Latest news with #Villaraigosa
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
The forgotten godfather of Trump's scorched earth immigration campaign
He inveighs against illegal immigration in terms more appropriate for a vermin infestation. He wants all people without papers deported immediately, damn the cost. He thinks Los Angeles is a cesspool and that flying the Mexican flag in the United States is an act of insurrection. He uses the internet mostly to share crude videos and photos depicting Latinos as subhuman. Stephen Miller? Absolutely. But every time I hear the chief architect of Donald Trump's scorched earth immigration policies rail in uglier and uglier terms, I recall another xenophobe I hadn't thought of in awhile. For nearly 30 years, Glenn Spencer fought illegal immigration in Los Angeles and beyond with a singular obsession. The former Sherman Oaks resident kicked off his campaign, he told The Times in a 2001 profile, after seeing Latinos looting during the 1992 L.A. riots and thinking, 'Oh, my God, there are so many of them and they are so out of control.' Spencer was a key volunteer who pushed for the passage of Prop. 187, the 1994 California ballot initiative that sought to make life miserable for undocumented immigrants and was so punitive that a federal judge later ruled it unconstitutional. A multiplatform influencer before that became commonplace, Spencer hosted a local radio show, produced videos that he mailed to all members of Congress warning about an 'invasion' and turned his vitriolic newsletter into a website, American Patrol, that helped connect nativist groups across the country. American Patrol's home page was a collection of links to newspaper articles about suspected undocumented immigrants alleged to have committed crimes. While Spencer regularly trashed Muslims and other immigrants, he directed most of his bile at Mexicans. A 'Family Values' button on the website, in the colors of the Mexican flag, highlighted sex crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants. Editorial cartoons featured a Mexican flag piercing a hole in California with the caption 'Sink-hole de Mayo.' Long before conservative activists recorded themselves infiltrating the conferences of political enemies, Spencer was doing it. He provoked physical fights at protests and published reams of digital nonsense against Latino politicians, once superimposing a giant sombrero on an image of Antonio Villaraigosa with the epithet, 'Viva Mexico!' On the morning Villaraigosa, the future L.A. mayor, was to be sworn in as speaker of the assembly in 1998, every seat in the legislative chamber was topped by a flier labeling him a communist and leader of the supposed Mexican takeover of California. 'I don't remember if his name was on it, but it was all his terminology,' said Villaraigosa, who recalled how Spencer helped make his college membership in the Chicano student group MEChA an issue in his 2001 mayoral loss to Jim Hahn. 'But he never had the balls to talk to me in person.' Spencer became the Johnny Appleseed of the modern-day Know Nothing movement, lecturing to groups of middle-aged gringos about his work — first across the San Fernando Valley, then in small towns where Latinos were migrating in large numbers for the first time. 'California [it] has often been said is America's future. Let me tell you about your future,' he told the Council of Conservative Citizens in Virginia in 1999. Spencer is the person most responsible for mainstreaming the lie of Reconquista, the wacko idea that Mexicans came to the U.S. not for economic reasons but because of a plot concocted by the Mexican government to take back the lands lost in the 1848 Mexican-American War. He wrote screeds like 'Is Jew-Controlled Hollywood Brainwashing Americans?' and threatened libel lawsuits against anyone — myself included — who dared point out that he was a racist. He was a favorite punching bag of the mainstream media, a slovenly suburban Ahab doomed to fail. The Times wrote in 2001 that Spencer 'foresaw millions of converts' to his anti-immigrant campaign, 'only to see his temple founder.' Moving to southern Arizona in 2002, the better to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border, Spencer spent the rest of his life trying to sell state and federal authorities on border-monitoring technology he developed that involved planes, drones and motion-detection sensors. His move inspired other conservatives to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border on their own. By the Obama era, he was isolated even from other anti-immigrant activists for extremist views like banning foreign-language media and insisting that every person who came to this country illegally was a drug smuggler. Even the rise of Trump didn't bring Spencer and his work back into the limelight. He was so forgotten that I didn't even realize he was dead until Googling his name recently, after enduring another Miller rant. Spencer's hometown Sierra Vista's Herald Review was the only publication I found that made any note of his death from cancer in 2022 at age 85, describing his life's work as bringing 'the crisis of illegal immigration to the forefront of the American public's consciousness.' That's a whitewash worthy of Tom Sawyer's picket fence. We live in Glenn Spencer's world, a place where the nastier the rhetoric against illegal immigration and the crueler the government's efforts against all migrants, the better. Every time a xenophobe makes Latinos out to be an invading force, every time someone posts a racist message on social media or Miller throws another tantrum on Fox News, Glenn Spencer gets his evil wings. Spencer 'stood out among a vile swamp of racists and crackpots like a tornado supercell on radar,' said Brian Levin, chair of the California Civil Rights Department's Commission on the State of Hate and founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, who monitored American Patrol for years. 