Latest news with #AntonioVillaraigosa
Los Angeles Times
20-06-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme is turning 20. So I finally tried one, and it's meh!
Twenty years ago this summer, something momentous happened in the annals of Southern California. I'm not talking about Antonio Villaraigosa becoming L.A.'s first Latino mayor in over a century. Or the Lakers rehiring Phil Jackson as their head coach to embark on one final championship run with Kobe Bryant. No, history will look at those achievements as mere blips compared with the debut of Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme. A flour tortilla wrapped around a ground beef tostada and stuffed with lettuce, tomatoes, nacho cheese and sour cream, the item has become essential for American consumers who like their Mexican food cheap and gimmicky — which is to say, basically everyone (birria ramen, anybody?). The Times has offered multiple articles on how to make your own version at home. Celebrity chefs like Matty Matheson have shot videos praising Crunchwrap Supremes while hawking their own takes. Its June anniversary will soon get the star treatment in a national publication for a story in which I was interviewed because I'm literally the guy who wrote the book on Mexican food in the United States. But there was a slight problem that needed to be rectified before I sounded off on the legendary dish: I had to try a Crunchwrap Supreme for the first time. Hell, before a few weeks ago, I had only visited Taco Bell thrice in my life. During the 1980s and 1990s, Southern California underwent momentous shifts. The white middle class was fleeing the state as the defense industry and blue-collar factories collapsed; immigrants from across the globe came in to replace them, jolting the region's politics. Meanwhile, the ideal taco in the Angeleno psyche was transitioning from the hard-shell topped with a blizzard of yellow cheese eaten since the 1930s into the one we all love today: a tortilla — usually corn — stuffed with something and baptized with a sprinkle of salsa. (A quick etymological aside for the kids: Tacos made with non-deep-fried tortillas used to be called 'soft' tacos to differentiate them from hard-shell tacos, which were just called 'tacos.' Now, it's the reverse — progress!) So my childhood wasn't spent at Taco Bell, Tito's Tacos or even Del Taco, whose half-pound bean-and-cheese burrito remains the world's best fast-food item. My tacos were the ones at King Taco when visiting relatives in East L.A., or the Taqueria De Anda chain in Orange County back when it was still good. I had no reason to go to Taco Bell, even as it went worldwide. Nor did it entice me to visit with its half-racist TV ads like the Taco Bell Chihuahua dog or the ones that ended with the slogan 'Make a Run for the Border.' I didn't go to one until the early 2000s, and I can't remember what my cousins and I ordered except it was bland, limp and too salty: A bunch of regret dabbled with nada. I stopped in only twice more: when the Irvine-based company debuted its Doritos Loco taco in 2012, and when I forced the late Times food critic Jonathan Gold to go through a Taco Bell drive-thru for an episode of the hit Netflix show 'Ugly Delicious.' Both times, the experience was like my first. I ordered one at a location in Santa Ana near my wife's restaurant, where I unveiled the dish. While looking as sleek and tightly folded as a dumpling, it was far smaller than I had expected. The tortilla had no flavor; the tostada which supposedly offers textural counterpoint — the whole idea, according to its advocates, like Times newsletter jefe Karim Doumar — was soggy. And once again, Taco Bell's Achilles' heel was its ground beef, which was as pebbly as gravel. I squeezed some of Taco Bell's hot sauce to try and save my lunch, but it tasted like insulin dusted with black pepper. You're better off buying two of Del Taco's half-pound bean-and-cheese burritos for the same $6 price. I am no snob or purist — I think Jack in the Box's hard-shell tacos are magnificent. And I can see the Crunchwrap Supreme working with better ingredients. But the dish is hardly worth the hype. Besides, Mexicans have a far better dish that combines the soft with the crunchy to create something sublime. They're called chilaquiles — ask my fellow columnista Steve Lopez about them sometime. The Black faith community, along with people of faith from across Los Angeles County, marched in solidarity through the streets of downtown L.A. Wednesday for a peaceful interfaith prayer walk for family unity. Gustavo Arellano, California columnistKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
Telegraph
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Democrats anoint Gavin Newsom as new party leader
