Northern California

A Los Angeles-area state Senate race between labor-backed West Hollywood City Councilmember John Erickson and business-supported media consultant Brian Goldsmith has become California's most expensive state Senate general election contest this cycle, driven by heavy outside spending. The district, covering Malibu, Santa Monica, the Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, carries a 12-year term limit as both seek to succeed termed-out Sen. Ben Allen.

Business groups have targeted Erickson with attack spending, while tech-linked donors and Goldsmith's own personal funds have boosted his campaign; labor groups opposing Goldsmith have spent far less. Nancy Pelosi recently endorsed Goldsmith. Ads focus on affordability, housing, public safety and partisan loyalty, reflecting a broader business-labor struggle over California Democratic Party direction.

Several California congressional primaries pit establishment Democrats against insurgent challengers, a dynamic that could complicate Hakeem Jeffries' hold on House Democratic leadership if he seeks the speakership in a future majority. Under California's top-two primary system, some races feature Democrat-vs-Democrat matchups between incumbents and younger, further-left or anti-establishment rivals.

Rep. Mike Thompson faces venture capitalist Eric Jones, who says he wouldn't commit to backing Jeffries as speaker. Rep. Doris Matsui, who trailed in the June primary, faces progressive Sacramento Councilmember Mai Vang, who has said she won't support Jeffries. In the race to succeed Nancy Pelosi, state Sen. Scott Wiener backs Jeffries while rival Connie Chan says any speaker candidate must "earn" her vote. Rep. Aisha Wahab, who already defied party leadership once, faces Melissa Hernandez in a rematch. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, under a House Ethics Committee investigation he denies, faces progressive challenger Angela Gonzales-Torres. Many challengers are aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, signaling a potential bloc of leadership skeptics if elected.

Idaho, one of the most reliably Republican states in the country, is experiencing an intensifying internal party conflict between traditional conservatives and a growing far-right faction. The state's rapid population growth, driven largely by migration from other red states, has pushed its politics further rightward. Groups like the Idaho Freedom Foundation have targeted sitting Republican lawmakers deemed insufficiently conservative, successfully ousting several through censure campaigns and primary challenges.

The fight has real economic stakes: Idaho's roughly $4 billion cattle and dairy industry relies heavily on immigrant labor, and hardline anti-immigration positions pushed by far-right legislators have created labor shortages for farmers and ranchers. In response, more moderate voters ousted several hardline incumbents in this year's GOP primaries. Longtime Republicans describe feeling "politically homeless" as newer arrivals push a more combative, ideologically rigid brand of conservatism. Idaho hasn't backed a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, making the dispute a purely intra-party struggle over the GOP's future direction in deep-red territory.

California has conserved 27.1% of its land, keeping it on pace to hit Gov. Gavin Newsom's "30x30" target of protecting 30% of land and coastal waters by 2030, state officials announced. Progress on coastal waters lags further behind at 21.9%, with nearly all of the increase since 2020 coming from a single federal marine sanctuary. About 78% of conserved land is federal, including national parks and forests, making California's goal heavily dependent on Washington's cooperation.

Much of the past year's land gains came from two national monuments created by President Biden in his final days in office. The Trump administration briefly signaled those designations had been rescinded before backing off, though the Justice Department has affirmed presidents can abolish predecessors' monuments, and the Interior Department is weighing expanded mining and drilling on protected lands. Trump has also rolled back OHV trail protections and pushed to expand logging in national forests. California officials say they will keep tracking federal actions that could undercut the state's conservation counts, while pursuing new marine protected areas and tribal-led coastal conservation efforts to close the gap.

LeRoy Chatfield, a lifelong advocate for marginalized communities, died of natural causes on September 15 at age 92. A former member of the Congregation of Christian Brothers who taught for free in poor California communities, he left the order at 31 to join César Chávez's effort to organize farmworkers, becoming a key figure in building the United Farm Workers' early infrastructure, including its first medical plan and initial headquarters in Delano. He left the UFW in 1973.

Chatfield later managed Jerry Brown's gubernatorial campaign and became the first director of Brown's California Conservation Corps, opening 18 centers in its first year and a half. He went on to advocate for Sacramento's homeless population and, in his later years, built what is considered the definitive digital archive of the UFW's early history, eventually acquired by UC San Diego. His death comes months after allegations surfaced that Chávez had sexually abused women within the movement; friends and family say those allegations do not diminish Chatfield's own legacy of service. He is survived by his wife, five daughters and 10 grandchildren.

California's prison-building boom left small towns economically dependent on incarceration, but sentencing reforms since the 2010s have cut the state prison population from about 170,000 to 90,000, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to close five prisons since 2019. Communities are responding differently: Susanville, remote and isolated near the Nevada border, has seen population decline, deficit budgets and failed legal challenges to closure, with leaders warning of eventual insolvency. Blythe, near the Arizona border, lobbied state officials for assistance after its prison closed in 2022 but says it has received little direct help, though the state notes nearly $1 million was sent to regional workforce development. Tracy, closer to the Bay Area, has fared better, drawing interest from agriculture, education and casino developers for its former prison site.

Researchers say the economic benefits prisons brought rural areas were often overstated and short-lived. More closures are expected as lawmakers seek to cut costs and address billions in deferred maintenance across aging facilities, with a prison in Norco set to close in October.

Shasta County's Board of Supervisors has canceled its contract with Dominion Voting Systems and is weighing a switch to hand-counted ballots, driven by unproven fraud claims embraced by the board's hard-right majority. MyPillow CEO and prominent election denier Mike Lindell praised the move, calling on other counties to follow suit, and offered to help fund any resulting lawsuits after speaking with a Shasta supervisor. Kern County supervisors similarly fielded hours of testimony from residents alleging the county's Dominion system was rigged.

Dominion, one of the largest U.S. voting equipment suppliers and currently in use in 41 of California's 58 counties, said the Shasta decision reflects lasting damage from false claims that spread after President Trump's 2020 election loss. Shasta's clerk and registrar said the county now effectively lacks a voting system. The dispute underscores how 2020 election-fraud narratives continue to shape local election administration well beyond the original battleground states.