'What's frightening now is that hate like his used to be well-segregated from the mainstream. Now, the guardrails are off, and what Spencer advocated for is federal policy.' I first found out about Spencer in 1999 as a student activist at Chapman University. Spencer applauded the Anaheim Union High School District's decision to sue Mexico for the cost of educating undocumented immigrants' children, describing those of us who opposed it as communists — when he was being nice. His American Patrol described MEChA, which I, like Villaraigosa, belonged to, as a 'scourge' and a 'sickness.' His website was disgusting, but it became a must-read of mine. I knew even then that ignoring hate allows it to fester, and I wanted to figure out why people like Spencer despised people like me, my family and my friends. So I regularly covered him and his allies in my early years as a reporter with an obsession that was a reverse mirror of his. Colleagues and even activists said my work was a waste of time — that people like Spencer were wheezing artifacts who would eventually disappear as the U.S. embraced Latinos and immigrants. And here we are. Spencer usually sent me legal threats whenever I wrote about his ugly ways — threats that went nowhere. That's why I was surprised at how relatively polite he was the last time we communicated, in 2019. I reached out via email asking for an interview for a Times podcast I hosted about the 25th anniversary of Prop. 187. By then, Spencer was openly criticizing Trump's planned border wall, which he found a waste of money and not nearly as efficient as his own system. Spencer initially said he would consider my request, while sending me an article he wrote that blamed Prop. 187's demise on then-California Gov. Gray Davis and Mexico's president at the time, Ernesto Zedillo. When I followed up a few months later, Spencer bragged about the legacy of his website, which he hadn't regularly updated since 2013 due to declining health. The American Patrol archives 'would convince the casual observer that The Times did what it could do [to] defeat my efforts and advance the cause of illegal immigration,' Spencer wrote. 'Do I think The Times has changed its spots? No. Will I agree to an interview? No.' Levin hadn't heard about Spencer's death until we talked. 'I thought he went into irrelevance,' he admitted with a chuckle that he quickly cut off, realizing he had forgotten about Spencer's legacy in the era of Trump. 'We ignored that cough, that speck in the X-ray,' Levin concluded, now somber. 'And now, we have cancer.'
Business Wire
05-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Ellis George LLP: Proven Problem Solver, Gubernatorial Candidate Villaraigosa Stands on First Amendment to Fight Trademark Suit by Political Rival
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Democratic California Gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles Mayor and Speaker of the California Assembly, demanded in a court filing (Case No. 2:25-cv-03790) the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking to prevent him from using the phrase 'proven problem solver' in his campaign for California governor. 'Cloobeck's lawsuit is without merit, and his shotgun attempt to register a trademark on some 70 phrases is an insult to the First Amendment." Share In his motion to dismiss filed by Ellis George LLP, Century City, CA, Mr. Villaraigosa says the commonly used phrase 'proven problem solver' is not subject to trademark protection and that preventing him from using the phrase infringes on his rights under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Political opponent Stephen Cloobeck earlier filed to try to trademark the phrase, 'I am a proven problem solver,' and filed his trademark infringement lawsuit against Mr. Villaraigosa and Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2026 on April 29, 2025. Additionally, in preparing the filing, attorneys for Mr. Villaraigosa uncovered a number of occasions, sometimes sordid, where Mr. Cloobeck has used the courts and legal system in an attempt to weaken political, business and even personal rivals. Villaraigosa lawyer Eric M. George stated: 'Cloobeck's lawsuit is without merit, and his shotgun attempt to register a trademark on some 70 phrases is an insult to the First Amendment. Commonly-used words, phrases, speech that are part of political debate and elections cannot be trademarked. Californians are entitled to and deserve robust public debate from candidates when electing a governor.' According to the brief filed by Villaraigosa, '(U)nder Mr. Cloobeck's urged scenario, Mr. Villaraigosa would be violating a court order by describing himself as a 'proven problem solver' in a press conference, in campaign literature, in response to a journalist's questions, or in a campaign debate. To such draconian requests, Mr. Villaraigosa responds: 'Not in this country. Not under our First Amendment—no matter the bullying or wealth used in an attempt to silence a candidate for elected office. And not in keeping with anything I have witnessed during my