Democrats are lining up to throw their support behind Gavin Newsom and anoint him as the new leader of the party in the wake of the LA riots. Donald Trump called for the arrest of the California governor earlier this week, prompting Mr Newsom to call his bluff – which attracted widespread praise from Democrats. A former Los Angeles mayor commended him for 'standing up to a bully', while other Democrat figures said he had gone 'toe-to-toe' with Mr Trump and was 'fighting' for the state. Commentators now think arresting Mr Newsom would turn him into a 'martyr' and cement his status as Mr Trump's most effective critic. The 57-year-old governor, who on Tuesday night accused the US president of using the unrest to mount an illegal power grab in his state, has emerged as the figurehead of a party struggling to stand up for itself following last year's crushing election defeat. Some Democrats are frustrated by the lack of 'resistance' from current party leadership, who fear isolating voters that flipped for Mr Trump by attacking the president. Until his face-off with Mr Trump, Mr Newsom had been no exception to the problems gripping the party, with his poll ratings declining and a diminishing reputation as what Mr Trump would describe as a 'radical Left lunatic'. 'I've criticised him in the past… but I commend him for what he's doing,' Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles, told Politico. 'You stand up to a bully. You don't let a bully take away our First Amendment rights.' 'We've been waiting to feel like the governor is standing up and fighting for California and every Californian, and he seems to be doing that,' said Lorena Gonzalez, the California Labour Federation leader. 'Democrats are looking for leadership' Larry Ceisler, a Democrat strategist, told The Telegraph Mr Newsom was 'the first governor who has been given the opportunity to go toe-to-toe with President Trump and his advisers'. 'Democrats are just looking for leadership… Newsom becomes top of mind because his slot is based on real-time substantive and consequential stepping-up to confront a true crisis,' he said. 'He gave a kick-off to his 2028 campaign,' Steve Bannon, Mr Trump's former chief strategist, told The New York Times. Mr Newsom is often spoken of as a frontrunner to claim the Democrats' presidential nomination ahead of the next election. Mike Madrid, a California-based Republican strategist, said he believed the protests were helping Mr Newsom, adding: 'Especially if he gets arrested.' The Wall Street Journal, the centrist newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, said this week that the governor had emerged as 'leader of the opposition'. Before Mr Trump sent the National Guard into Los Angeles last weekend, Mr Newsom was thought to have tarnished his brand among party allies by attempting to broaden his appeal ahead of a potential presidential run. He has hosted a number of figures aligned with Mr Trump's Maga movement on his new podcast, including Mr Bannon and Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, and labelled biological men participating in women's sports 'deeply unfair'. Mr Newsom labelled Mr Trump a threat to democracy in a presidential-style address on Tuesday evening, where he spoke straight into a camera for around nine minutes. 'This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next,' he said. 'Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault right before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.' Mr Newsom's administration filed an emergency motion with the courts on Tuesday, arguing Mr Trump overstepped his legal authority by mobilising the National Guard and US marines in California in response to the protests. 'Thanks to our law enforcement officers and the majority of Angelenos who protested peacefully, this situation was winding down and was concentrated in just a few square blocks downtown,' he said. 'But that's not what Donald Trump wanted. He again chose escalation, he chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety,' Mr Newsom continued, labelling the president a 'failed dictator' He claimed Congress had failed to stand up to Mr Trump as he took a 'wrecking ball' to the Constitution and 'our founding fathers' historic project'. 'There are no longer any checks and balances… The rule of law has increasingly been given way to the rule of Don,' he said. Mr Newsom concluded with a call to arms for his party and disaffected voters: 'What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give into him.' Mr Trump and his 'border tsar', Tom Homan, have previously suggested Mr Newsom should be arrested – something the governor has quickly embraced. 'He's a tough guy. Why doesn't he do that? He knows where to find me,' he said of Mr Homan on Sunday. 'That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let's go.' Mr Trump made political capital out of his own legal problems two years ago, when he returned from the political wilderness following a series of criminal indictments he blamed on a 'weaponised' justice system.
