self on the plate.

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“In the States, I’m Filipino. But when I go there, I’m American,” he said.

Back home, he cooked at hotels including Hyatt and Terranea Resort before moving into marketing and e-commerce. In 2022, he started serving tacos at skate parks under the name Banger. He went full-time in 2023 and has been popping up in L.A. and O.C. ever since.

That same cultural tension carries over into his food. While his Lumpia Smash burger has won praise, Obedoza says some Filipino customers pick apart the more traditional dishes on his menu: the lumpia isn’t made right, they say, the dipping sauce and adobo need more sugar, the adobo isn’t dark enough or has no bone.

“I guess I win on the burgers, but I’ll never win on being Filipino enough,” he said.

He said his cooking reflects his parents’ style and their home region of Central Luzon, north of Manila on the Philippines’ largest island. If it doesn’t match what someone grew up with, he says to get it from their own family.

Despite those differences, Obedoza says that lumpia is “the gateway drug to Filipino food” and hopes that his customers will feel emboldened to try the rest of the menu. He sees the Grand Central Market residency as a test run for an eventual brick-and-mortar. Whatever comes next, he credits one choice: “I went all in on being unique.”

Julia Feinberg feels like she’s living in a sinister version of Groundhog Day. For the second year in a row, California lawmakers have made it tougher for seniors and people with disabilities to qualify for state-funded health benefits.

Feinberg, 37, who has a degenerative neuromuscular disorder, said without Medi-Cal she would be confined to a nursing home rather than living and working as a therapist in Oakland.

“We keep having to have the same fight over and over and over again,” Feinberg said. She requires a power wheelchair and about 19 hours of caregiving each day, which Medi-Cal covers.

California is cutting Medi-Cal after a decade of expansion, part of sweeping federal and state cuts that experts estimate will kick more than 2.2 million Californians off coverage in the next four years, doubling the state’s uninsured rate.

The latest cut came in June, when state leaders approved a budget that will lower the asset limit for low-income seniors and people with disabilities to $21,000 to qualify for Medi-Cal, starting in July 2027. Feinberg, who has built up emergency savings, will have to spend about $10,000 to get under the cap.

In 2024, the state eliminated longstanding Medi-Cal asset limits, but since then lawmakers have chipped away at that policy. At the beginning of this year, state leaders reinstated an asset limit of $130,000, and the June budget lowered it further.

A primary residence and one vehicle are exempt from the new limit, but people 65 and older as well as those with disabilities cannot own a second home or car, and they can’t have more than $21,000 in savings accounts, certain retirement accounts, life insurance policies or even burial plots. They must still meet Medi-Cal income eligibility limits of about $1,800 a month for a single person.

Advocates say the rules unfairly target older people and those with disabilities.

“It’s really expensive to be disabled,” said Elizabette Guéçamburu, 44, who like Feinberg has spinal muscular atrophy and requires a power wheelchair as well as daily caregiving.

Guéçamburu said she’s saving up for a used wheelchair-accessible van, which costs about $75,000. Home modifications such as adding ramps and making bathrooms accessible also cost tens of thousands of dollars, none of which are covered by Medi-Cal. Guéçamburu said those expenses would be impossible to afford if she couldn’t save.

Guéçamburu lives on her family’s farm in Patterson where they grow walnuts, almonds and alfalfa. She works part time as the farm’s bookkeeper. In 2024, doctors diagnosed Guéçamburu’s father with prostate cancer, and he could no longer act as her caregiver. The same year, California eliminated asset limits for people with disabilities and seniors — Guéçamburu cried, able to qualify for Medi-Cal for the first time.

“The timing was a godsend,” she said.

Now, her aging father is unable to take care of her should she lose Medi-Cal, and Guéçamburu is struggling to figure out what to do with money left to her by her grandmother. She’ll likely have to put it into a special needs trust controlled by a family member and give up financial independence. She also had her family strike her from inheriting any portion of their 100-year-old farm. Private home care costs thousands of dollars a month, making it hard for lower- and middle-income people to pay for it out-of-pocket.

“I have to surrender our legacy just to have medical security and have the ability to live my life,” Guéçamburu said.

Asset limit flip-flop

Gov. Gavin Newsom eliminated Medi-Cal asset requirements in 2024 after a yearslong campaign by senior and disability rights advocates. In a statement before the elimination, Newsom said he was proud of the “bold investments” his administration was making to “protect life savings and homes.”

But two years later, faced with a $12 billion budget shortfall, Newsom proposed reinstating the former $2,000 limit, arguing that more than twice as many people enrolled as previously estimated. The Legislature opposed that proposal and compromised at the current higher limit of $130,000, lowering it again to $21,000 starting next July.

Lindsay Imai Hong, California director for Hand In Hand, an advocacy group supporting families that need caregiving, said organizers are looking to the next governor for change.

“We would love to see the asset test permanently taken off of the chopping block,” Imai Hong said.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton said in a statement to CalMatters that he opposes asset limits. He criticized the state for extending other Medi-Cal benefits beyond what it could afford, including coverage for immigrants without legal status.

“Seniors and people with disabilities shouldn’t lose their coverage because they’ve managed to save some money. They’ve done the responsible thing. Why punish them for it?” he said.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and front-runner Xavier Becerra did not answer specific questions about the asset limit policy, but a campaign spokesperson blamed the Trump administration’s federal cuts for “squeezing” California’s Medi-Cal program.

Becerra will be “focused on protecting access to care and demand savings that are real, measurable and sustainable,” spokesperson Johnathan Underland said. On the campaign trail, Becerra has called himself California’s next “healthcare governor” and has previously floated raising taxes to reverse Medi-Cal cuts, but has not released detailed health policy plans.

Camille Nguyen, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, said most people who struggle to stay under the limit have little financial security.

“They have all of their life savings in cash savings instead of a house. That's their retirement. That is the amount they are expecting to live off of for the rest of their life,” Nguyen said.

State data shows about 600 people lost Medi-Cal when California reinstated the $130,000 limit. Advocates expect many more to lose Medi-Cal at the lower limit, but the state never released budget estimates before lawmakers approved the $21,000 limit. If the state reinstated the much lower $2,000 limit, the Department of Finance estimated 62,000 seniors and people with disabilities would lose Medi-Cal over two years.

Limit fuels anxiety, anger among people with disabilities

Feinberg said the prospect of losing Medi-Cal is especially scary because she would also lose access to a special disability program that pays for extra caregiving hours and has a multiyear waitlist. Caregivers help Feinberg get in and out of bed, dress and prepare her meals.

Before the limit was erased in 2024, Feinberg said she checked her bank account every day to make sure the balance was low. At the time, Feinberg was a graduate student and did not earn very much money. Now, as a licensed therapist Feinberg has been able to squirrel away some money.

“I don’t want to spend down that money. I want to save that for retirement, maybe buying a house in the future,” Feinberg said. “The prospect of not being able to have a nest egg is very unsettling.”

Guéçamburu said she’s angry and frustrated that the state views services for people with disabilities as expendable.

“It’s exhausting to have to justify your existence every legislative cycle,” she said.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

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