more than 30 years of public service-including as Mayor of Los Angeles and as Speaker of the Assembly.'' In disputing Mr. Cloobeck's claim on the 'proven problem solver' phrase, Mr. Villaraigosa's brief cites countless instances over prior decades in which politicians before him have used the phrase in speeches, campaign materials and interviews. Mr. Villaraigosa's brief also notes that Mr. Cloobeck's suit is part of a pattern of frivolous litigation to drain rivals of finance and resources. In a text to Mr. Villaraigosa, Mr. Cloobeck said he was prepared to fight this case 'to the Supreme Court… which has been my consistent business practice for decades upon decades.' Mr. Villaraigosa and his campaign seek to have the trademark suit dismissed immediately. About Ellis George LLP Ellis George LLP is an elite litigation and trial firm based in Los Angeles and with offices in San Francisco and New York. Whether plaintiff or defendant, individual, Fortune 500 corporation or entrepreneur, clients call upon Ellis George when seeking litigation counsel of the highest quality, creativity, dedication, and ethics. Visit for more information.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ellis George LLP: Proven Problem Solver, Gubernatorial Candidate Villaraigosa Stands on First Amendment to Fight Trademark Suit by Political Rival
Cites violation of free speech and history of legal bad-behavior LOS ANGELES, June 05, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Democratic California Gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles Mayor and Speaker of the California Assembly, demanded in a court filing (Case No. 2:25-cv-03790) the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking to prevent him from using the phrase "proven problem solver" in his campaign for California governor. In his motion to dismiss filed by Ellis George LLP, Century City, CA, Mr. Villaraigosa says the commonly used phrase "proven problem solver" is not subject to trademark protection and that preventing him from using the phrase infringes on his rights under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Political opponent Stephen Cloobeck earlier filed to try to trademark the phrase, "I am a proven problem solver," and filed his trademark infringement lawsuit against Mr. Villaraigosa and Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2026 on April 29, 2025. Additionally, in preparing the filing, attorneys for Mr. Villaraigosa uncovered a number of occasions, sometimes sordid, where Mr. Cloobeck has used the courts and legal system in an attempt to weaken political, business and even personal rivals. Villaraigosa lawyer Eric M. George stated: "Cloobeck's lawsuit is without merit, and his shotgun attempt to register a trademark on some 70 phrases is an insult to the First Amendment. Commonly-used words, phrases, speech that are part of political debate and elections cannot be trademarked. Californians are entitled to and deserve robust public debate from candidates when electing a governor." According to the brief filed by Villaraigosa, "(U)nder Mr. Cloobeck's urged scenario, Mr. Villaraigosa would be violating a court order by describing himself as a 'proven problem solver' in a press conference, in campaign literature, in response to a journalist's questions, or in a campaign debate. To such draconian requests, Mr. Villaraigosa responds: 'Not in this country. Not under our First Amendment—no matter the bullying or wealth used in an attempt to silence a candidate for elected office. And not in keeping with anything I have witnessed during my more than 30 years of public service-including as Mayor of Los Angeles and as Speaker of the Assembly.'" In disputing Mr. Cloobeck's claim on the "proven problem solver" phrase, Mr. Villaraigosa's brief cites countless instances over prior decades in which politicians before him have used the phrase in speeches, campaign materials and interviews. Mr. Villaraigosa's brief also notes that Mr. Cloobeck's suit is part of a pattern of frivolous litigation to drain rivals of finance and resources. In a text to Mr. Villaraigosa, Mr. Cloobeck said he was prepared to fight this case "to the Supreme Court… which has been my consistent business practice for decades upon decades." Mr. Villaraigosa and his campaign seek to have the trademark suit dismissed immediately. About Ellis George LLP Ellis George LLP is an elite litigation and trial firm based in Los Angeles and with offices in San Francisco and New York. Whether plaintiff or defendant, individual, Fortune 500 corporation or entrepreneur, clients call upon Ellis George when seeking litigation counsel of the highest quality, creativity, dedication, and ethics. Visit for more information. View source version on Contacts Media Contact:Jim Goldman, GoldmanMediaGroup, for Ellis George LLPinfo@ 408-427-4349 Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Villaraigosa, despite climate credentials, pivots toward oil industry in run for governor