Politico
05-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
The governor's race wakes up
Presented by MIND YOUR BUSINESS — California is overtaxed, strangled by red tape and too darn pricey — so say prominent Democrats running for governor. Of the six gubernatorial hopefuls (including two Republicans) on stage for the California Business Outlook Dinner last night in Sacramento, the harshest barbs about the state's economic health arguably came from members of the party that has held unfettered power at the Capitol for years. 'This is the worst state for business in the United States of America,' said Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles mayor, landing one of his bigger applause lines of the night. Yes, yes, the audience was a large roomful of Chamber of Commerce members, so denouncing regulations is not exactly going out on a limb. But the way the candidates broached California's affordability crisis and other issues offered some important revelations about the state of this governor's race (at least as it stands with Kamala Harris still undecided on a run): BUH-BYE BERNIECRATS? Raising the minimum wage and increasing taxes on corporations — policies that are typically red meat for Democratic base voters — got a noticeably cool reception from the four Democrats on stage. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis was the only contender to unabashedly back raising the statewide minimum wage to $20 an hour, arguing that not doing so is akin to 'throw[ing] poor people under the bus.' As for raising taxes to deal with the state's current budget crunch — an option floated by labor groups and some Democratic lawmakers — Toni Atkins, the former legislative leader, was the only Democrat to even consider the possibility, taking pains to specify it was 'absolutely a last option.' It was a notable contrast from last month's gathering at the California Labor Federation, where most Democrats clambered over each other to cozy up to organized labor (one exception: Villaraigosa, who seemed to relish saying no to labor's face and opposing unemployment benefits for striking workers). But it's clear that, so far, no candidate has seized the progressive banner, tapping into the left flank that was galvanized by national figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, who pundits sometimes place in the progressive lane, seemed eager to shed any perceptions that she was Elizabeth Warren 2.0. She talked about attracting tech jobs and 'winning the AI race,' which would be anathema to labor unions that are leading the charge for more regulation. She spoke sympathetically about the challenges facing businesses, lamenting the 'regulatory death by 1,000 papercuts.' Speaking to Playbook after the forum, Porter pointed to a recent proposal by state Sen. Steve Padilla that would have required plastic bottles to be manufactured with attached caps as an example of small-bore legislating that's missing the forest for the trees. 'LA is literally on fire, and that is what a legislator is working on,' Porter said. 'I would love to work with that legislator on his goal of reducing plastic waste. … He's focusing on the wrong thing. I want him to think bigger.' TRUST THE PROCESS: Despite President Donald Trump's unpopularity in California, Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco didn't appear all that interested in putting daylight between themselves and the Republican in the White House. Hilton, the Fox News personality, defended tariffs as a chance to lure back manufacturing to the U.S., while Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, offered a full-throated endorsement of Trump's stop-and-go trade policy — reducing concerns to 'fear mongering' and advising people to 'just wait and see what happens.' 'Just buckle down with what we have going on, let the president take care of it,' Bianco said. 'If he fails miserably, then somebody's going to come in and we're going to rescue it.' California's a tough state to make that case. And Democrats on stage all used the setup to tee off in front of the business crowd. Villaraigosa retorted that 'tariffs are taxes' to applause. The other Democrats agreed, with Kounalakis tearing into the duties as hard as anyone. She warned the growing expenses of imported drywall and appliances will jack up home costs and took a direct shot at Bianco. 'You're not a businessman. You're a government employee. You've got a pension. You're going to be just fine,' Kounalakis said, to a chorus of 'ooooo's' from the crowd. REAL TALK: Playbook could hear the candidates salivate over moderator John Myers' prompt to describe an instance when they told 'hard truths' to display leadership. It played right into Villaraigosa's wheelhouse about how he tangled with unions in Los Angeles. It gave Hilton a chance to tout his early activism against Covid-19 lockdown mandates. And it gave Atkins the opportunity to give some blunt talk to her audience about what she cast as a major obstacle to building housing in California — a reality that often gets elided when politicians make sweeping promises about building scores of new units. 'We've done some CEQA reform. We've done zoning regulations … If we could get housing built faster, we would do it,' she said. 