California Underground: Your Sane Insight into California Politics

Gavin Newsom said his administration's diaper deal with Baby2Baby — a nonprofit tied to his wife's own foundation — was competitively bid. California's own contract database says it wasn't.

This week: the receipts on the $6.2 million diaper contract, Newsom's affair resurfaces, Sheng Thao crime story continues to expand, and why the Attorney General's rewritten ballot title for the voter ID initiative has people on both sides raising eyebrows. Plus a quick note on the new essay resurfacing one of Newsom's oldest City Hall scandals.

Phil is joined this week by guest co-host Randy Wang (KABC Radio).

Read more from Phil in his upcoming book, The Gilded State: thegildedstate.com

Gavin Newsom says he'll campaign for any Democratic nominee heading into 2028 — but his team went quiet when asked if that includes candidates from a self-described "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist" caucus. This week: what Newsom actually said, what he wouldn't answer, and what it means for his national ambitions.

Also on the show: Katie Porter was a frontrunner for governor a year ago. She just finished fifth with 4.4% of the vote — and says she's done with politics.

California Underground airs every Tuesday at 8PM PST on YouTube.

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California Underground covers the California stories the rest of the media ignores— following the audits, the contracts, the budgets, and the officials responsiblefor outcomes that aren't matching the promises. No team. Just receipts.

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📌 Sources:

• Washington Examiner — "Newsom defends backing socialist candidates, calling party divides 'healthy'": https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4644566/gavin-newsom-backing-socialist-candidates-party-divides-healthy/
• Washington Examiner — "Katie Porter 'done' with politics and focusing on Instagram book content": https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/state/4653306/katie-porter-quits-politics-book-instagram/
• Yahoo News — "Katie Porter says she's done with politics after failed governor bid": https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/katie-porter-says-she-done-040528602.html
• FOX 11 Los Angeles — "LAHSA delays release of 2026 homeless count results": https://www.foxla.com/news/lahsa-delays-release-2026-homeless-count-results

This week, Phil is joined by guest co-host Randy Wang of KABC Radio for three stories out of Sacramento and LA that all come down to the same question: who's actually accountable when the numbers don't add up?

First, the documented timeline behind the FBI's investigation into Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson — including new reporting that an informant was recording conversations inside Newsom's political circle a full year before Trump returned to office, and how the case reaches back to a dormant campaign account belonging to Xavier Becerra, the Democratic nominee for governor.

Then, California Attorney General Rob Bonta's lawsuit to block the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger — filed a month after the U.S. Department of Justice cleared the same deal. Phil and Randy dig into the split between LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath's push to protect entertainment jobs from the merger and new reporting that Paramount's own advisers are now discussing whether to move the company out of California entirely.

Finally, LA County's decision to strip $300 million in homeless services funding from LAHSA after an independent audit found the agency couldn't verify how $2.3 billion was actually spent — and whether handing the same money to a brand-new department solves the problem or just renames it.

Three stories, one hour, no political team — just the documents.

California Underground airs live every Tuesday at 8PM PST on YouTube, with the full episode available here on your podcast app afterward.

Read The Gilded State, Phil's book on California's political dysfunction: www.thegildedstate.com

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California's proposed billionaire tax says it will raise $100 billion for healthcare, food assistance, and education. New research from Stanford's Hoover Institution puts the real number closer to $40 billion — and argues the measure could leave the state worse off once billionaire departures are factored in.

This week, Phil talks with Hoover Institution research fellow Benjamin Robert Jaros, co-author of that research, about the mechanics of Proposition 40, the migration numbers driving the disagreement, and what it means for California voters this November.

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Get early access to The Gilded State, Phil's upcoming book on California politics: www.thegildedstate.com

Spencer Pratt is calling Karen Bass "Karen Basura" over the Boyle Heights warehouse fire — and while his delivery is pure reality TV, the documented $17.6 million fire department budget cut he's pointing to is real. We dig into the permit history, the budget records, and why the firefighters' union is now bypassing City Hall to ask voters directly for funding.

Then: Gavin Newsom wants a national billionaire tax as part of his "economic reset for America" — in the same week he's voting no on the billionaire tax already on California's own November ballot. We break down the contradiction, what his own state's nonpartisan analyst says about billionaires leaving, and why members of his own party are calling his federal plan watered down.

No team. Just receipts.

Phil's book, The Gilded State, digs deeper into how California's political class operates — find it at www.thegildedstate.com.

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Democrats have held this San Bernardino County Assembly seat since 2022. This week, theRepublican trying to flip it joins us to make his case.

Greg Abdouch advanced to the November general election in California's AssemblyDistrict 45, and he's betting he can do what no Republican challenger has managed inthis district in years. We sit down with him to find out how — pushing past thecampaign talking points to get specifics on public safety, housing, and what itactually looks like for one freshman Republican to move anything in a Democraticsupermajority Legislature.