As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state's struggling oil industry. Villaraigosa's work to expand mass transit, plant trees and reduce carbon emissions made him a favorite of the environmental movement, but the former state Assembly speaker also accepted more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from oil companies and other donors tied to the industry over more than three decades in public life, according to city and state fundraising disclosures reviewed by The Times. Since entering the race last year to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, Villaraigosa has accepted more than $176,000 from donors with ties to the oil industry, including from a company that operates oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and in Los Angeles County, the disclosures show. The clash between Villaraigosa's environmentalist credentials and oil-industry ties surfaced in the governor's race after Valero announced in late April that its Bay Area refinery would close next year, not long after Phillips 66 said its Wilmington refinery would close in 2025. Villaraigosa is now warning that California drivers could see gas prices soar, blasting as "absurd" policies that he said could have led to the refinery closures. "I'm not fighting for refineries," Villaraigosa said in an interview. "I'm fighting for the people who pay for gas in this state." The refineries are a sore spot for Newsom and for California Democrats, pitting their environmental goals against concerns about the rising cost of living and two of the state's most powerful interest groups — organized labor and environmentalists — against each other. Villaraigosa said Democrats are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in their approach to fighting climate change. He said he hoped no more refineries would close until the state hits more electrification milestones, including building more transmission lines, green-energy storage systems and charging stations for electric cars. The only way for the state to reach "net zero" emissions, he said, is an "all-of-the-above" approach that includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear power and oil and gas. "The notion that we're not going to do that is poppycock," Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa's vocal support for the oil industry has upset some environmental groups that saw him as a longtime ally. "I'm honestly shocked at just how bad it is," said RL Miller, the president of Climate Hawks Vote and the chair of the California Democratic Party's environmental caucus, of the contributions Villaraigosa has accepted since entering the race in July. Miller said Villaraigosa signed a pledge during his unsuccessful run for governor in 2018 not to accept campaign contributions from oil companies and "named executives" at fossil-fuel entities. She said he took the pledge shortly after accepting the maximum allowable contributions from several oil donors in 2017. Miller said that more than $100,000 in donations that Villaraigosa has accepted in this gubernatorial cycle were clear violations of the pledge. That included contributions from the state's largest oil and gas producer, California Resources Corp. and its subsidiaries, as well as the founder of Rocky Mountain Resources, a leader of the oil company Berry Corp., and Excalibur Well Services. "This is bear-hugging the oil industry," she said. Environmental activists view the pledge as binding for future campaigns. Villaraigosa said he has not signed it for this campaign. The economy is dramatically different than it was in 2018, Villaraigosa said, and working-class Americans are being hammered, which he said was a major factor in recent Democratic losses. "We're losing working people, particularly working people who don't have a college education," he said. "Why are we losing them? The cost of living, the cost of gas, the cost of utilities, the cost of groceries." Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, said such statements are consistent with Villaraigosa's messaging in recent years. "Villaraigosa is squarely in the moderate lane in the governor's race. That doomed him in 2018, when voters wanted to counterbalance President Trump and Villaraigosa was outflanked by Newsom," Kousser said. "But today, even some Democrats may want to counterbalance the direction that they see Sacramento taking, especially when it comes to cost-of-living issues and the price of gas." He added that the fossil-fuel donations may not be the basis for Villaraigosa's apparent embrace of oil and gas priorities. "When a politician takes campaign contributions from an industry and also takes positions that favor it, that raises the possibility of corruption, of money influencing votes," Kousser said. "But it is also possible that it was the politician's own approach to an issue that attracted the contributions, that their votes attracted money but were not in any way corrupted by it. That may be the case here, where Villaraigosa has held fairly consistent positions on this issue and consistently attracted support from an industry because of those positions." Other Democrats in the 2026 governor's race, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former state Controller Betty Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, have signed the pledge not to accept contributions from oil industry interests, Miller said. Former California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and businessman Stephen Cloobeck have not. (Cloobeck has never run for office before and has not been asked to sign.) Other gubernatorial candidates have also accepted fossil-fuel contributions, although in smaller numbers than Villaraigosa, state and federal filings show. Becerra accepted contributions from Chevron and California Resources Corp., formerly Occidental Petroleum, while running for attorney general. Atkins took donations from Chevron, Occidental and a trade group for oil companies while running for state Assembly and state Senate. And while running for lieutenant