California Elections

The claws are coming out in California — not because it was just Halloween, but because voters have only one week left to cast their ballots for the Nov. 8 election. As campaigns enter the final countdown, fights over hotly contested seats in the state Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives are becoming increasingly […]

California’s Nov. 8 election is less than two weeks away, but battle lines are already being drawn for elections in 2024 and beyond. Here’s a look at two key fights: First up: Not so fast, fast food companies. That was the message sent Thursday by the state’s largest labor union, SEIU California, when it asked […]

Saying Californians disagree about the state’s approach to climate change might be a bit of an understatement. Today, for example, California’s air regulators are set to hold the first of two hearings on a controversial, far-reaching proposal that would ban the sale of new gas-powered big rigs and other trucks in the state by 2040 […]

CalMatters hosted a unique live, in-person event in the newsroom, along with a virtual event broadcast to voters across California.

California’s governor is spending more time and money on two ballot measures and a possible presidential run than his own reelection campaign.

For eight years, the Los Angeles-based janitorial service provider Pacific Commercial hired one employee to work from morning until dusk, but also commissioned an independent contractor to take the night shift. The catch: The employee and the contractor were the same person, a 52-year-old named Edith Lopez. By classifying Lopez as a non-employee from 5 […]

Racism, redistricting and resignation. Those were the three R-words that rocked the California political world on Monday, as everyone from Gov. Gavin Newsom to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla to statewide candidates in the Nov. 8 election weighed in on a leaked 2021 recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times in which three Los Angeles City […]

While there aren’t widespread problems, officials are ramping up efforts to protect the 2022 election.

CalMatters journalists continue to offer the best statewide perspective on propositions up for voters in the 2022 election.

See if you can spot the trend. In 2014, California lawmakers passed a law banning single-use plastic bags. Outraged plastic bag manufacturers gathered the requisite signatures for a referendum, asking voters to strike down the ban in 2016. (The ban survived). In 2018, lawmakers ended cash bail in California. Two years later, the question was […]