California Elections

International financier George Soros has had some success in his dabbling in California politics. But he "hit a brick wall," as he terms it, in trying to unseat three California district attorneys this year, and his support for challengers may have backfired.

San Diego County, California's second largest county, has become a microcosm of the state's political profile and its five-member Board of Supervisors has become a battleground in the struggle for partisan control.

Small donations alone did not secure Gavin Newsom’s win, but they likely helped build enthusiasm. The lackluster finish by Antonio Villaraigosa shows that a gush of money from a handful of mega-donors doesn’t always translate into votes.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra will face a Republican opponent in his re-election bid this fall, as retired judge Steven Bailey was coming in second with two-thirds of ballots counted in California’s top-two primary election. Becerra, a Democrat who was appointed to the powerful post in 2016 by Gov. Jerry Brown, has become the face […]

Since 1911, when Progressive crusaders introduced the judicial recall, just four California judges had been booted from the bench by angry voters—until today. Santa Clara County voters favored ousting Aaron Persky, the judge who prompted widespread outrage in 2016 when he handed down a lenient sentence to a former Stanford University swimmer for sexual assault.  […]

It’s election day—and a crucial test for five California counties experimenting with a new election method designed to boost anemic turnout: replacing local polling places with mega-voting centers and widely dispersed dropboxes.

An influential union wants the state to limit profits on privately owned dialysis clinics, where kidney patients receive life-sustaining treatment. Dialysis companies are fighting back.

One measure on the June ballot asks voters to shell out billions to improve the environment. Another could make it more difficult for the state to spend billions on helpful projects.

Why would a group trying to elect Democrats buy ads promoting their Republican opponents to conservative watchers of Fox News? Because California’s election rules have turned normal campaign tactics on their head.

Charter school supporters may be an effective counterbalance to the prevailing influence public-employee unions have long exerted on Democratic politics in California. But the billions in campaign donations by pro-charter tycoons also points to the outsized sway personal wealth can have on elections.