| | | | |  | | By Dustin Gardiner and Tyler Katzenberger | Presented by California Resources Corporation | | 
Incumbent San Francisco Mayor London Breed concedes the election to challenger Daniel Lurie during a news conference at City Hall on Thursday. | Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP | THE BUZZ: LONDON’S FALL — There’s a new endangered species in American politics: the post-pandemic, blue-city mayor. San Francisco's London Breed and Oakland’s Sheng Thao both lost their jobs in Tuesday’s election after facing backlash from residents angry about crime and chaotic street conditions in their cities. They are the latest in a string of Democratic mayors who have been ousted by voters over urban challengers in the wake of Covid, most notably former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Others facing pandemic-era unrest and discontent opted not to run for another term, including Ted Wheeler of Portland, Jenny Durkan of Seattle and of Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta. Conservative pundits and President-elect Donald Trump have long painted a dark, post-apocalyptic caricature of cities like San Francisco, blaming its homelessness, public drug use and shoplifting on the Democrats in charge. But, as Dustin wrote over the weekend, both Breed’s and Thao’s losses came from a revolt by progressive-leaning voters looking for a clean break. “Being the mayor of an urban center after a pandemic has been one of the hardest jobs in America,” said Todd David, a member of Breed’s inner circle of advisers. “Certain races — they are not set up to be won.” Breed, a moderate who increasingly embraced tough-on-crime policies in the last two years, faced a crowded field of challengers who assailed her handling of a fentanyl overdose epidemic, widespread homelessness and brazen retail theft that led merchants to lock up toiletries and other goods. The city has started to bounce back from its post-Covid hangover, but it wasn’t enough for voters.
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Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie declares victory during a news conference in San Francisco on Friday. | AP | Breed conceded the race last week to Daniel Lurie , a Levi’s heir and nonprofit founder. Lurie tapped into residents’ frustrations and cast himself as a change agent — a message that he and his family members spent roughly $10 million to send to every corner of the city. Across the San Francisco Bay, Thao — elected just two years ago – conceded the recall effort late Friday amid widespread frustration over rising crime rates in Oakland and the city’s deep budgetary problems. Thao also faced a series of negative headlines, including a June FBI raid on her home, though the effort against her predated the raid. The ousters of Breed and Thao speak to the political difficulties mayors face even when crime and overdose statistics start to improve. GOOD MORNING. Happy Monday. 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 tkatzenberger@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @TylerKatzen. WHERE’S GAVIN? Traveling to Washington, D.C. this week to meet with Biden-Harris administration officials and members of California's congressional delegation.
| | | | A message from California Resources Corporation: California Resources Corporation (CRC) is “a different kind of energy company,” committed to helping California achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 while powering our busy lives. CRC's Carbon TerraVault will provide innovative services to capture, transport and permanently store carbon dioxide deep underground - helping to reduce emissions and advance energy transition while bringing rewarding jobs to our local California communities. CRC's Carbon TerraVault | | | |  | ELECTION RESULTS | | |  Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, left, and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. | Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP; Lea Suzuki/ San Francisco Chronicle via AP | TOTAL RECALL — In addition to Thao, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is also leaving office early after losing a recall election, the latest sign of voter frustration over local crime concerns, our own Eric He reports with Tyler. Both candidates — elected in 2022 — lost by about 30 points amid widespread criticism for their progressive approach to public safety issues. Brenda Grisham , one of the leaders of the campaign to recall Price, said the votes showed Alameda County residents “want to feel safe.” Thao said in a statement she was “deeply proud of the progress we created together” and committed to “supporting a smooth transition.” PROP 6 FAILS — The amendment banning involuntary servitude in California’s constitution failed, the Associated Press projected Sunday evening. It was a blow to a measure that’s part of a national movement to close the so-called “slavery loophole” in state constitutions. Prop 6’s backers said a confusing ballot title and summary, combined with a lack of financial resources and the presence of the tough-on-crime Prop 36 on the ballot, helped make their efforts to pitch Prop 6 to voters a tough task. California’s measure wasn’t the only slavery- and involuntary servitude-related proposal to go before voters this fall: Nevada’s Question 4, which also promised to ban slavery and involuntary servitude, passed by a 20-point margin on Tuesday night. — Emily Schultheis
| | | | A message from California Resources Corporation:   | | | | | NEWSOMLAND | | | 
Gov. Gavin Newsom and President-elect Donald Trump during a visit to a neighborhood impacted by the wildfires in Paradise, Calif. in 2018. | Evan Vucci/AP | ROAD TO 2028 — Gov. Gavin Newsom is one of several ambitious Democrats who’ve already made moves interpreted as testing the waters for a 2028 presidential campaign. On Friday, he held a call with about 50,000 people in his small-donor network and called a special legislative session designed to Trump-proof California. Kamala Harris , of course, could still run again. But potential rivals are already entertaining entreaties from their backers to make moves, testing their fundraising operations, and situating themselves as leaders of the resistance to Donald Trump in the states. Others in the mix include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. As our colleague Christopher Cadelago writes today, Newsom is near the top of the scrum of hopefuls. He could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Harris’s loss, given the sheer amount of overlap between their California-based networks. Few Democrats are as prepared to launch a national campaign. DÉJÀ VU — Trump and Newsom are already fighting about California’s future, as Dustin reported Friday. In a lengthy rant posted to Truth Social, the president-elect attacked Newsom’s decision to call the California Legislature into a special session aimed at fortifying the deep-blue state against a conservative agenda in Washington. “He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’” Trump wrote. ”People are being forced to leave due to his, & other’s, INSANE POLICY DECISIONS.” Trump went on to air his usual grievances on water rights, homelessness and grocery costs before pitching a new policy aim: “DEMANDING THAT VOTER I.D., AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP, ARE A NECESSARY PART AND COMPONENT OF THE VOTING PROCESS!” It’s an apparent reference to a California law that bans local governments from requiring voter identification, which Newsom signed into law this September. HOT COMMODITY — As pundits and Democratic leaders bicker about where the party went wrong in 2024, a deeply online collection of X users have drawn up a hypothesis for who Democrats should run in 2028: an unabashed pugilist eager to beat back conservatism. Enter Gavin Newsom. The theory goes a little something like this: With Republicans leaning into tough-guy rhetoric, Democrats should pick a fighter who’s willing to tussle in the political ring — a “maniac for the left who will match [sic] Trumps freak,” as one X user put it. Someone, perhaps, like Newsom, a proud Fox News antagonist who debated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for sport last year and has a knack for getting under Republicans’ skin. Here’s a sampling of the arguments for Newsom as agitator-in-chief:
| | | | A message from California Resources Corporation: California Resources Corporation (CRC) is committed to empowering California through the energy transition. CRC is developing pathways that will offer both immediate decarbonization benefits and long-term solutions to mitigate climate change and curb rising global temperatures in California and beyond.
