"this article just stinks of pre-election bias"
You mean, this article doesn't align with your, i dunno, your personal view of the world.
And you can't point at any and every article published before an election and say it's pre-election bias.
"I understand that Californians have a strong preference for lefty politics"
I think you're jumping to conclusions on the political leanings of individual staff members, not that it really matters. If someone does something stupid, we call it stupid -- doesn't matter where on the political map they are.
C.