'The problem is our communities that do not want density.' GOOD MORNING. Happy Thursday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as 'CA Playbook' in your contacts. Or drop us a line at dgardiner@ and bjones@ or on X — @DustinGardiner and @jonesblakej. WHERE'S GAVIN? In Los Angeles County for a roughly 12:15 p.m. announcement about 'literacy and student success.' Watch the governor's news conference here. STATE CAPITOL DRIVER'S SEAT — California's latest battle over the gig economy will continue after the Assembly narrowly passed legislation to let Uber and Lyft drivers unionize. The measure was expected to pass given the clout of backers like SEIU California and Appropriations Chair Buffy Wicks. But the relatively narrow 44-vote margin, with numerous Democrats holding off, underscored how fights over app-based workers remain contentious years after they first came to dominate Sacramento's agenda. In that time, the struggle shifted from the courts to the Legislature to the ballot to the courts to the Legislature again. Now it moves to the Senate. Per Wicks, there are still 'many conversations to have.' — Jeremy B. White Number of the day 61.2 CENTS — That's how much California's gas tax will increase to per gallon, effective July 1. It's a slight hike from the current rate of 59.6 cents per gallon. The annual inflationary increase is baked into the state's fuel tax that lawmakers approved in 2017, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. Republicans at the state Capitol tried — once again — this session to freeze the gas tax. They were rebuffed, per usual, by the Democratic supermajority. The tax pays for highway repairs and construction, as well as mass transit projects. CLIMATE AND ENERGY RAILROADED — California Democrats rallied around the state's high-speed rail project Wednesday after Trump announced he'd withhold $4 billion previously allotted for construction. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff in a statement accused Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy of seeking to 'appease President Trump and punish Californians who didn't vote for him.' 'In Donald Trump's corrupt world, there's no need for high-speed rail when you can accept a $400 million jet from a foreign government,' the senators wrote. 'But for the millions of Californians left to pick up the tab for Trump's reckless trade wars and rising costs of living, today's announcement is devastating.' Read last night's California Climate on why Trump's attacks are strengthening Democrats' support for the controversial project. Top Talkers GOING TO THE MATT — San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan defended his Pay for Performance initiative on X after Councilmember David Cohen told the San Jose Spotlight that the effort came 'straight out of the toolkit of authoritarian governments.' Mahan's plan would tie the pay raises of some city employees to performance metrics, like in many private-sector jobs. 'I'm tired of my fellow Democrats crying authoritarianism whenever they disagree with something — that is something that shouldn't be taken lightly or used as a catchall for discontent,' the mayor wrote. PALM SPRINGS UPDATE — U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli says Daniel Park has been charged with providing and attempting to provide material to support a terrorist in connection with the car bombing at a Palm Springs fertility clinic last month, the Los Angeles Times reports. Park is accused of helping Guy Edward Bartkus, the other suspect who died in the attack, secure 270 pounds of ammonium nitrate. AROUND THE STATE — A federal judge ruled that San Diego must allow beach yoga classes to resume immediately after they began cracking down on the practice in 2024. (The San Diego Union-Tribune) — Despite San Francisco's downtown slump, two shopping destinations are booming thanks to Asian retailers and restaurants. (San Francisco Chronicle) — The San Jose City Council will vote next week on Mahan's Responsibility to Shelter proposal, which would allow police to arrest or cite homeless people who repeatedly refuse shelter. (The Mercury News) Compiled by Nicole Norman PLAYBOOKERS PEOPLE MOVES — Louie Kahn of Rep. Ami Bera's office has been promoted from deputy communications director and digital director to communications director. — Joe Arellano is now spokesperson for the Stop the Recall campaign in support of San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio. He's a veteran SF comms pro and worked for former Mayors London Breed and Gavin Newsom. BIRTHDAYS — former Assemblymember Evan Low, CEO of LGBTQ+ Victory Fund (favorite cake: rainbow) … actor Mark Wahlberg … musician Kenny G WANT A SHOUT-OUT FEATURED? — Send us a birthday, career move or another special occasion to include in POLITICO's California Playbook. You can now submit a shout-out using this Google form.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Villaraigosa, despite climate credentials, pivots toward oil industry in run for governor
