In summary

The federal government typically covers 75% of rebuilding costs after a major disaster. President-elect Trump has threatened to withhold firefighting money from California.

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As wildfires erupted in Southern California, so did a years-long feud between incoming president Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly threatened to cut off disaster funding for California.

He stopped short of that on Wednesday, but in a social media post, he called Newsom “Newscum” and blamed his water policies for the three fires that have destroyed hundreds of homes, killed at least five people and displaced tens of thousands of Californians. Due to environmental regulations, he said, not enough water has reached Southern California and fire hydrants went dry as a result.

“Now the ultimate price is being paid,” he said. “I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA. He is to blame for this.”

The Newsom administration called Trump’s post “pure fiction.” Climate and wildfire specialists say eight months of drought — and blowing embers driven by Santa Ana winds gusting as high as 75 mph — are to blame.

“You’ll never have enough water to put out a Santa Ana fire,” said Zeke Lunder, a California wildfire expert who’s been tracking and mapping the fires’ progress.

The bigger question looming over California is whether Trump’s feud with Newsom will cause him to act on his promise to cut federal disaster aid to the state when he takes office on Jan. 20.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump vowed that “we won’t give (Newsom) money to put out all his fires” unless the Democratic governor agreed to divert more water to California farmers. Two former Trump administration officials later told Politico that Trump initially withheld approval for disaster aid for California’s deadly 2018 wildfires, until aides showed him that many of the residents of the affected areas had voted for him.

A president can slow down the process of approving aid, or not declare a disaster, a decision critical to a state receiving federal relief funding. A 2021 federal report found that the Trump administration delayed $20 billion in disaster aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Federal funding typically pays for around 75% of the costs of rebuilding public infrastructure such as roads, sewers, water systems, parks and fire stations, officials say. That means California would have to come up with billions of dollars in additional money after major disasters if Trump follows through on his campaign rhetoric.

Federal disaster funds also help those who’ve lost their homes find temporary living quarters. Federal programs can help with home-rebuilding costs not covered by private insurance.

Newsom preparing for uncertain disaster funding

Newsom has taken Trump’s threats seriously enough that, in the fall, his administration began developing plans to establish a backup emergency response fund that the state could draw from if Trump refused to make federal aid available. It’s unclear if Newsom will follow through with the idea in his formal budget proposal, which is expected Friday.

“What you see with the president-elect is, you know, fire and fury often signifying something. You see fire and fury often signifying nothing,” Newsom said at a press conference Monday, where he cautioned that California’s fiscal stability is uncertain under the incoming Trump administration. “And you have to sort of work through all of that.”

Residents are evacuated from a senior living facility as the Eaton Fire approaches in Altadena on Jan. 8, 2025. Photo by Ethan Swope, AP Photo

On Wednesday, the outgoing Biden administration pledged federal help and is already sending disaster aid to the state, thanks to the $100 billion Congress approved in December.

President Joe Biden, who was already in California to designate a new national monument and for the birth of his great-grandson, made a brief public appearance at a Santa Monica fire station on Wednesday morning to pledge his support for the response.

“We’re prepared to do anything and everything, as long as it takes, to tame these fires and help reconstruct and make sure we get back to normal,” Biden said. “It’s going to be a hell of a long way. It’s going to take time.”

Newsom, who joined Biden, said the president’s quick declaration of a major disaster “means the world to us.”

“It’s impossible for me to express the level of appreciation and cooperation we received from the White House and this administration,” Newsom said. “So on behalf of all of us, Mr. President, thank you for being here. And not just being here today. Thank you for being here since the minute of this incident.”

Most of California’s congressional delegation — including U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff and 47 House members, both Democrats and Republicans — signed onto a letter urging Biden to approve the declaration Wednesday.

“The severity of these wildfires requires additional coordination and a wider range of long-term federal recovery programs,” the lawmakers wrote.

When asked Wednesday about Trump’s past threats to withhold disaster aid to California, Padilla warned that “our response to these disasters cannot become a partisan issue, and I will continue fighting to secure the necessary resources for our state’s recovery.”

How federal money rebuilt Paradise, Santa Rosa

In communities such as Paradise and Santa Rosa that suffered through similar catastrophic fires within the past decade, officials there said their communities wouldn’t have been able to rebuild without federal help.

“If we hadn’t had those types of funds to do the basic infrastructure that we’ve already done and are currently doing, I don’t think we would have recovered at all. It is such a significant piece of recovery,” said Collette Curtis, the recovery and economic development director for the town of Paradise. An early morning fire on Nov. 8, 2018 pushed by powerful winds destroyed most of the town in a matter of hours. Eighty-five people died; 18,000 buildings were destroyed.

Curstis estimates that Paradise has received at least $375 million in federal aid since the fire.

Jose Villanueva carries siding while building a home in Paradise on Oct. 25, 2023. The project is partly funded by ReCoverCA, a state program providing money to rebuild homes in disaster areas. Photo by Noah Berger, AP Photo

A year before the Paradise fire, thousands of homes in the city of Santa Rosa and surrounding communities burned in the Tubbs Fire – another wind-driven inferno that killed 22 people.

The federal government provided at least $366 million in direct aid to communities affected by the Tubbs Fire and other fires that year, according to estimates from the office of U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat who represents the region. Santa Rosa alone received $218 million, said Assistant City Manager Jason Nutt.