No team. Just receipts.

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Federal agents are knocking on the doors of Governor Gavin Newsom's family friends and former employees. Newsom says Trump ordered the investigation to derail his 2028 presidential run. The LA Times says the probe started under Biden — launched by whistleblowers in Sacramento, not directed from Washington. Tonight Phil and Camille separate what's confirmed from what's spin, and get into the documented financial questions about Jennifer Siebel Newsom's nonprofits that predate this administration.

California Underground airs live every Tuesday at 8PM PST on YouTube.

Sources: CBS News, Time Magazine, LA Times, CalMatters, KQED, Axios San Diego, NBC News

Phil is writing a book about California's political dysfunction — early access at www.thegildedstate.com

California held its primary election a week ago and we still don't have a governor or a Los Angeles mayor. Here's why — and why none of it is as simple as either side is telling you.

This week Phil and Camille break down everything happening with California's election system in real time. How does counting actually work in the largest voting state in the country, and why does it take so long? What are "ballot dumps" — and are they actually suspicious? What does documented voter fraud in California really look like? And what could genuinely fix a system that produced 23% turnout after mailing a ballot to every single registered voter?

They also cover the two races still being decided as this episode airs: the governor's race, where Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton have now been projected to advance — and the story of how Becerra went from 3% polling in March to first place; and the LA Mayor's race, where Spencer Pratt held a 40,000-vote lead on election night and watched it disappear over six days as Nithya Raman overtook him to face Karen Bass in November.

Plus: the viral claim that Pratt received zero votes in a 24,000-ballot dump — debunked by Trump's own Justice Department. The Voter ID proposition headed to your November ballot. And the live Supreme Court case that could change how California counts votes before November even arrives.

No spin. No team. Just the numbers.

New episodes every Tuesday at 8PM PST, live on YouTube.

Subscribe to the newsletter at caunderground.substack.com

Phil is also writing The Gilded State — a book about how California became the most expensive, least accountable state in America. Early access and updates at www.thegildedstate.com

California just voted — and the governor's race is shaping up as a matchup nobody fully predicted: Steve Hilton, former Fox News host and Trump-endorsed candidate, leading with roughly 28% in early returns, and Xavier Becerra, Biden's HHS secretary, holding second at around 25%. With ballots still being counted through June 9, the second-place slot isn't fully locked — but the likely November choice for California's next governor is coming into focus.

This week Phil and Camille break down three stories from Tuesday's primary. On the governor's race: how a field of 60 candidates produced these two as the probable finalists, what Hilton and Becerra each actually stand for, and what a Republican governor in California — something the state hasn't seen since 2006 — would actually mean. On Los Angeles: Karen Bass advanced to the November runoff, but she got 35% of the vote in a city she currently runs, with Spencer Pratt five points behind her. Whatever happens when the second-place count finalizes, a majority of LA voters wanted someone else. And in San Diego: CA-48 was one of five congressional seats Gavin Newsom redrew under Prop 50 specifically for Democrats to win. The Republican candidate just dominated the primary in a district that now has a 10-point Democratic registration advantage. The Prop 50 promise is getting its first real test — and the early returns aren't encouraging.

No spin. No teams. Just what the numbers actually show.

New episodes every Tuesday at 8PM PST, live on YouTube.

Subscribe to the Substack at caunderground.substack.com for written analysis between episodes.

Phil is also writing The Gilded State — a book on California's broken political machine. Early signups at www.thegildedstate.com.

One week before the June 2nd California primary, we brought in five guests across the political spectrum to break down every race that matters.

The governor's race is in chaos. Eric Swalwell resigned from Congress in April — his name is still on the ballot — and Democrats are splitting their vote five ways while Republicans have largely consolidated behind two candidates. There's a real scenario where no Democrat makes it to November. We get into the lockout math, where every candidate stands with seven days to go, and what a Republican on the November ballot would mean for California.

Then we go down-ballot to the races most Californians are sleeping on — starting with the insurance commissioner, a wide-open seat that could affect your home insurance rates more than any governor ever will. With Ricardo Lara term-limited and the wildfire insurance crisis still unresolved, this race has real stakes. We also cover the attorney general contest and the congressional seats that could determine the House majority.

And we close with the bigger question: what does it say about California that the party holding unified control of state government for over a decade couldn't produce a frontrunner — and is now genuinely nervous about being locked out of its own governor's race?

Joining Phil and Camille tonight: Kyle Campbell from Politically Basic, Susan Collins, and Tess Abraham from California Conversation.

California Underground covers California politics straight — no tribal framing, no spin. Just the story, the numbers, and why it matters to the people actually living here.

New episodes every Tuesday at 8PM PST on YouTube.

📬 Subscribe on Substack: https://caunderground.substack.com/🌐 The Gilded State: www.thegildedstate.com