As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state's struggling oil industry. Villaraigosa's work to expand mass transit, plant trees and reduce carbon emissions made him a favorite of the environmental movement, but the former state Assembly speaker also accepted more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from oil companies and other donors tied to the industry over more than three decades in public life, according to city and state fundraising disclosures reviewed by The Times. Since entering the race last year to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, Villaraigosa has accepted more than $176,000 from donors with ties to the oil industry, including from a company that operates oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and in Los Angeles County, the disclosures show. The clash between Villaraigosa's environmentalist credentials and oil-industry ties surfaced in the governor's race after Valero announced in late April that its Bay Area refinery would close next year, not long after Phillips 66 said its Wilmington refinery would close in 2025. Villaraigosa is now warning that California drivers could see gas prices soar, blasting as "absurd" policies that he said could have led to the refinery closures. "I'm not fighting for refineries," Villaraigosa said in an interview. "I'm fighting for the people who pay for gas in this state." The refineries are a sore spot for Newsom and for California Democrats, pitting their environmental goals against concerns about the rising cost of living and two of the state's most powerful interest groups — organized labor and environmentalists — against each other. Villaraigosa said Democrats are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in their approach to fighting climate change. He said he hoped no more refineries would close until the state hits more electrification milestones, including building more transmission lines, green-energy storage systems and charging stations for electric cars. The only way for the state to reach "net zero" emissions, he said, is an "all-of-the-above" approach that includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear power and oil and gas. "The notion that we're not going to do that is poppycock," Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa's vocal support for the oil industry has upset some environmental groups that saw him as a longtime ally. "I'm honestly shocked at just how bad it is," said RL Miller, the president of Climate Hawks Vote and the chair of the California Democratic Party's environmental caucus, of the contributions Villaraigosa has accepted since entering the race in July. Miller said Villaraigosa signed a pledge during his unsuccessful run for governor in 2018 not to accept campaign contributions from oil companies and "named executives" at fossil-fuel entities. She said he took the pledge shortly after accepting the maximum allowable contributions from several oil donors in 2017. Miller said that more than $100,000 in donations that Villaraigosa has accepted in this gubernatorial cycle were clear violations of the pledge. That included contributions from the state's largest oil and gas producer, California Resources Corp. and its subsidiaries, as well as the founder of Rocky Mountain Resources, a leader of the oil company Berry Corp., and Excalibur Well Services. "This is bear-hugging the oil industry," she said. Environmental activists view the pledge as binding for future campaigns. Villaraigosa said he has not signed it for this campaign. The economy is dramatically different than it was in 2018, Villaraigosa said, and working-class Americans are being hammered, which he said was a major factor in recent Democratic losses. "We're losing working people, particularly working people who don't have a college education," he said. "Why are we losing them? The cost of living, the cost of gas, the cost of utilities, the cost of groceries." Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, said such statements are consistent with Villaraigosa's messaging in recent years. "Villaraigosa is squarely in the moderate lane in the governor's race. That doomed him in 2018, when voters wanted to counterbalance President Trump and Villaraigosa was outflanked by Newsom," Kousser said. "But today, even some Democrats may want to counterbalance the direction that they see Sacramento taking, especially when it comes to cost-of-living issues and the price of gas." He added that the fossil-fuel donations may not be the basis for Villaraigosa's apparent embrace of oil and gas priorities. "When a politician takes campaign contributions from an industry and also takes positions that favor it, that raises the possibility of corruption, of money influencing votes," Kousser said. "But it is also possible that it was the politician's own approach to an issue that attracted the contributions, that their votes attracted money but were not in any way corrupted by it. That may be the case here, where Villaraigosa has held fairly consistent positions on this issue and consistently attracted support from an industry because of those positions." Other Democrats in the 2026 governor's race, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former state Controller Betty Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, have signed the pledge not to accept contributions from oil industry interests, Miller said. Former California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and businessman Stephen Cloobeck have not. (Cloobeck has never run for office before and has not been asked to sign.) Other gubernatorial candidates have also accepted fossil-fuel contributions, although in smaller numbers than Villaraigosa, state and federal filings show. Becerra accepted contributions from Chevron and California Resources Corp., formerly Occidental Petroleum, while running for attorney general. Atkins took donations from Chevron, Occidental and a trade group for oil companies while running for state Assembly and state Senate. And while running for lieutenant governor, Kounalakis took contributions from executives at oil and mining companies. Campaign representatives for