MICHAEL E. GATES

Why Thrive LA endorses MICHAEL

California's Attorney General is the state's top law enforcement officer: the person responsible for prosecuting serious crime, protecting consumers, defending the state constitution, and holding government accountable for how it spends taxpayer money. By every meaningful measure, incumbent Rob Bonta has failed at this job. Bonta has used the office not as a law enforcement platform but as a launchpad for partisan politics. While violent crime, retail theft, and open-air drug markets spread across California's cities, Bonta focused his energy on filing politically motivated lawsuits, targeting ideological opponents, and aligning himself with the activist left's "care-first" agenda that treats enforcement as a dirty word. He opposed Proposition 36, the landmark ballot measure voters overwhelmingly passed to restore accountability for repeat theft and drug offenses. He slow-walked implementation even after voters spoke. He has treated law enforcement officers as adversaries rather than partners, alienating the very agencies the Attorney General is supposed to lead. Bonta's judgment and associations raise even graver concerns. He has a well-documented relationship with David and Andy Duong, the father-son duo at the center of the FBI probe that ensnared former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. Bonta helped solicit $3.4 million from a state agency to fund a biodiesel plant proposed by a businessman already being sued for allegedly defrauding investors. The plant was never built, despite the expenditure of nearly $700,000 in state funds. His reelection campaign has spent nearly $500,000 on personal attorneys related to the FBI inquiry. No wrongdoing has been proven, but the pattern of association and the scale of legal spending speak for themselves. Californians deserve an Attorney General who is investigating fraud, not retaining lawyers to navigate it. Michael E. Gates is the alternative California desperately needs. Gates served as Huntington Beach City Attorney for over a decade (2014 to 2025), where he built a record that any law-and-order candidate would envy. He created the city's first local criminal prosecution program targeting quality-of-life crimes, a program that delivered double-digit reductions in crime. He then joined the U.S. Department of Justice as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, adding federal law enforcement experience to an already deep résumé. He holds a JD from Chapman University and a bachelor's degree from Pepperdine University. Gates's endorsement list tells you everything about his priorities. He carries the backing of more than a dozen law enforcement associations, including the Huntington Beach Police Officers' Association, the Deputy Sheriffs' Association of San Diego County, the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, the Burbank Police Officers' Association, the Pomona Police Officers' Association, and the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, among others. Multiple sheriffs have endorsed him by name, including Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni, and Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood. Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and former California Attorney General Dan Lungren have also endorsed. On the fiscal side, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association PAC backs Gates, a signal of his commitment to defending taxpayers against the waste and fraud that Bonta has ignored. California's one-party monopoly in Sacramento has produced a government that raises taxes, increases regulation, and punishes the people who build, hire, and invest in this state, all while delivering worsening outcomes on crime, homelessness, and housing affordability. The Attorney General's office should be a check on that dysfunction, not an extension of it. Gates has pledged to investigate the $24 billion in homelessness spending that has produced no measurable improvement, the $18 billion squandered on high-speed rail, and the $32.6 billion lost to unemployment insurance fraud. That is the kind of accountability Californians have been denied. Michael E. Gates is the tough, independent Attorney General California needs to restore the rule of law and hold Sacramento accountable.