Top Ten Winners & Losers In California Politics For The Week Ending 1/30/26 - Including The Biggest Loser Feature!

Below is our Top Ten List of Winners and Losers for the Week. This feature is available to all of our subscribers, free and paid. Under the paywall, however, is our “Worst Week In California” special feature. It's me, in rare form, on video, going on why someone’s week sucked. Pithy? You bet!

⏱️ 5-minute read

This is where we examine state and local politics (or national issues with a California angle), and highlight individuals (or groups) who have achieved notable successes or have had a particularly challenging week. I strive to call balls and strikes fairly and objectively, which sometimes makes it difficult to assemble this list.

Top Winners & Losers This Week in California Politics

⬇️ LOSER: DR. JENNIFER LUCERO — UCLA MEDICAL SCHOOL ADMISSIONS DIRECTOR

California’s premier public medical school is now mired in a federal civil-rights lawsuit alleging that the institution uses race as a factor in admissions, despite both state law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent prohibiting such practices. The complaint specifically names the associate dean who oversees admissions, accusing her of reshaping the committee and process to prioritize racial factors, effectively lowering academic thresholds for some applicants and disadvantaging others on the basis of race.

⬆️ WINNER: SAN CLEMENTE COUNCILMAN STEVE KNOBLOCK

While politicians in Sacramento and liberal-dominated city councils posture about the immigration enforcement issue, he actually did something about it. By helping lead the 3–1–1 council vote approving a high-powered federal surveillance camera to monitor the coastline for panga boat smuggling operations, he put public safety and national security ahead of hand-wringing and bureaucratic delay. San Clemente, at the southernmost end of Orange County, is now partnering directly with Border Patrol to address a real problem impacting coastal communities. That is what local leadership looks like when it is serious about protecting residents and supporting law enforcement.

⬇️ LOSER: TOM STEYER, BILLIONAIRE, CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR

Affordability is dominating voter concerns, and he knows it. After years of bankrolling and championing aggressive climate policies that critics argue drove up electricity and energy costs, he is now attempting to distance himself from the financial fallout for households. Instead of acknowledging that regulatory choices and energy mandates carry costs, the campaign is trying to shift blame elsewhere. CalMatters reporting suggests the math behind that spin does not add up. I have written on Steyer’s hypocrisy before.

⬇️ LOSERS: CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT JUSTICES

An issue as significant as voters in a major city adopting a voter ID requirement for their own municipal elections warranted a full hearing on the merits, with careful judicial consideration of the legal arguments presented. Instead, the high court brushed the case aside without that level of scrutiny. The pattern feels familiar. The same court, dominated by appointees of Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, previously declined to seriously examine well-founded challenges to how legislative Democrats maneuvered Proposition 50 onto the statewide ballot.

⬆️ WINNER: JOEL POLLAK, OPINION PAGE EDITOR, THE CALIFORNIA POST

The launch of the California Post is off to a strong start, and much of that credit goes to the veteran editor now shaping its opinion page. Drawing on years of experience in hard-hitting political analysis and commentary working with the Breitbart News Network, the page has quickly established itself as a place for clear, unapologetic analysis that does not tiptoe around the state’s biggest policy failures. In just its first week, it is already adding a sharp new perspective to California’s media landscape.

⬇️ LOSER: ANAMARIE ÁVILA FARÍAS, DEMOCRATIC ASSEMBLYMEMBER

I am calling her out because a bill she is carrying is breathtaking in scope and would prevent more than 20,000 federal civil service employees at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from working in a wide range of public-sector jobs in California, including law enforcement and education-related positions. I see this as political retribution, plain and simple — blacklisting people over their employer rather than any finding of individual wrongdoing. I wrote about it here.

⬇️ LOSER: SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY

San Jose State University (where I once served as a Member of the Student Senate) is a loser this week because the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights determined it violated Title IX by allowing a biological male to compete on the women’s volleyball team and by failing to adequately respond to complaints from female athletes. In my view, this is not a culture clash. It is a civil rights failure that denied women fair athletic opportunities and put state ideology ahead of federal law and the constitutional rights of female athletes.

⬆️ WINNER: MATT MAHAN, MAYOR OF SAN JOSE, GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE

Jumping into an already crowded race for governor, the mayor managed something many candidates fail to do: he shaped the early narrative about himself. Coverage of his announcement across outlets spanning the ideological spectrum repeatedly used the word “moderate” to describe him. By California Democratic standards, that label has some surface-level plausibility. Still, a closer look at his policy positions suggests the description fits his temperament more than his ideology, which remains firmly aligned with his party’s mainstream.

The dynamic evokes the old contrast between Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. Feinstein was often described as the “moderate” simply because she was less strident in tone, even though her voting record placed her comfortably on the left and was virtually identical to Boxer’s. That same distinction may apply here. Regardless of how the ideological debate plays out over time, the campaign rollout itself was disciplined, well executed, and politically effective — a strong opening move in a long, competitive race ahead.

⬇️ LOSERS: MEMBERS OF THE SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL

I am calling this out because the council approved a contract that kept a fired city manager on the payroll for an additional year, costing taxpayers $340,812 in salary plus at least $24,612 in medical benefits. During that time, records show minimal communication with staff while serving as a so-called “special advisor.” To me, that looks less like a transition plan and more like an expensive golden parachute funded by the public.

⬇️ LOSER: LORI D. WILSON, DEMOCRATIC ASSEMBLYMEMBER

As Chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee and author of AB 1421, she is helping keep California on the glide path toward a vehicle-miles-traveled tax, and that is exactly the problem. What began as a limited pilot program is now being expanded into a broader statewide study designed to normalize the concept and build the bureaucratic framework for eventual implementation. This is how Sacramento advances deeply unpopular taxes — study it, grow it, then quietly tee it up for a vote to impose it after the elections, when political accountability is lowest, and voter attention has moved on. An amendment was proposed by Assembly Republicans to gut this terrible bill and actually replace it with a prohibition on mileage taxes. How did your legislator vote (if they voted)? See it here.

NOW IT’S TIME… WORST WEEK IN CALIFORNIA POLITICS

Starting this year, we have a new feature for paid subscribers. It’s below the paywall, and I basically do a video dumping session with whoever had the worst week. Hey, if they are having a bad week, why not pile on? Fun times! Don’t miss out! This one is nuts.

OK, now for all of you paid subscribers… Below, I got on a good length rant on our featured Worst Week In California Politics awardee — check it out! What? Aren’t you a paid subscriber? Hit the red button for a free trial!...