the two main Republican candidates in the race, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, said they welcomed oil-industry donations. Villaraigosa is a fierce defender of his environmental record dating back to his first years as an elected official in the California Assembly. As mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, Villaraigosa set new goals to reduce emissions at the Port of Los Angeles, end the use of coal-burning power plants and shift the city's energy generation toward solar, wind and geothermal sources. The child of a woman who relied on Metro buses, he also branded himself the "transportation mayor." Villaraigosa was a vocal champion for the 2008 sales tax increase that provided the first funding for the extension of the Wilshire Boulevard subway to the Westside. But, he said, Democrats in 2025 have to be realistic that the refinery closures and their goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions could disproportionately affect low-income residents who are already struggling to make ends meet. Villaraigosa's comments underscore a broader divide among Democrats about how to fight climate change without making California even more expensive, or driving out more high-paying jobs that don't require a college education. Lorena Gonzalez, a former state lawmaker who became the leader of the California Labor Federation in 2022, said that while climate change is a real threat, so is shutting down refineries. "That's a threat to those workers' jobs and lives, and it's also a threat to the price of gas," Gonzalez said. California is not currently positioned to end its reliance on fossil fuels, she said. If the state reduces its refining capacity, she said, it will have to rely on exports from nations that have less environmental and labor safeguards. 'Anyone running for governor has to acknowledge that,' Gonzalez said. Villaraigosa said that while the loss of union jobs at Valero's Bay Area refinery worried him, his primary concern was over the cost of gasoline and household budgets. His comments come as California prepares to square off yet again against the Trump administration over its environmental policies. The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to revoke a federal waiver that allowed California to set its own vehicle emission standards, including a rule that would have ultimately banned the sale of new gas-fueled cars in 2035. Villaraigosa denounced the vote, but said that efforts to fight climate change can't come at the expense of working-class Americans. President Trump has also declared a national energy emergency, calling for increased fossil-fuel production, eliminating environmental reviews and the fast-tracking of projects in potentially sensitive ecosystems and habitats. The Trump administration is also targeting California's environmental standards. Villaraigosa, an Eastside native, started his career as a labor organizer and rose to speaker of the state Assembly before becoming the mayor of Los Angeles. Now 72, Villaraigosa has not held elected office for more than a decade; he finished a distant third in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. Over the years, donors affiliated with the fossil-fuel industry have contributed more than $1 million to Villaraigosa's political campaigns and his nonprofit causes, including an after-school program, the city's sports and entertainment commission and an effort to reduce violence by providing programming at city parks during summer nights, according to city and state disclosures. More than half of the contributions and support for Villaraigosa's pet causes, over $582,000, came during his years at Los Angeles City Hall as a council member and mayor. In 2008, billionaire oil and gas magnate T. Boone Pickens donated $150,000 to a city proposition backed by Villaraigosa that levied a new tax on phone and internet use. Pickens made the donation as his company was vying for business at the port of Los Angeles, which is overseen by mayoral appointees and was seeking to reduce emissions by replacing diesel-powered trucks with vehicles fueled by liquid natural gas. The rest of the contributions and other financial support flowed to Villaraigosa's campaign accounts and affiliated committees while he served in the Assembly and during his two gubernatorial runs. These figures do not include donations to independent expenditure committees, since candidates cannot legally be involved in those efforts. Villaraigosa said that while such voters don't subscribe to Republicans' "drill, baby, drill" ethos, he slammed the Democratic Party's focus on such matters and Trump instead of kitchen-table issues. "The cost of everything we're doing is on the backs of the people who work the hardest and who make the least, and that's why so many of them — even when we were saying Trump is a threat to democracy — they were saying, yeah, but what about my gas prices, grocery prices, the cost of eggs?" he said. Times staff writer Sandra McDonald in Sacramento contributed to this report. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
26-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Villaraigosa, despite climate credentials, pivots toward oil industry in run for governor