Without that much federal help, Santa Rosa wouldn’t have recovered, said the city’s former mayor, Chris Rogers, who was just sworn in as the region’s Democratic Assemblymember.

“Without the help of the federal government, not only would we potentially not have been able to rebuild, but we certainly wouldn’t have been able to rebuild as quickly,” Rogers said.

Rogers called Trump’s threat to cut disaster funding for California communities “inhuman.”

“This is a time when people need the most support, when they’ve lost everything,” Rogers said. “That’s the time when they need government to function for them. And so, to me, it’s completely unconscionable that you would choose that as not just to make a statement, but as a leverage point to try to get other things that you want. It’s wildly inappropriate.”

CalMatters reporters Stella Yu and Alastair Bland contributed to this story.

This story first appeared at Cal Matters.

Kern and Tulare county taxpayers are on the hook for a special election after Republican Vince Fong won his Congressional seat along with an Assembly seat he no longer wanted.

San Joaquin Valley Republican Vince Fong was on the ballot this fall for an Assembly race, but he didn’t want to win it. After all, he left that job for Congress earlier this year, and he planned to stay in the nation’s capital.

He even went so far as to endorse the Bakersfield city councilmember who was listed as running against him on the November ballot.

But voters chose Fong anyway for the Assembly. They chose him again for Congress, too, since he was listed on the same ballot twice. And they did so overwhelmingly. By last count, Fong had more than 33,000 votes over fellow Republican Ken Weir for the Assembly seat.

Now, since Fong “won” his Assembly race, Kern and Tulare County taxpayers in Assembly District 32 will end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a special election to fill the seat that Fong doesn’t want any more.

The good news for California voters and taxpayers is that a new law, passed this year in response to Fong’s ballot conundrum, will hopefully prevent future confusion over a candidate appearing on the same ballot for two different races.

In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1748. The law prevents a candidate from appearing on the same ballot for simultaneous races. The legislation came in response to judges telling California election officials that Fong had to stay on the ballot for both races.

The confusion arose last winter when U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from Bakersfield and the former House speaker, resigned after a brutal battle within the GOP caucus. Fong, a longtime McCarthy acolyte who once served as his district director, announced he was running for his mentor’s seat with McCarthy’s endorsement.

But by that point, Fong, who’d been an Assemblymember since 2016, had already filed papers declaring his Assembly candidacy for the March primary.

Democratic California Secretary of State Shirley Weber argued that elections officials had long maintained that the state’s election code prohibited a candidate from running in two races simultaneously. Weber moved to block Fong from appearing on the ballot for the congressional seat.

Fong challenged Weber in Sacramento Superior Court. Judge Shelleyanne Chang overruled Weber, despite noting “it may result in voter confusion and the disenfranchisement of voters if Fong is ultimately elected for both offices but does not retain one.”

“Moreover, it somewhat defies common sense to find the law permits a candidate to run for two offices during the same election,” she wrote in her ruling. “However … the Court is compelled to interpret the law as it is written by the Legislature.”

Learn more about legislators mentioned in this story.

Weber appealed, but the 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld Chang’s ruling.

“If the Legislature wants to prohibit candidates from running for more than one office at the same election, it is free to do so,” the appellate court ruled. “Unless and until it does so, however, we must take (the law) as we find it and enforce it as written.”

After, Weber said the courts’ rulings left “the door open to chaos, gamesmanship and voter disenfranchisement, and disadvantages other candidates.”

Law aims to prevent election confusion

In response, Democratic Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, a former Santa Cruz County elections chief, and her colleagues introduced AB 1748, which expressly prohibits a candidate from seeking two seats simultaneously. The law also creates a process that allows a candidate to officially withdraw from one race to run in another.

“The judge ruled it’s unclear,” Pellerin said Monday. “So we’re going to make it clear and make sure that that doesn’t ever happen again.” Her bill passed this fall with bipartisan support.

Meanwhile, Fong remained on the ballot for the March primary for his Assembly seat, running without a formal opponent. He urged voters to write in Weir, the Bakersfield city councilman who got enough votes to qualify for the November general election.

In May, Fong won the special election to serve the remainder of McCarthy’s term which ends in January. He had to run again in November to serve another two years in Congress.

Fong again told voters to vote for Weir.

“Well, look, I don’t think there’s going to be much chaos,” Fong told a local television news reporter last month. “The message is clear: Vince Fong for Congress, Ken Weir for the Assembly.”

Not enough voters in Assembly District 32 got the message. Fong’s campaign didn’t return a message from CalMatters.

Mike Gatto, a former Democratic Assemblymember from Los Angeles, said the confusion that resulted from Fong’s departure is a reminder that when it comes to down-ballot races, most voters don’t really pay that close attention to state political candidates.

“So many people in the Legislature have big egos,” he said, “but when all is said and done, it’s not like we are top of mind for the average voter.”

Now, Newsom will have to call a special election in Tulare and Kern counties to fill Fong’s Assembly seat. It could come as early as March.

Pellerin said when she was an election official, it typically cost local taxpayers $4 to $8 per registered voter to hold a one-off special election. That would mean a cost of at least $1.2 million since there were around 305,000 voters in Fong’s district as of February.

Election officials in Kern County, which makes up the bulk of Fong’s district, didn’t return messages seeking an estimate of how much the special election would cost taxpayers.