CRC’s carbon management business, Carbon TerraVault, will provide innovative technology solutions to reach and maintain carbon neutrality while providing local, responsibly sourced energy our communities need to power our busy lives. Carbon TerraVault will enable the capture, transport and permanent storage of carbon dioxide underground - delivering the deep emissions reductions needed to help California achieve its ambitious climate goals.
Get The Facts on CRC's Carbon TerraVault | | | | | CLIMATE AND ENERGY | | TECHNO PESSIMISM — A former top California air quality official is pointing a finger at Newsom for the rise of right-wing tech billionaires and Trump’s return to the White House. Read more in Friday’s California Climate.
| | TOP TALKERS | | | | 
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi talks to attendees at Vice President Kamala Harris' concession speech at Howard University. | AP | PELOSI’S TAKE — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks Joe Biden could have given Democrats time to hold an open primary for president had he exited the 2024 race sooner. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi told The New York Times podcast “The Interview” in an episode that aired Sunday. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.” She went on to slight Biden’s endorsement of Harris, saying: “Because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.” ELON THE DIPLOMAT — Elon Musk joined Trump last week on a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the nation’s ongoing war with Russia, POLITICO Europe’s Veronika Melkozerova reports , signaling the tech mogul’s potential foreign policy influence in a new Trump administration. A Ukrainian official close to Zelenskyy described the call as “nothing unusual,” saying Zelenskyy “just thanked Musk” for providing internet service over Ukraine via his Starlink satellite system. YES ON 36 — That’s how Katie Porter said she voted on California’s tough-on-crime ballot measure, which increased penalties for some retail theft and drug possession charges, POLITICO’s Emmy Martin reported Friday. “We need to give more tools to our police officers, to our businesses to deal with that,” the former Democratic congressmember and possible 2026 gubernatorial candidate told CNN’s Brianna Keilar . “At the same time, the drug substance use part of this, we know that incarcerating people for substance use is incredibly expensive to taxpayers and doesn’t actually heal people.”
| | | AROUND THE STATE | | | — What a second Trump term means for public health in California. (Los Angeles Times) — Even liberal San Francisco delivered more votes for Trump this year than in 2024 and 2016. (San Francisco Chronicle) — The California Legislature could see gender parity for the first time ever, depending on the outcome of some close Assembly races. (CalMatters) — Freshworks, a cloud software company in the Bay Area, is cutting 660 jobs as part of a strategic pivot to artificial intelligence. (San Francisco Chronicle) — Records show at least a half-dozen students who attended an elite private high school were admitted to USC through the school’s athletic department but never appeared on team rosters. (Los Angeles Times) — Why California’s mortgage rates are likely to keep rising despite federal rate cuts. (San Francisco Chronicle)
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | STORK ALERT — Brianna Puccini Duff, global comms manager at Google and a Deb Fischer alum, and Larry Duff, senior manager for corporate strategy at Mars Inc., on Tuesday welcomed Lily Roberge Duff, who joins big brother Braden. Pic … Another pic PEOPLE MOVES — Teddy Himler has founded Optimist Ventures, a NY-based VC fund focused on investing in tech companies that optimize labor. He most recently was a partner at Antler and is an alum of SoftBank and Comcast Ventures. BIRTHDAYS — former Sen. Barbara Boxer … POLITICO’s John Hendel … Tucker Bounds … Taylor Holgate … Nathan Imperiale … Malia Arenas of ALZA Strategies … Leonardo DiCaprio … Demi Moore … BELATED B-DAY WISHES — (was Sunday): Jeremy Stoppelman … Kristin Stiles … Jon Hartley … (was Saturday): Marie Baldassarre of Rep. Ro Khanna’s office … Hal Dash ... Daniel Ajzen ... Samara Hutman ... Guy Raz … Jill Shatzen Kerr … Trevor Eischen … (was Friday): Allison Gingold 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 Rebecca Haase to find out how: rhaase@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 | | | | |
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