governor, Kounalakis took contributions from executives at oil and mining companies. Campaign representatives for the two main Republican candidates in the race, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, said they welcomed oil-industry donations. Villaraigosa is a fierce defender of his environmental record dating back to his first years as an elected official in the California Assembly. As mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, Villaraigosa set new goals to reduce emissions at the Port of Los Angeles, end the use of coal-burning power plants and shift the city's energy generation toward solar, wind and geothermal sources. The child of a woman who relied on Metro buses, he also branded himself the "transportation mayor." Villaraigosa was a vocal champion for the 2008 sales tax increase that provided the first funding for the extension of the Wilshire Boulevard subway to the Westside. But, he said, Democrats in 2025 have to be realistic that the refinery closures and their goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions could disproportionately affect low-income residents who are already struggling to make ends meet. Villaraigosa's comments underscore a broader divide among Democrats about how to fight climate change without making California even more expensive, or driving out more high-paying jobs that don't require a college education. Lorena Gonzalez, a former state lawmaker who became the leader of the California Labor Federation in 2022, said that while climate change is a real threat, so is shutting down refineries. "That's a threat to those workers' jobs and lives, and it's also a threat to the price of gas," Gonzalez said. California is not currently positioned to end its reliance on fossil fuels, she said. If the state reduces its refining capacity, she said, it will have to rely on exports from nations that have less environmental and labor safeguards. 'Anyone running for governor has to acknowledge that,' Gonzalez said. Villaraigosa said that while the loss of union jobs at Valero's Bay Area refinery worried him, his primary concern was over the cost of gasoline and household budgets. His comments come as California prepares to square off yet again against the Trump administration over its environmental policies. The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to revoke a federal waiver that allowed California to set its own vehicle emission standards, including a rule that would have ultimately banned the sale of new gas-fueled cars in 2035. Villaraigosa denounced the vote, but said that efforts to fight climate change can't come at the expense of working-class Americans. President Trump has also declared a national energy emergency, calling for increased fossil-fuel production, eliminating environmental reviews and the fast-tracking of projects in potentially sensitive ecosystems and habitats. The Trump administration is also targeting California's environmental standards. Villaraigosa, an Eastside native, started his career as a labor organizer and rose to speaker of the state Assembly before becoming the mayor of Los Angeles. Now 72, Villaraigosa has not held elected office for more than a decade; he finished a distant third in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. Over the years, donors affiliated with the fossil-fuel industry have contributed more than $1 million to Villaraigosa's political campaigns and his nonprofit causes, including an after-school program, the city's sports and entertainment commission and an effort to reduce violence by providing programming at city parks during summer nights, according to city and state disclosures. More than half of the contributions and support for Villaraigosa's pet causes, over $582,000, came during his years at Los Angeles City Hall as a council member and mayor. In 2008, billionaire oil and gas magnate T. Boone Pickens donated $150,000 to a city proposition backed by Villaraigosa that levied a new tax on phone and internet use. Pickens made the donation as his company was vying for business at the port of Los Angeles, which is overseen by mayoral appointees and was seeking to reduce emissions by replacing diesel-powered trucks with vehicles fueled by liquid natural gas. The rest of the contributions and other financial support flowed to Villaraigosa's campaign accounts and affiliated committees while he served in the Assembly and during his two gubernatorial runs. These figures do not include donations to independent expenditure committees, since candidates cannot legally be involved in those efforts. Villaraigosa said that while such voters don't subscribe to Republicans' "drill, baby, drill" ethos, he slammed the Democratic Party's focus on such matters and Trump instead of kitchen-table issues. "The cost of everything we're doing is on the backs of the people who work the hardest and who make the least, and that's why so many of them — even when we were saying Trump is a threat to democracy — they were saying, yeah, but what about my gas prices, grocery prices, the cost of eggs?" he said. Times staff writer Sandra McDonald in Sacramento contributed to this report. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
26-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Villaraigosa, despite climate credentials, pivots toward oil industry in run for governor
