| | | |  | | By Dustin Gardiner and Blake Jones | A Note to Our Readers from POLITICO's CEO and Editor-in-Chief POLITICO has been the subject of debate on X this week. Some of it has been misinformed, and some of it has been flat-out false. Let’s set the record straight. POLITICO is a privately owned company. We have never received any government funding — no subsidies, no grants, no handouts. Not one dime, ever, in 18 years. Millions of people around the world read our journalism on POLITICO.com, POLITICO.EU and in newsletters like this one. It is supported by advertising and sponsorships. POLITICO Pro is different. It is a professional subscription service used by companies, organizations, and, yes, some government agencies. They subscribe because it makes them better at their jobs — helping them track policy, legislation and regulations in real-time with news, intelligence and a suite of data products. At its core, POLITICO Pro is about transparency and accountability: Shining a light on the work of the agencies, regulators and policymakers throughout our vast federal government. Businesses and entities within the government find it useful as they navigate the chaotic regulatory and legislative landscape. It’s that simple. Most POLITICO Pro subscribers are in the private sector. They come from across the ideological spectrum and subscribe for one reason: value. And 90 percent renew every year because they rely on our reporting, data and insights. Government agencies that subscribe do so through standard public procurement processes — just like any other tool they buy to work smarter and be more efficient. This is not funding. It is a transaction — just as the government buys research, equipment, software and industry reports. Some online voices are deliberately spreading falsehoods. Let’s be clear: POLITICO has no financial dependence on the government and no hidden agenda. We cover politics and policy — that’s our job. We are so proud of our journalists and so proud of the connection we have with you, our readers. We stand by our work, our values and our commitment to transparency, accountability and efficiency — the same principles that drive great journalism and great business. Now, back to work. Goli Sheikholeslami and John Harris
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Damage from the Los Angeles fires has exacerbated complaints about California's powerful Coastal Commission and its authority over coastal development. | John Locher/AP | THE BUZZ: SEA CHANGE — The once-untouchable California Coastal Commission has taken hit after hit in the wake of the Los Angeles fires — and state lawmakers see an opening to check their power. Assembly Democrats are trying to pass legislation that would expedite construction of ocean-front housing by sidestepping the commission. Several bills are in the works that aim to limit the panel’s authority to block or delay housing over permitting issues or gripes like neighborhood character — concerns about coastal views and aesthetics. In recent weeks, the commission has faced a confluence of criticism from both ends of the political spectrum — from Gov. Gavin Newsom to President Donald Trump — all over the idea that it makes building housing too burdensome and too expensive. The escalating tension was laid bare last week, when Newsom’s aides chided the commission for getting sideways with his efforts to help LA quickly rebuild from last month’s wildfires. Newsom’s frustration came when the commission released a fact sheet that effectively contradicted his executive order allowing fire victims to rebuild homes and businesses in the burn area without obtaining a coastal permit (often a costly, yearslong process). Newsom’s administration forced the commission to scrub the fact sheet from its website and called its move “legally erroneous guidance.” And the governor issued another executive order that prohibits the commission from taking any action that “interferes” with his LA reconstruction orders. The reprimands came after Trump — a developer seemingly speaking from personal experience — headlined a fire recovery roundtable with elected officials and displaced residents in LA where he maligned the commission’s “antics.” ”They are considered the most difficult in the entire country, and we cannot have them play their games and wait 10 years to give somebody a permit,” Trump said.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP | Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican from Northern California who attended the roundtable with Trump, told POLITICO he nudged Newsom over the commission in a meeting Wednesday in Washington: “We need to have roadblocks knocked down in order to get rebuilding done,” LaMalfa recalled saying. He said Newsom listened and nodded along. YIMBY groups and lawmakers say the swell of bipartisan concern about the commission could bode well for their upcoming legislative efforts — despite numerous failed attempts to limit the commission’s authority. “We are at the inflection point,” said Laura Foote, president of YIMBY Action, a San Francisco-based housing group, and a frequent critic of the commission. Housing advocates are banking on heightened national scrutiny of state officials to spur a rebuild that is quick and mitigates California’s glaring affordability crisis. “There’s a lot of pressure on Newsom to prove that blue states can govern themselves,” Foote added. Past efforts to reform the commission have been vociferously opposed by environmental and labor groups, who argue regulations are needed to protect the