California Volunteers leader, a Democrat, jumps into lieutenant governor race
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JOSH FRYDAY JOINS LT. GOV. RACE
The field of candidates for California’s lieutenant governor grew on Wednesday as Josh Fryday, the state’s chief service officer, jumped into the fray.
Fryday, the leader of the civil-action office California Volunteers, said his work mobilizing thousands of people and creating climate and educational programs for the state has prepared him to take on the lieutenant governor role.
“From the cost of living, to the climate crisis, to cleaning our streets, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach to tackle the biggest challenges facing our state,” Fryday said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “It’s up to us — the people of California — to fix the communities we love.”
Fryday, a Democrat, laid out three key priorities for his campaign, a sort of G.I. Bill for California to help create more jobs, build a climate-forward economy and make it easier to build more homes.
Prior to his role with the state, Fryday served as the mayor of his hometown of Novato and served in the U.S. Navy. Fryday earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. Fryday noted he clerked at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, which was under then-District Attorney Kamala Harris at the time.
He joins an already crowded field for the 2026 race to replace Democratic Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis. Kounalakis is one of several candidates running to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom next year.
Other Democrats running for California’s second-in-command seat include former state Sen. Steven Bradford, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, former Sausalito Mayor Janelle Kellman and former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs.
Former congressional candidate David Serpa is running as a Republican in the race.
“As a dad, married to a public school teacher, I want to do everything I can to make life better for my family and families across California,” said Fryday. “The lieutenant governor has a unique position to bring people together, create new public-private partnerships, build new alliances and coalitions, and shape a new kind of politics.”
UC SYSTEM UNDER DOJ INVESTIGATION FOR ANTISEMITISM
Via Lia Russell…
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Wednesday that the Department of Justice will investigate the University of California system for allegedly violating federal civil rights anti-discrimination law and allowing antisemitism to occur on its campuses.
Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell pointed to alleged antisemitic incidents on UCLA’s campus after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel as a catalyst.
“The impact upon UC’s students has been the subject of considerable media attention and multiple federal investigations,” he said in a press release. “But these campuses are also workplaces, and the Jewish faculty and staff employed there deserve a working environment free of antisemitic hostility and hate.”
Bondi said the DOJ would investigate whether the UC system had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which protects against discrimination on the basis of race, religion or national origin.
“This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional antisemitism in our nation’s universities,” she said.
A spokesperson for UC President Michael V. Drake did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Drake directed the UC system last year to investigate how UCLA authorities handled the response to complaints over on-campus protests against the war in Gaza that turned violent, like when counter-demonstrators attacked a pro-Palestine student encampment.
The U.S. Department of Education and the UC system reached an agreement in December that requires UC schools to escalate reporting complaints to the federal Office of Civil Rights, review all complaints and harassment reports from the past two years to see if more action must be taken and increase training for UC employees and campus police about their duties under federal law.
SCHIFF QUESTIONS TRUMP’S PICK TO LEAD EPA OVER OIL INFLUENCE
Via David Lightman...
Sen. Adam Schiff wanted to know if Aaron Szabo, President Donald Trump’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation, thought the oil industry was too influential during the nominee’s confirmation hearing Wednesday.
The senator asked Szabo if he thought “the oil industry has a disproportionate impact on our ability, willingness to speak plainly about climate change?”
And, the senator asked, “Does the oil industry exert too great an influence on our policy dealing with climate change such that you can’t answer that question?”
No, Szabo replied, adding, “I am curious if you are insinuating that I’m somehow under the influence of the oil and natural gas industry.”
Schiff had a quick reply.
“I think this whole Congress is under the influence of the oil, coal and gas industry that makes it so difficult to answer a simple question about if these are contributors to climate change,” Schiff, D-Calif., said.
Republicans control both houses of Congress. Schiff spoke at Szabo’s confirmation hearing before the GOP-run Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Szabo, who has a long record of working for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Council on Environmental Quality, would lead the agency charged with developing programs, policies and regulations aimed at curbing air pollution.
Szabo stressed how he has worked for both Democratic and Republican administrations, and has a deep understanding of the importance of good air quality.
“I will work to ensure that we are mitigating traditional air pollution,” he said in his opening statement.
He noted that “because of my lung disease, I have always been acutely aware of air quality. Growing up, I could feel the impact of poor air quality in my lungs.”
Trump has vowed to unleash more American energy by rolling back many Biden-era regulations.
“Under the Biden EPA, American energy producers were subject to a barrage of legally suspect regulations that were intended to bankrupt oil, gas, and coal companies,” said Sen. Shelley Capito, R-West Virginia, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
FIVE YEARS SINCE DAMNING REPORT, LITTLE PROGRESS
Via Kate Wolffe…
In 2019, the California State Auditor released a damning report titled “California Is Not Adequately Prepared to Protect Its Most Vulnerable Residents From Natural Disasters.” The auditor found glaring emergency preparedness gaps in wildfire response in Sonoma, Butte and Ventura Counties.
The report led to a variety of new laws, meant to improve state oversight of county emergency management.
But in 2025 during the Eaton Fire, half of Altadena residents didn’t get emergency notifications until hours after the fire started, sometimes as the fire was already working through their neighborhood. Among others, a wheelchair-bound father and son both died during the fire.
Assembly Audit Committee Chair John Harabedian, D-Pasadena, brought together a panel to discuss the 2019 report and ask why there hasn’t been more progress.
Representatives from CalOES were there, including Vance Taylor, chief of the Office of Access and Functional Needs. Taylor said CalOES isn’t a regulatory agency, and it can only issue warnings and recommendations to local jurisdictions.
“There’s no ability on our part to circle back and say ‘show us what you did on X, Y and Z,’” he said.
He added it’s up to local governments to ensure adequate plans for notifying, evacuating, and sheltering residents, and specifically caring for those with special needs.
That wasn’t enough for Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, D-Stockton, who chairs the committee on emergency management.
“It sounds like everyone’s heart is in the right place. But I’m not hearing the accountability for the local agencies, and quite honestly, I’m not hearing that we are prioritizing our response as a state through our emergency services operation,” she said.
Ransom asked what was stopping the state from having an additional warning system, to kick in if the local one fails.
“It doesn’t matter if people are getting redundant information,” she said. “I’d rather you get something twice than get nothing at all.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Tonight’s speech was a disgrace. California and the American people deserve better.”
— Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., responding to President Donald Trump’s Tuesday State of the Union address.
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