As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state's struggling oil industry. Villaraigosa's work to expand mass transit, plant trees and reduce carbon emissions made him a favorite of the environmental movement, but the former state Assembly speaker also accepted more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from oil companies and other donors tied to the industry over more than three decades in public life, according to city and state fundraising disclosures reviewed by The Times. Since entering the race last year to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, Villaraigosa has accepted more than $176,000 from donors with ties to the oil industry, including from a company that operates oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and in Los Angeles County, the disclosures show. The clash between Villaraigosa's environmentalist credentials and oil-industry ties surfaced in the governor's race after Valero announced in late April that its Bay Area refinery would close next year, not long after Phillips 66 said its Wilmington refinery would close in 2025. Villaraigosa is now warning that California drivers could see gas prices soar, blasting as 'absurd' policies that he said could have led to the refinery closures. 'I'm not fighting for refineries,' Villaraigosa said in an interview. 'I'm fighting for the people who pay for gas in this state.' The refineries are a sore spot for Newsom and for California Democrats, pitting their environmental goals against concerns about the rising cost of living and two of the state's most powerful interest groups — organized labor and environmentalists — against each other. Villaraigosa said Democrats are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in their approach to fighting climate change. He said he hoped no more refineries would close until the state hits more electrification milestones, including building more transmission lines, green-energy storage systems and charging stations for electric cars. The only way for the state to reach 'net zero' emissions, he said, is an 'all-of-the-above' approach that includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear power and oil and gas. 'The notion that we're not going to do that is poppycock,' Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa's vocal support for the oil industry has upset some environmental groups that saw him as a longtime ally. 'I'm honestly shocked at just how bad it is,' said RL Miller, the president of Climate Hawks Vote and the chair of the California Democratic Party's environmental caucus, of the contributions Villaraigosa has accepted since entering the race in July. Miller said Villaraigosa signed a pledge during his unsuccessful run for governor in 2018 not to accept campaign contributions from oil companies and 'named executives' at fossil-fuel entities. She said he took the pledge shortly after accepting the maximum allowable contributions from several oil donors in 2017. Miller said that more than $100,000 in donations that Villaraigosa has accepted in this gubernatorial cycle were clear violations of the pledge. That included contributions from the state's largest oil and gas producer, California Resources Corp. and its subsidiaries, as well as the founder of Rocky Mountain Resources, a leader of the oil company Berry Corp., and Excalibur Well Services. 'This is bear-hugging the oil industry,' she said. Environmental activists view the pledge as binding for future campaigns. Villaraigosa said he has not signed it for this campaign. The economy is dramatically different than it was in 2018, Villaraigosa said, and working-class Americans are being hammered, which he said was a major factor in recent Democratic losses. 'We're losing working people, particularly working people who don't have a college education,' he said. 'Why are we losing them? The cost of living, the cost of gas, the cost of utilities, the cost of groceries.' Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, said such statements are consistent with Villaraigosa's messaging in recent years. 'Villaraigosa is squarely in the moderate lane in the governor's race. That doomed him in 2018, when voters wanted to counterbalance President Trump and Villaraigosa was outflanked by Newsom,' Kousser said. 'But today, even some Democrats may want to counterbalance the direction that they see Sacramento taking, especially when it comes to cost-of-living issues and the price of gas.' He added that the fossil-fuel donations may not be the basis for Villaraigosa's apparent embrace of oil and gas priorities. 'When a politician takes campaign contributions from an industry and also takes positions that favor it, that raises the possibility of corruption, of money influencing votes,' Kousser said. 'But it is also possible that it was the politician's own approach to an issue that attracted the contributions, that their votes attracted money but were not in any way corrupted by it. That may be the case here, where Villaraigosa has held fairly consistent positions on this issue and consistently attracted support from an industry because of those positions.' Other Democrats in the 2026 governor's race, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former state Controller Betty Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, have signed the pledge not to accept contributions from oil industry interests, Miller said. Former California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and businessman Stephen Cloobeck have not. (Cloobeck has never run for office before and has not been asked to sign.) Other gubernatorial candidates have also accepted fossil-fuel contributions, although in smaller