state’s shorelines from pollution and its construction laborers from exploitation. Last year, a handful of bills that sought to build more housing in urban coastal areas ran into a buzzsaw in the state Senate after the commission and its allies pushed to gut the bills. The commission has largely dismissed its critics, arguing it was empowered by voters to protect sensitive marine habitats, scenic bluffs, wetlands and other natural treasures. The Legislature then gave it permanent authority over development on the California shoreline. Commission spokesperson Joshua Smith said the panel is no stranger to controversy and the Coastal Act has often been targeted because it “values public access and coastal resources over profits.” He added: “Protecting the coast for the people is our priority.” Among the bills taking shape in the Assembly are measures that would: force the commission to follow the same building-permit review deadlines as cities and allow development of university housing and backyard cottages in Los Angeles County without a coastal permit. The Pacific Palisades, where thousands of houses burned in the fires, is also home to major Democratic donors. But that politically influential group is unlikely to advocate for rebuilding the neighborhood with dense high rises. They also may not be as sympathetic to progressive environmentalist legislators as lower-income fire survivors who live inland, outside the commission’s jurisdiction. “You can bet your bottom dollar that the more-housing lobby is going to jump on their bulldozers and try to drive bulldozers through the front door of the Coastal Commission,” said Warner Chabot, who served as a watchdog for the commission for years and directs the San Francisco Estuary Institute. “But I don't think that they'll have a lot of successful arguments that it's necessary to help the disenfranchised millionaires and billionaires who live in Pacific Palisades.” Assemblymember Rick Zbur, a progressive who represents a coastal district that includes Santa Monica, acknowledged that the bills face a tough road as legislators balance their desire for building with environmental concerns. A former environmental attorney, Zbur said the commission needs to be checked. “They have had a habit of slowing down housing development,” he said. “That’s the reality.” — Josh Siegel contributed reporting GOOD MORNING. Happy Friday. 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@politico.com and bjones@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @jonesblakej. WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.
| | | | We’ve re-imagined and expanded our Inside Congress newsletter to give you unmatched reporting on Capitol Hill politics and policy -- and we'll get it to your inbox even earlier. Subscribe today. | | | | | |  | CAMPAIGN YEAR(S) | | | 
Former Vice President Kamala Harris. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images | NOT BITING, NOT AT ALL — Former Vice President Kamala Harris glided right past questions about her political future and a possible run for governor while touring wildfire damage in LA. “I have been home for two weeks and three days,” Harris told reporters Thursday. “My plans are to be in touch with my community, to be in touch with the leaders and figure out what I can do to support them, and most importantly, to lift up the folks who are surviving this extraordinary crisis and do what I can do to to offer any assistance, even if it is a kind word along the way.” Asked a second time, Harris added: “I am here and would be here regardless of the office I hold, because it is the right thing to do, which is to show up in your community and thank the folks who are on the ground doing the hard work.”
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Assemblymember Tina McKinnor. | AP Photo | FIRST IN POLITICO: PHONE WARS — Assemblymember Tina McKinnor is resurrecting her bid to phase out landlines in California — in part because of the Los Angeles fires, our Tyler Katzenberger scooped for POLITICO Pro subscribers yesterday. McKinnor — whose district is less than five miles from neighborhoods scorched by the destructive Palisades Fire — said her new plan to let telecom giant AT&T end landline service only in areas where other phone options exist will ensure access to safety information during natural disasters. “Wireless text messages, even though not perfect, were far more effective in notifying residents of evacuation orders or other emergency information,” McKinnor said. “We need to stop relying on outdated technology that does not protect our families.” But, but, but … Seniors and rural residents have long cited wildfires as a reason to keep landline phones, not dump them. They say the phones, which are connected by copper wires in the ground, are the only reliable way to call for help if cell service goes out during a fire. AT&T has tried but failed to sell landline users on calling alternatives, but it hasn’t stuck, forcing the company to dole out more cash to maintain copper lines used by a sliver of Californians. And past legislative efforts to phase out the phones (hi, Evan Low!) fizzled out before becoming law, including a bill McKinnor gutted and amended last summer. So what’s different this year? McKinnor said she will propose changes that reflect conversations she’s held with local governments, public safety leaders, rural communities and labor groups since pulling her last attempt at dropping AT&T’s landline obligations in July. The details, however, are TBA as those conversations continue, McKinnor said.
