Elias: Arrests of aides could alter major races
Editor’s note: Thomas D. Elias, who wrote the California Focus column for more than 50 years, died Jan. 4 at his home in Santa Monica....
Thomas D. Elias
Elias: Stark contrast between high-profile mayors
San Francisco’s mayor, Daniel Lurie, seemingly collects a pocketful of plaudits every day. By contrast, his counterpart in Los Angeles, Karen Bass, gets new grief...
Elias: Musk’s ‘America Party’ going nowhere
It’s no wonder President Trump last summer laughed off entrepreneur Elon Musk’s attempt to start a new third political party as revenge for Trump persisting...
Elias: If California gets a GOP governor, Dems can blame candidate egos
By Election Day next November, political party registration in California will be about 40% Democratic, 24% Republican and 35% Independent or decline to state. That’s...
Elias: Lara does insurance companies’ bidding
As he prepares for his last year in office, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is going all out to make it easier for insurance companies...
Elias: Who’s really fighting antisemitism?
Antisemitism has been a plague on college campuses for more than a decade, never more visibly than in the aftermath of the Hamas surprise attack...
Elias: No clear favorite after Padilla opt-out
By next year, it will have been 28 years since California has had a race for governor nearly so wide-open as what has begun to...
Elias: Can naming rights rescue the bullet train?
Imagine the “Google Switching Center.” Now try on the “Sony Pictures In-Railroad Entertainment System.” And the “Morton’s Steakhouse dining car.” Naming rights have rescued major...
California Focus: Did Harris write herself out of the ’28 race?
Two absolute essentials must accompany any candidate who seeks to make a serious run for president, or even lesser but still powerful jobs like governor...
Elias: Wildfire Fund and smug utilities
The tone has bordered on smug among executives of the Southern California Edison Co. ever since the Eaton fire last January destroyed most of Altadena...
Elias: If COVID deaths mount this year, blame RFK Jr., Trump
As Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues making vaccines in general and COVID-19 inoculations in particular harder to get, it will become more and...
Elias: Who are the real hypocrites in gerrymandering fight?
For the better part of 20 years, Republican politicians across the nation have taken advantage of whatever privileges their status as state legislators gave them...
Elias: Still hope for a return to sanity on AI
There were plenty of lousy votes taken during the summer’s congressional sessions, when President Trump’s omnibus “Big Beautiful Bill” eventually passed after numerous senators and...
Elias: Measles deaths in California only a question of when
With more cases of measles already reported as of July in California than all of last year, it’s only a matter of time when one...
Elias: Irony in failure of environmental bill
There’s been deep irony in Sacramento this summer, as some normally environmentally oriented state senators deep-sixed what might have been the year’s most important potential...