As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state's struggling oil industry. Villaraigosa's work to expand mass transit, plant trees and reduce carbon emissions made him a favorite of the environmental movement, but the former state Assembly speaker also accepted more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from oil companies and other donors tied to the industry over more than three decades in public life, according to city and state fundraising disclosures reviewed by The Times. Since entering the race last year to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, Villaraigosa has accepted more than $176,000 from donors with ties to the oil industry, including from a company that operates oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and in Los Angeles County, the disclosures show. The clash between Villaraigosa's environmentalist credentials and oil-industry ties surfaced in the governor's race after Valero announced in late April that its Bay Area refinery would close next year, not long after Phillips 66 said its Wilmington refinery would close in 2025. Villaraigosa is now warning that California drivers could see gas prices soar, blasting as 'absurd' policies that he said could have led to the refinery closures. 'I'm not fighting for refineries,' Villaraigosa said in an interview. 'I'm fighting for the people who pay for gas in this state.' The refineries are a sore spot for Newsom and for California Democrats, pitting their environmental goals against concerns about the rising cost of living and two of the state's most powerful interest groups — organized labor and environmentalists — against each other. Villaraigosa said Democrats are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in their approach to fighting climate change. He said he hoped no more refineries would close until the state hits more electrification milestones, including building more transmission lines, green-energy storage systems and charging stations for electric cars. The only way for the state to reach 'net zero' emissions, he said, is an 'all-of-the-above' approach that includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear power and oil and gas. 'The notion that we're not going to do that is poppycock,' Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa's vocal support for the oil industry has upset some environmental groups that saw him as a longtime ally. 'I'm honestly shocked at just how bad it is,' said RL Miller, the president of Climate Hawks Vote and the chair of the California Democratic Party's environmental caucus, of the contributions Villaraigosa has accepted since entering the race in July. Miller said Villaraigosa signed a pledge during his unsuccessful run for governor in 2018 not to accept campaign contributions from oil companies and 'named executives' at fossil-fuel entities. She said he took the pledge shortly after accepting the maximum allowable contributions from several oil donors in 2017. Miller said that more than $100,000 in donations that Villaraigosa has accepted in this gubernatorial cycle were clear violations of the pledge. That included contributions from the state's largest oil and gas producer, California Resources Corp. and its subsidiaries, as well as the founder of Rocky Mountain Resources, a leader of the oil company Berry Corp., and Excalibur Well Services. 'This is bear-hugging the oil industry,' she said. Environmental activists view the pledge as binding for future campaigns. Villaraigosa said he has not signed it for this campaign. The economy is dramatically different than it was in 2018, Villaraigosa said, and working-class Americans are being hammered, which he said was a major factor in recent Democratic losses. 'We're losing working people, particularly working people who don't have a college education,' he said. 'Why are we losing them? The cost of living, the cost of gas, the cost of utilities, the cost of groceries.' Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, said such statements are consistent with Villaraigosa's messaging in recent years. 'Villaraigosa is squarely in the moderate lane in the governor's race. That doomed him in 2018, when voters wanted to counterbalance President Trump and Villaraigosa was outflanked by Newsom,' Kousser said. 'But today, even some Democrats may want to counterbalance the direction that they see Sacramento taking, especially when it comes to cost-of-living issues and the price of gas.' He added that the fossil-fuel donations may not be the basis for Villaraigosa's apparent embrace of oil and gas priorities. 'When a politician takes campaign contributions from an industry and also takes positions that favor it, that raises the possibility of corruption, of money influencing votes,' Kousser said. 'But it is also possible that it was the politician's own approach to an issue that attracted the contributions, that their votes attracted money but were not in any way corrupted by it. That may be the case here, where Villaraigosa has held fairly consistent positions on this issue and consistently attracted support from an industry because of those positions.' Other Democrats in the 2026 governor's race, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former state Controller Betty Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, have signed the pledge not to accept contributions from oil industry interests, Miller said. Former California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and businessman Stephen Cloobeck have not. (Cloobeck has never run for office before and has not been asked to sign.) Other gubernatorial candidates have also accepted fossil-fuel contributions, although in smaller numbers than Villaraigosa, state and