Newsletter: Essential Politics: Donald Trump’s picks, Jerry Brown’s plea

The nascent administration of President-elect Donald Trump has come into much sharper view in the first two days of the week, and one thing’s for certain.

If you loved/hated the first picks, you’re going to love/hate the most recent ones too.

Good morning from the state capital. I’m Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers, and we have a new glimpse of Gov. Jerry Brown’s approach to the incoming administration by midweek.

But first, let’s talk about the Trump Cabinet.

THE TEXAS CONNECTION FOR STATE, ENERGY DEPARTMENTS

As expected, Trump selected Exxon Mobil Rex Tillerson as secretary of State. Or as our Times headline called him on Tuesday, “oil tycoon and Russia friend.”

Tillerson presents a challenge for the president-elect with some members of his own party in the potential message being sent about the Trump administration’s view of Russia. And it seems clear, writes Cathleen Decker, that the 45th president is digging in his heels on the issue.

Then there’s the $240 million in Exxon Mobil stock that the incoming secretary will have to sell, and the sense among some watchers that he could even have to recuse himself from decisions made by the State Department.

A far different set of questions faces the president-elect’s expected choice for secretary of Energy: Why does he want a job leading an agency he once vowed to shutter?

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Trump’s pick, is another friend of the oil industry and climate change skeptic. And yes, there was that time in a GOP presidential debate that he couldn’t remember the Department of Energy as one of the three government agencies he wanted to eliminate.

Perry would present a unique challenge for California, a state he loved to needle while in the governor’s mansion in Texas. Some believe California’s clean energy efforts would have to become more self sufficient with a Perry-led federal agency.

FOR INTERIOR, LOOK TO MONTANA

On Tuesday, it appeared that President-elect Trump had landed on Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) as Interior secretary.

Zinke’s environmental record will no doubt get a full public vetting in the weeks to come, a record that includes support for preserving land for recreational purposes but more conservative approaches in most other areas.

There’s also that time he said (jokingly, he later said) that Hillary Clinton was “the anti-Christ.”

GOV. JERRY BROWN: HELP US, OBAMA

We’ve been closely watching the relatively muted reaction from Gov. Jerry Brown to the coming era of Trump in Washington, D.C. And we’ve long suspected that environmental issues would be a key focus.

On Tuesday, Brown joined other prominent Californians in urging President Obama to make permanent an existing ban on oil and gas drilling in federally controlled waters off the California coast.

Whether the president could actually chisel something in stone that couldn’t be undone by Trump remains to be seen. Nonetheless, the governor’s letter made clear that he views the issue through a coming battle over fossil fuels and climate change.

“Clearly, large new oil and gas reserves would be inconsistent with our overriding imperative to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and combat the devastating impacts of climate change,” Brown wrote.

The governor’s comments came just before he joined other governors from western states for an environmental event in San Diego. And many of those governors offered their own concerns about the incoming administration in Washington, D.C.

THE TRAVAILS OF LIBBY SCHAAF

A protege of Brown, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf finds herself confronting major challenges these days — none more painful, perhaps, than the anger and accusations after the city’s fatal warehouse fire nearly two weeks ago.

As Chris Megerian and Javier Panzar report, it’s been a tough road for the Democrat elected in 2014. The fire comes after a major police department scandal, numerous protests and the saga of a new stadium for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.

“There is hardly a day that goes by as mayor of Oakland that I’m not met with some unpredictable challenge,” Schaaf said in an interview.

CALIFORNIA’S WATER WAR IN WASHINGTON

This week’s end of the lame-duck session of Congress had two particularly interesting story lines wrapped into the same debate over water being pumped through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

One was the fact that there had been bipartisan compromise. The other was a messy final chapter in the two-decade relationship between California’s U.S. senators.

As Sarah Wire writes, both stories involve Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The veteran politician struck a deal with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, but also angered Sen. Barbara Boxer, who was co-author of legislation into which the water agreement was tucked.

Feinstein sounded a note of realism when asked about the last-minute wrangling to work with Republicans. “We are not in charge,” she said, “and I knew I had to get Republicans in both Houses to support this.”

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- The titans of tech, many of whom bad-mouthed Trump during the campaign season, are visiting the president-elect today in New York.

-- What’s in a news story? The Trump team promotes an Associated Press story about the pick for secretary of State. Well, they promoted the parts that they liked.

-- The race to replace Los Angeles Rep. Xavier Becerra is already getting crowded.

-- There was sharp criticism from two prominent Democrats on Tuesday for an effort to allow the state’s largest public pension plan to fully invest in the tobacco industry.

-- A taxpayer group has filed a lawsuit against Brown that seeks to invalidate a new law allowing public funds to be used for political campaigning.

-- Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti talked Trump on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show, in particular his recent phone conversation with the president-elect.

-- Federal agencies don’t do enough to track and justify their use of live animals for research, several members of Congress wrote in a letter asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office to examine the issue.

-- A former leader of Republicans in the state Assembly is the new vice-chair of the California Republican Party.

LOGISTICS — AND SOME CHANGES

You may have noticed we’ve shifted to a Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule. It will be the same great newsletter, just not every day. You can keep up with breaking news on our politics page throughout the day for the latest and greatest. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics?

Miss Monday’s newsletter? Here you go.

Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com.

Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox.

john.myers@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter at @johnmyers and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast