FLOODGATES ARE OPEN
Via Nicole Nixon...
Now that Kamala Harris made it official that she’s not running for governor, the rest of the crowded field is expected to drop millions of dollars to introduce themselves to voters via broadcast television and digital advertising.
Billionaire Democrat Stephen J. Cloobeck is up first with a $1.3 million ad buy this week for space in every California media market.
The spot has nothing to do with California issues — it criticizes President Donald Trump for his friendship with child sex offender Jeffery Epstein and for not releasing U.S. Justice Department files on his case.
“Trump is for they/them,” the ad says as images of Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell flash on screen flanking Trump. “Stephen Cloobeck is for you.”
It plays on an infamous advertisement run by Trump’s campaign last year which criticized Harris for her support of gender-affirming surgery for incarcerated transgender people. The Trump ad used the tagline “Kamala Harris is for they/them, President Trump is for you.”
“Teachers know a hell of a lot more about what's going on with California families than this guy,” Porter wrote on X. “I’m running for governor because I understand the challenges families face and I’m ready to take them on.”
‘BRINGING THE RECEIPTS’
Via Amelia Wu...
The California Attorney General’s Office spent $5 million to support the state’s lawsuits against the Trump administration — and it paid off. The office has secured the continued flow of approximately $168 billion to California, federal funds President Trump intended to cut off.
Since Trump took office in January, Attorney General Rob Bonta and his department have filed 37 lawsuits and more than 40 amicus briefs. Of the 37 lawsuits filed, California has led or co-led 23 of them and has 13 orders blocking Trump’s actions in effect.
“We're talking about people’s livelihoods, their health, their education, and in some cases, even their lives,” Bonta said in a statement. “That’s why every time the President breaks the law, my office stands ready to take him to court.”
During Trump’s first week in office, a third of California’s budget was endangered by a federal funding freeze of $3 trillion nationwide.
The effort has not gone in vain — for every dollar from the Governor, $33,600 has been returned to the state, Bonta said. The office has blocked Trump administration efforts to withhold billions in funding for critical areas like transportation, education, and electric vehicle infrastructure.
“Over the last seven months, California has been the first and last line of defense against the avalanche of illegal actions from the Trump Administration,” said Governor Gavin Newsom in an X post. “We’ve protected $168B+ in federal funding and secured favorable court orders in most of the cases judges have acted on.”
CANNABIS TAKEDOWN
Via Amelia Wu...
This year, California officials seized an estimated value of almost $480 million in illicit cannabis plants.
Since the beginning of 2025, officials conducted 111 illicit cannabis takedowns, resulting in taking 270,000 pounds of illegal cannabis and destroying over 260,000 plants, according to the Governor’s Office. The effort has also led to the arrest of 112 individuals, the seizure of 52 firearms and the confiscation of over $230,000 in cash.
California’s regulated cannabis market is the largest in the world, according to a press release from the Governor’s Office. Additionally, the Department of Cannabis Control released a 2025 market outlook report that shows the licensed market is growing.
To strengthen long-term enforcement, cannabis tax revenue will be used to fund civil and criminal enforcement measures, reducing the burden on legal businesses.
Since 2019, the Department of Cannabis Control has conducted 1,213 operations, seizing nearly 1.6 million pounds of cannabis and eradicating 2.7 million plants, according to the Governor’s news release. In 2022, the Governor established the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force to support these efforts.
“Illegal cannabis operations threaten the success of the legal market,” Newsom said in a statement. “We owe it to our businesses and consumers to take down these bad actors every chance we can.”