Antonio Villaraigosa

Antonio Villaraigosa was always the man of destiny in Los Angeles politics. Now, in his second run for California governor, he trails a man he once defeated in a mayoral primary: Xavier Becerra.

Experts say the latest gas price spike is driven by global oil markets and the Iran conflict, while California’s higher base price stems from refinery closures, the state’s market and environmental rules.

Eight Democrats and two Republicans have filed officially to run for California governor. Their names will appear on the June ballot even if they drop out.

What will California’s next governor do about health care? Four Democrats in the race say answering the Trump Administration’s cuts and making care affordable is important. But they disagree about how to pay for that.

Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to lead a state infrastructure project paid for by an outside nonprofit. The nonprofit relied on fundraising from special interests to cover the costs, but did not have to disclose the identity of those donors because of how the arrangement was structured.

No Los Angeles mayor has ever made the jump to California governor, and Antonio Villaraigosa failed once before. But he is nothing if not persistent.

All of the Democratic contenders for California governor promised unions they would be less aggressive than Gov. Gavin Newsom has been with oil industry.

The former California attorney general noted that he had experience fighting Trump after suing his first administration more than 100 times.

Advocates supporting a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to a high-quality education say they want to hold schools accountable. But critics fear its vague language could unleash a barrage of lawsuits.

Gov. Newsom’s chosen successor to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is a tech-minded voting rights booster, a Latino who came of age during the nativist political upheaval of the 1990s and a longtime Newsom loyalist.