California's Single-Party Rule Produces Unaccountable, Wasteful Government That Should Not Be Replicated Nationally
Source: Chris Bray. "CA Scandal Reveals How It's Governed Under Single-Party Rule." October 13, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author says California's government wastes money and avoids real accountability, pointing to high-speed rail consultants spending taxpayer money on nightclubs and first-class flights, and to homelessness spending nobody can track. He blames one-party Democratic control and warns that putting California officials in national office would spread this to the whole country.
Conclusion
California's single-party Democratic governance produces chronic waste, fraud, and a lack of accountability, and electing California officials to national office would bring this style of government to the whole country.
Premises
- California's High-Speed Rail Authority consultants used hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds on gyms, a nightclub, an escape room, a tiki bar, a cigar lounge, and first-class flights, in violation of contracts and policies.
- The oversight board's response was weak: it limited the CEO's contract-approval power but did not terminate the contractors, did not grill executives for failing to catch the abuse, and includes members (such as Lynn Schenk, on the board since 2003) who express outrage despite long tenure.
- The Authority is introducing basic internal financial controls in 2026, more than a decade after construction began in 2015 and three decades after its 1996 creation, with no track or trains, and its media office answered a press inquiry by repeating the CEO's statement.
- Similar patterns appear elsewhere in California: LAHSA, created in 1993, is only now reviewing how to strengthen its financial practices while a contractor pleads guilty to federal fraud; a city-acquired motel sits empty and gutted; and the state auditor could not determine where $24 billion in homelessness funding went or what it accomplished.
- In each case, money is spent without clear accountability, and the response is new procedures and statements rather than consequences or results.
Assumptions
- The failures described are caused by single-party Democratic rule rather than by factors common to large bureaucracies in any state or party.
- A handful of anecdotes (high-speed rail, LAHSA, a motel, homelessness funding) are representative of California government as a whole.
- Accountability mechanisms like multiparty competition would have prevented or corrected these failures.
- California officials running for national office would replicate California's governance model federally.
- The delay in implementing financial controls indicates institutional dysfunction rather than ordinary reform after an audit.