Newsletter: Essential Politics: New Hampshire voters get chance to question Clinton, Sanders

I’m Christina Bellantoni, and this is Essential Politics.

In a new, officially two-person race, the Democrats who want to be president will answer questions from New Hampshire voters Wednesday night. There has been little rest for the candidates since they left Iowa, and little celebration for either.

Hillary Clinton sent supporters an email asking for donations late Tuesday, noting almost in passing, “this team made history,” without explicitly saying she was the first woman in history to win the caucuses. Instead she focused on the road ahead.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us and a real fight on our hands,” she wrote. “Next up: We take New Hampshire by storm. Are you with me?”

For his part, Sen. Bernie Sanders didn’t let up, and his team hoped his strong lead in the first-in-the-nation primary wouldn’t let up, either.

But considering there were only five days between the Iowa and New Hampshire contests in 2008, the eight days between them this year might end up seeming like an eternity.

And as the nation evaluates — again — the efficacy and sense of a first-in-the-nation caucus, our team takes a detailed look at how the process worked.

Kate Linthicum brings readers inside a caucus in Des Moines, finding chaos, lobbying, and even a little low-level bribery, while Chris Megerian, Seema Mehta and Evan Halper report the great lengths party officials went to actually count the votes on caucus night, delaying a call for Clinton as the victor until almost noon the following day.

On the Republican side, the attention focused on Sen. Marco Rubio, who aimed to galvanize attention of his close third-place finish in what looks to be an even more competitive race. Lisa Mascaro evaluates “Marcomentum” and how each of the other candidates will try to stop it.

Our team calculated how much each candidate and their affiliated super PACs spent per vote received in Iowa. The results might surprise you: from former Sen. Rick Santorum’s $2 per vote to Donald Trump’s $73 and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s $2,845.

We tracked the rest of the candidates from the ground in New Hampshire, so catch up quick here and keep an eye on Trail Guide during the day.

LEGISLATORS ASK BROWN TO INTERVENE IN COASTAL CLASH

Next week’s meeting of the California Coastal Commission in Morro Bay will be one to watch, as an epic battle may be brewing over the fate of the agency’s executive director. Weeks after Charles Lester was told he may be dismissed, lawmakers and environmentalists are rising to his defense. Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers reports that 16 legislators sent Gov. Jerry Brown a letter on Tuesday asking him to intervene on Lester’s behalf, though a spokesman for the governor said it’s an issue for the commissioners to resolve.

Accusations of pro-development forces pushing for Lester’s ouster have been rampant, and he’s asked for his fate to be discussed next week during the commission’s public meeting. Dan Weikel and Tony Barboza note that 35 former members of the California Coastal Commission declared that they oppose the effort to fire Lester, arguing his termination “would significantly undermine” both the agency’s work and Brown’s legacy to protect California’s vast coastal resources.

Track the latest in California politics and what’s happening in government on our Essential Politics news feed.

ANOTHER GOP CHALLENGER IN SAN BERNARDINO

Javier Panzar has the story of Sean Flynn, a Republican professor hoping to unseat Rep. Pete Aguilar who literally wrote the book “Economics for Dummies.” But Flynn is trying in an already crowded race, with Paul Chabot aiming for a rematch with Aguilar.

Campaign officials for Flynn and Chabot said they are hoping to raise enough to have the $100,000 in the bank needed to qualify for the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Guns” program, which promotes candidates among national donors.

WELCOME, LIAM DILLON

We announced Tuesday that Liam Dillon will be joining our Sacramento bureau later this month as a reporter covering politics and policy in state government as we expand our coverage of the executive branch — the myriad agencies and departments that play an important role in California’s governance.

In six years at the nonprofit Voice of San Diego news site, Dillon has won a host of local, state and national awards for his stories about San Diego’s crumbling infrastructure, racial profiling by its police department and cross-border corruption involving a Mexican businessman who made illegal campaign contributions to U.S. politicians.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

— San Diego on Tuesday agreed to pay $667,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit against former Mayor Bob Filner.

— A former volunteer treasurer for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher was arrested Tuesday on suspicion that he embezzled more than $200,000 from the congressman’s campaign chest, prosecutors said.

— John Myers reports California’s Democratic Party has about four times as much cash on hand as does the state GOP, a sizable advantage as the 2016 election cycle begins.

— Someone painted a swastika on Trump’s star on the Walk of Fame.

— The networks earned strong ratings for Iowa coverage Monday.

— President Obama and Speaker Paul Ryan compared to-do lists for 2016, Christi Parsons and Lisa Mascaro report.

— Concerned about a possible influx of commercial medical marijuana farms, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to put a temporary moratorium on cultivation of the crop in county unincorporated areas and to study a permanent ban.

— Doyle McManus notes this should be Rubio’s moment, but that the senator has a substantive problem too.

— Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside) and the Congressional Maker’s Caucus hosted artists Tuesday at the Capitol. Exhibits included 3D-printed architectural models, sculpture and jewelry, hand-knitted basketball nets, a collaborative 3D-printed bust of Benjamin Franklin, and 18k gold-plated 3D-printed shoes. Takano, who says he’s the only member with a 3D printer in his office, organized the event highlighting groups like the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Catholic University of America Fabrication Lab of Architecture.

— With the government still struggling to find money to create an earthquake early warning system for the West Coast, a private foundation, Intel Corp. and an arm of Amazon.com Inc. said they will pitch in money or other support, officials said at a White House summit Tuesday.

— I’ll be speaking on a panel at 1 p.m. Wednesday in Sacramento during the California Newspaper Publishers Assn.’s Governmental Affairs Day.

LOGISTICS

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