numbers than Villaraigosa, state and federal filings show. Becerra accepted contributions from Chevron and California Resources Corp., formerly Occidental Petroleum, while running for attorney general. Atkins took donations from Chevron, Occidental and a trade group for oil companies while running for state Assembly and state Senate. And while running for lieutenant governor, Kounalakis took contributions from executives at oil and mining companies. Campaign representatives for the two main Republican candidates in the race, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, said they welcomed oil-industry donations. Villaraigosa is a fierce defender of his environmental record dating back to his first years as an elected official in the California Assembly. As mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, Villaraigosa set new goals to reduce emissions at the Port of Los Angeles, end the use of coal-burning power plants and shift the city's energy generation toward solar, wind and geothermal sources. The child of a woman who relied on Metro buses, he also branded himself the 'transportation mayor.' Villaraigosa was a vocal champion for the 2008 sales tax increase that provided the first funding for the extension of the Wilshire Boulevard subway to the Westside. But, he said, Democrats in 2025 have to be realistic that the refinery closures and their goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions could disproportionately affect low-income residents who are already struggling to make ends meet. Villaraigosa's comments underscore a broader divide among Democrats about how to fight climate change without making California even more expensive, or driving out more high-paying jobs that don't require a college education. Lorena Gonzalez, a former state lawmaker who became the leader of the California Labor Federation in 2022, said that while climate change is a real threat, so is shutting down refineries. 'That's a threat to those workers' jobs and lives, and it's also a threat to the price of gas,' Gonzalez said. California is not currently positioned to end its reliance on fossil fuels, she said. If the state reduces its refining capacity, she said, it will have to rely on exports from nations that have less environmental and labor safeguards. 'Anyone running for governor has to acknowledge that,' Gonzalez said. Villaraigosa said that while the loss of union jobs at Valero's Bay Area refinery worried him, his primary concern was over the cost of gasoline and household budgets. His comments come as California prepares to square off yet again against the Trump administration over its environmental policies. The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to revoke a federal waiver that allowed California to set its own vehicle emission standards, including a rule that would have ultimately banned the sale of new gas-fueled cars in 2035. Villaraigosa denounced the vote, but said that efforts to fight climate change can't come at the expense of working-class Americans. President Trump has also declared a national energy emergency, calling for increased fossil-fuel production, eliminating environmental reviews and the fast-tracking of projects in potentially sensitive ecosystems and habitats. The Trump administration is also targeting California's environmental standards. Villaraigosa, an Eastside native, started his career as a labor organizer and rose to speaker of the state Assembly before becoming the mayor of Los Angeles. Now 72, Villaraigosa has not held elected office for more than a decade; he finished a distant third in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. Over the years, donors affiliated with the fossil-fuel industry have contributed more than $1 million to Villaraigosa's political campaigns and his nonprofit causes, including an after-school program, the city's sports and entertainment commission and an effort to reduce violence by providing programming at city parks during summer nights, according to city and state disclosures. More than half of the contributions and support for Villaraigosa's pet causes, over $582,000, came during his years at Los Angeles City Hall as a council member and mayor. In 2008, billionaire oil and gas magnate T. Boone Pickens donated $150,000 to a city proposition backed by Villaraigosa that levied a new tax on phone and internet use. Pickens made the donation as his company was vying for business at the port of Los Angeles, which is overseen by mayoral appointees and was seeking to reduce emissions by replacing diesel-powered trucks with vehicles fueled by liquid natural gas. The rest of the contributions and other financial support flowed to Villaraigosa's campaign accounts and affiliated committees while he served in the Assembly and during his two gubernatorial runs. These figures do not include donations to independent expenditure committees, since candidates cannot legally be involved in those efforts. Villaraigosa said that while such voters don't subscribe to Republicans' 'drill, baby, drill' ethos, he slammed the Democratic Party's focus on such matters and Trump instead of kitchen-table issues. 'The cost of everything we're doing is on the backs of the people who work the hardest and who make the least, and that's why so many of them — even when we were saying Trump is a threat to democracy — they were saying, yeah, but what about my gas prices, grocery prices, the cost of eggs?' he said. Times staff writer Sandra McDonald in Sacramento contributed to this report.