| | ON THE AIRWAVES | | RESISTANCE 2.0 — Former Los Angeles Times opinion columnist Jean Guerrero, now a fellow at the Latina Futures 2050 Lab, will begin training Latina women and girls to write newspaper op-eds and do broadcast hits advocating against Trump administration policies. The lab was initially founded at UCLA in 2022 with upstart funding from the state, and its leadership advises the California Legislative Latino Caucus. “Over the next four years we have significant work to do to hold the line against a concerted effort to dismantle decades of progress for communities of color, women and other marginalized communities with the stroke of a pen,” lab founders Veronica Terriquez and Sonja Diaz wrote in a letter explaining the initiative. Guerrero has written critically of federal immigration crackdowns, including in a book about White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller under the banner “Hatemonger.”
| | CLIMATE AND ENERGY | | LET'S MAKE A DEAL — Trump likes scoring political points off of California, but he also really loves a deal. Read where there might be room for an agreement (hint: water) and where there really is not in last night’s California Climate.
| | TOP TALKERS | | PUT IT ON ICE — U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, extended a temporary hold on Trump’s executive order that seeks outlaw birthright citizenship. The Seattle judge’s nationwide injunction is the second to be issued by separate judges on separate days, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein reports. “It has become ever more apparent that to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain,” Coughenour said. SWING AND A MISS — Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman protested the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday in a post on X, saying it was “yet another example of MAGA Republicans taking a sledgehammer to the wall between church and state.” But the sentiment didn’t land well as Barack Obama and Joe Biden both attended the same event when they were president. DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH — It will take several months for the federal government to turn over the 250,000 files, or 140 gigabytes of data, that they say prove former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her partner Andre Jones engaged in a bribery scheme with the Duong family. Lawyers for the defendants also said that it would take them months to look through the government’s evidence, the Oaklandside reports. U.S. Attorney Molly Priedeman said that no one wore a wire as a part of the investigation but added that they seized numerous devices, which they still possess. Thao, Jones and the Duongs have denied any wrongdoing.
| | | | A new era in Washington calls for sharper insights. Get faster policy scoops, more congressional coverage, and a re-imagined newsletter under the leadership of Jack Blanchard. Subscribe to our Playbook Newsletter today. | | | | | | | AROUND THE STATE | | — Nearly 300 people who lost their homes to the Eaton fire will be relocated from their temporary shelter at Pasadena Convention Center as it is slated to hold events later this month. (Los Angeles Times) — Vista-based Dr. Bronner’s is facing a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of an employee who overdosed at age 50 after David and Mia Bronner allegedly arranged for her to receive a “ketamine massage.” (KPBS) — Former Merced Mayor Mike Murphy has formed a committee to run for the seat currently held by Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria. (SJV Sun)
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | ENGAGED — Jeff Hasselman, who advises blockchain and crypto startups at 926 Ventures and founded blockchain crypto at AWS, on Sunday proposed to Denise Grace Gitsham, founder of Vitamin D Public Relations, a NewsNation contributor and former California Republican congressional candidate. The couple met on Bumble in May 2024, and he proposed at the Caribou Club in Aspen. Pic BIRTHDAYS — Jeff Marschner at The Hoover Institution … journalist Cameron Page Langford … Cappi Williamson at The Financial Times … Sean Elsbernd … BELATED B-DAY WISHES — (was Thursday): Rep. Luz Rivas (D-Calif.) … Michael Tucker ... Paul Kujawsky … Jacob Wijnberg … Alexa Cassanos … Eric Weiner … (was Wednesday): Michael Mann ... Jennifer Leigh ... Rabbi Niles Goldstein 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. CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this subscriber-only service offers, click here. Want to make an impact? POLITICO California has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Golden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Lynn Fine to find out how: lfine@politico.com. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | |
