Elections

Tom Campbell—centrist former congressman, former state senator and former Republican—is out to launch a third party in California, predicting legislative candidates will run under the new banner as soon as 2020. He insists it might not even be that hard.

Running to unseat fellow Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, state Sen. Kevin de León continued to criticize her response to a constituent’s accusation of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

A weekly recap of the most significant (or most funny or interesting or just plain weird) developments across California’s 53 congressional districts:

The California top two primary system was supposed to bring bipartisan comity to state politics. But among political insiders, ambivalence abounds.

California's political cognoscenti we surveyed unanimously predict Democrats here will gain gain at least one congressional seat—and more than a quarter say they’ll gain five or more.

Republican Cole Harris lost his bid for lieutenant governor in June, but a message on his web site says he owes $1.1 million to his campaign consultants. The Glendale investor responded to queries with referrals to Instagram.

In a role reversal, the candidates vying to become California’s next schools' superintendent disagree about a bill that would require later instruction start times for middle and high school students.

California political establishment says political establishment is here to stay: results from new Target Book Insider Track Survey.

Republicans running statewide in California don’t have numbers on their side, with just one-fourth of the state’s voters registered GOP. But they do have the DMV, which sure is making it easy for the underdogs to attack California’s Democratic-controlled state government. First came the absurdly long wait times—more than four hours at some DMV offices. […]

In their contest to become the next state schools chief, candidates Tony Thurmond and Marshall Tuck clash over whether to pay teachers more in low-income districts.