Newsletter: Essential Politics: New California polls have bad news for everyone

Health comes back into the presidential race. When “none of the above” polls better than you do.

I’m Christina Bellantoni, and this is Essential Politics. We start with some fresh polling in the Golden State.

California is still Hillary Clinton country, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll conducted by SurveyMonkey has found.

She holds a lopsided lead over Donald Trump, but weaknesses here suggest voter ambivalence that could thwart her presidential campaign in more contested states, Cathleen Decker writes.

The numbers:

Clinton led Trump by 25 points, 58% to 33%, when the two candidates were matched head to head among registered voters.

When the choices were expanded to include Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Clinton led 49% to 29%. She lost more support to the third-party hopefuls than Trump, especially among younger voters.

But the poll also showed trouble for Trump. He creates a significant drag on Republicans down the ballot in California. In every part of the state, voters said they would be less inclined to side with a congressional candidate who had endorsed Trump; statewide, 40% said they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate and 15% said they would be more likely.

GETTING OVERHEATED

A hot day. A video posted on Twitter. A lack of transparency with the media. Those three things were a nasty combination for Clinton on Sunday, as a commemorative ceremony at Ground Zero turned into blaring headlines declaring the former secretary of State had a health emergency.

What we do know is that her campaign at first said nothing, even when pressed by reporters trying to figure out where the nominee had gone after leaving the ceremony earlier than expected. A spokesman more than an hour later issued a brief statement that Clinton had gotten “overheated.” Attendees at the event called it “stiflingly hot.” In the evening, the campaign released another statement, this one from Clinton’s doctor, saying that she had been diagnosed two days earlier with pneumonia and was on antibiotics. By Sunday evening, the doctor said, she was “recovering nicely.”

The series of circumstances capped what had been an already difficult week for Clinton, Seema Mehta writes.

The Democrat was forced to express “regret” for suggesting at a fundraiser that half of Trump supporters could be described as “the basket of deplorables,” which she referred to as “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it.”

Clinton was scheduled to get back on the fundraising circuit tonight in San Francisco and then head to Los Angeles, but the campaign scrapped the trip late Sunday night.

Get the latest from the campaign trail on Trail Guide and follow @latimespolitics. Check our daily USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times tracking poll at the top of the politics page.

SANCHEZ GOES NUCLEAR

In what may be a sign of things to come, Rep. Loretta Sanchez launched a broadside attack against her rival in the U.S. Senate race, California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris. Phil Willon reports that the Orange County congresswoman criticized Harris for defending a California Coastal Commission permit allowing more than 300 million tons on nuclear waste to be buried near the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Diego County. She also accused Harris of botching a criminal investigation into the $4.7-billion settlement reached between the California Public Utilities Commission and Southern California Edison. The Harris campaign responded with an accusation that Sanchez was politicizing a criminal investigation.

NONE OF THE ABOVE

The new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll of the Senate race found Sanchez is not only lagging behind Harris, but she’s also struggling to outpace “none of the above.” Willon reports that 16% of the registered voters polled said they would not vote for either Sanchez or Harris in the November election. That’s the same percentage of voters who said they favored Sanchez.

Tick tock. The election is less than two months away, folks.

HOW THIS CONGRESSIONAL RACE TURNED INTO ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE IN THE COUNTRY

There is a hot, expensive and somewhat mysterious race to replace retiring Santa Barbara Rep. Lois Capps — a contest claiming the attention of both Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Ohio coal magnate Robert E. Murray. Javier Panzar reports that the $1.5 million in outside spending makes California’s 24th Congressional District contest one the most expensive in the country. Among his findings: donations from Murray’s coal company and YouTube videos posted by the campaigns that ended up in ads paid for by outside groups.

The race pits 28-year-old Republican Justin Fareed against the Democratic establishment’s pick, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal.

WHAT WAS BEHIND THE BIG HOUSING PLAN’S DEMISE?

One of the major failures of the recently ended legislative session was Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to streamline housing regulations to boost affordability. Liam Dillon reports that local governments, labor unions, environmentalists and renters all contributed to its death, revealing how difficult it might be in the future for the state to increase housing supply.

Keep an eye on our Essential Politics news feed for the latest in California politics.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- The statewide voter guide detailing each of 17 ballot measures is 224 pages, 0.6 pounds and will cost taxpayers up to $15 million

-- Two major pieces of legislation aimed at combating climate change are now California law.

-- The nation marked the 15-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

-- The U.S. House of Representatives remembered the victims of the attacks Friday in a ceremony on the House steps, with remarks from Pelosi.

-- Mike Pence released 10 years worth of tax returns, highlighting anew that Trump has not done the same.

-- Noah Bierman profiles the woman with what may be one of the toughest jobs in politics this year: director of Hispanic Communications for the Republican National Committee. She has to appear on television defending a man she once compared to a “street dog” and explaining him to deeply skeptical Latino voters.

-- The California Politics Podcast touched on the Senate race and some of the measures on the ballot in November.

-- In a sign that California’s pot initiative is getting national attention, a Pennsylvania millionaire has contributed $1.3 million to a nonprofit group that is raising money to oppose Proposition 64 on the November ballot.

-- Sen. Dianne Feinstein is asking the federal government for money to cut down California trees killed by drought before they catch fire.

-- Several California lawmakers will show off land they want added to the California Coastal National Monument to the head of the Bureau of Land Management.

-- Meet the San Diego teen recognized by the White House as a National Student Poet.

-- Who will win the November election? Give our Electoral College map a spin.

LOGISTICS

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