federal filings show. Becerra accepted contributions from Chevron and California Resources Corp., formerly Occidental Petroleum, while running for attorney general. Atkins took donations from Chevron, Occidental and a trade group for oil companies while running for state Assembly and state Senate. And while running for lieutenant governor, Kounalakis took contributions from executives at oil and mining companies. Campaign representatives for the two main Republican candidates in the race, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, said they welcomed oil-industry donations. Villaraigosa is a fierce defender of his environmental record dating back to his first years as an elected official in the California Assembly. As mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, Villaraigosa set new goals to reduce emissions at the Port of Los Angeles, end the use of coal-burning power plants and shift the city's energy generation toward solar, wind and geothermal sources. The child of a woman who relied on Metro buses, he also branded himself the 'transportation mayor.' Villaraigosa was a vocal champion for the 2008 sales tax increase that provided the first funding for the extension of the Wilshire Boulevard subway to the Westside. But, he said, Democrats in 2025 have to be realistic that the refinery closures and their goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions could disproportionately affect low-income residents who are already struggling to make ends meet. Villaraigosa's comments underscore a broader divide among Democrats about how to fight climate change without making California even more expensive, or driving out more high-paying jobs that don't require a college education. Lorena Gonzalez, a former state lawmaker who became the leader of the California Labor Federation in 2022, said that while climate change is a real threat, so is shutting down refineries. 'That's a threat to those workers' jobs and lives, and it's also a threat to the price of gas,' Gonzalez said. California is not currently positioned to end its reliance on fossil fuels, she said. If the state reduces its refining capacity, she said, it will have to rely on exports from nations that have less environmental and labor safeguards. 'Anyone running for governor has to acknowledge that,' Gonzalez said. Villaraigosa said that while the loss of union jobs at Valero's Bay Area refinery worried him, his primary concern was over the cost of gasoline and household budgets. His comments come as California prepares to square off yet again against the Trump administration over its environmental policies. The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to revoke a federal waiver that allowed California to set its own vehicle emission standards, including a rule that would have ultimately banned the sale of new gas-fueled cars in 2035. Villaraigosa denounced the vote, but said that efforts to fight climate change can't come at the expense of working-class Americans. President Trump has also declared a national energy emergency, calling for increased fossil-fuel production, eliminating environmental reviews and the fast-tracking of projects in potentially sensitive ecosystems and habitats. The Trump administration is also targeting California's environmental standards. Villaraigosa, an Eastside native, started his career as a labor organizer and rose to speaker of the state Assembly before becoming the mayor of Los Angeles. Now 72, Villaraigosa has not held elected office for more than a decade; he finished a distant third in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. Over the years, donors affiliated with the fossil-fuel industry have contributed more than $1 million to Villaraigosa's political campaigns and his nonprofit causes, including an after-school program, the city's sports and entertainment commission and an effort to reduce violence by providing programming at city parks during summer nights, according to city and state disclosures. More than half of the contributions and support for Villaraigosa's pet causes, over $582,000, came during his years at Los Angeles City Hall as a council member and mayor. In 2008, billionaire oil and gas magnate T. Boone Pickens donated $150,000 to a city proposition backed by Villaraigosa that levied a new tax on phone and internet use. Pickens made the donation as his company was vying for business at the port of Los Angeles, which is overseen by mayoral appointees and was seeking to reduce emissions by replacing diesel-powered trucks with vehicles fueled by liquid natural gas. The rest of the contributions and other financial support flowed to Villaraigosa's campaign accounts and affiliated committees while he served in the Assembly and during his two gubernatorial runs. These figures do not include donations to independent expenditure committees, since candidates cannot legally be involved in those efforts. Villaraigosa said that while such voters don't subscribe to Republicans' 'drill, baby, drill' ethos, he slammed the Democratic Party's focus on such matters and Trump instead of kitchen-table issues. 'The cost of everything we're doing is on the backs of the people who work the hardest and who make the least, and that's why so many of them — even when we were saying Trump is a threat to democracy — they were saying, yeah, but what about my gas prices, grocery prices, the cost of eggs?' he said. Times staff writer Sandra McDonald in Sacramento contributed to this report.
