Good morning. It’s Thursday, Nov. 5.
- Nithya Raman appears poised to become L.A. mayor.
- Californians are in line for powerful roles in Congress.
- And San Francisco bathes in violet for Valkyries.
2026 Election
1.
“Pick your descriptor — it was a monsoon, an earthquake, a leveling, a restructuring. It was all of the above.”
Nithya Raman’s slim lead over Mayor Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral contest widened on Wednesday, enough by midday for Decision Desk HQ to declare her the winner. If the result holds, Raman, 45, a City Council member once dismissed by rivals as amateurish, will become the first democratic socialist to serve as mayor of America’s second largest city. The Los Angeles Times said the blue wave that swept America also appeared to buoy Raman, who was heavily favored by younger, progressive voters. Politico | L.A. Times
- See the mayoral vote count.
2.
California Democrats were on track to flip all five Republican seats they targeted with Proposition 50, the partisan redistricting measure approved by voters last year. After the election dust settles, Republicans could hold just four seats in California’s 52-member congressional delegation, politics reporter Marisa Lagos said on Wednesday. Yet the victory margins were so big, she added, “honestly, the redistricting measure pushed by Governor Gavin Newsom may not have even been necessary.” NPR | SFGATE
- See the latest House vote totals.
3.
With the Democratic takeover of Congress, Californians stand to gain leadership posts on committees with sweeping powers — and they are eager to conduct investigations. Rep. Maxine Waters is in line for a powerful economic post; Rep. Jared Huffman is set to chair the House Natural Resources Committee; and Rep. Pete Aguilar is positioned to become House majority whip. Rep. Robert Garcia is expected to chair the House Oversight Committee, arguably the most powerful investigative panel in Congress. He summed up his plans in a warning to Trump’s allies: “Lawyer up.” S.F. Chronicle
4.
Scott Wiener, a prolific Democratic state senator, defeated Supervisor Connie Chan in the race for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat in San Francisco. His victory came after a race that was overshadowed by Pelosi’s zealous backing of Chan, a candidate the city’s hometown newspaper called “demonstrably weaker.” Pelosi had bristled at Wiener’s moves to run for her seat while she was still occupying it, and some attributed her opposition to his candidacy to pettiness. S.F. Chronicle
5.
Other election developments:
- Mayor Daniel Lurie was on track to get everything he wanted on the San Francisco ballot, the San Francisco Chronicle reported: “Lurie’s repeated electoral victories appear to reflect both his robust approval ratings and the way deep-pocketed donors have spent heavily to advance his political priorities.”
- California had one ballot-counting trouble spot on Tuesday: Shasta County, run by the election-denying elections chief Clint Curtis. Journalists reported overflowing ballot boxes, staffing shortages, and mislabeled ballots. CalMatters
- Silicon Valley was on the ballot across the country, and voters made their feelings clear, wrote the Atlantic: “Again and again, Americans repudiated the AI boom and Silicon Valley, while candidates who made a point of blasting the tech companies won easily.”
Statewide
6.
Last year, Geoffrey Bernardi, a suburban Fresno teacher, was dating a woman named Misty Gomez who he didn’t realize was married. He told his mother he wanted to marry her. On Dec. 18, Bernardi’s body was found near a canal, beaten beyond recognition. Gomez initially told police a homeless man had attacked him. But nearly a year later, Gomez and her husband, Antonio Garcia, agreed on Tuesday to plead guilty to second-degree murder. Investigators said Garcia beat Bernardi to death and Gomez helped conceal the crime. Fresno Bee | KSEE
7.
Sand City, a 3-square-mile city of roughly 300 residents on the Monterey Bay coast, was built on industrial sand mining. But after operations ceased in the early 1990s, the beach was left strewn with the concrete debris and a giant berm that effectively blocks access to the ocean. The city can’t afford the cleanup costs. But a developer has now stepped up, offering to clean the beach and build an oceanfront hotel resort. In August, the California Coastal Commission did something it almost never does: It approved a new hotel right on the sand. S.F. Chronicle
8.
A couple months ago, the renowned UCLA mathematician Terence Tao was asked where new math problems would come from, as artificial intelligence publishes more and more solutions. New problems, he said, emerge from “the slow, deliberative process” of working toward a solution, “and this is what’s being destroyed.” The New Yorker published a subtly heartbreaking account of the existential crisis confronting mathematics, with Tao as its guide.
9.
In a demonstration of how hard San Francisco has fallen for its two-year-old WNBA team, the Golden State Valkyries, hundreds of thousands of fans lined the streets on Wednesday to toast their championship win. The New York Times reports: “San Francisco is now bathed in violet, the team’s color, from lights atop the City Hall dome and the Transamerica Pyramid to the gear sported by legions of fans. The Muni buses’ destination signs read ‘Go Valkyries!’ The airport had big violet displays featuring basketballs in its terminals. The libraries are issuing special Valkyries library cards.”
10.
When Adrian Blake Mitchell arrived to teach at the Westside School of Ballet in Santa Monica in 2022, there were just four boys in his boys-only class. In a few short years, he grew that number to 40. All four in the original group went on to top ballet schools or companies, including one selected for the title role in “Billy Elliot the Musical.” Not all of his students, Mitchell acknowledged, will become dancers. “But if we can affect them positively, they can go out and affect the world positively,” he said. “I know maybe it’s not real or realistic, but I think we’re actually changing the world.” N.Y. Times
11.
Matt Nelson, a 30-year-old in North Hollywood, has created a social media juggernaut with a simple formula. His company, WeRateDogs, rates people’s dogs, with some 20 million followers across X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. “We’re very lucky not to have direct competition in the dog-rating industry,” Nelson said. But WeRateDogs does have an enemy: artificial-intelligence dogs flooding dog lovers’ social media feeds. N.Y. Times
12.
“It’s really one of the best times to be in the valley.”
Yosemite in the fall is a time of brilliant colors, crisp air, and fewer people than during summer. In other words, paradise. Several photographers shared some fantastic pictures captured since the weekend with the website California Fall Color.
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