Essential Politics: Emotional rollercoaster that is the California primary rolls to a finale

I’m Christina Bellantoni. This is Essential Politics, and California’s primary is tomorrow.

It’s been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, from feeling too far away to matter to being the last stop for the Republican contenders, to not mattering and back to proving both decisive and symbolic for the future Democratic presidential nominee.

It winds to a close this evening with competing concerts in support of Hillary Clinton at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and Bernie Sanders at Crissy Field in San Francisco.

California’s total voter registration is 17,915,053, officials announced Friday. That’s the largest number ever registered heading into a primary election.

As the countdown clock we have running on our Politics page ticks down to polls closing at 8 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday, we’ll cover every last twist and turn.

Track the presidential race on Trail Guide, learn about the state campaigns via our Essential Politics news feed and make sure you’re following @latimespolitics.

OVER THE WEEKEND

The weekend was a blur of campaigning, as Clinton and Sanders headed up and down the state, and Bill Clinton kept his own full schedule on the stump.

Sanders greeted Angelenos in Echo Park and rallied with celebrities.

Clinton talked about water in Fresno. The former president joined NBA greats in East L.A. and was shouted down by Sanders fans in Boyle Heights.

Cathleen Decker sums up the weekend and what each campaign must do in hopes of securing a Golden State victory.

CLINTON ALMOST THERE

A win in Puerto Rico on Sunday and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday put Clinton just shy of the 2,383 required for the nomination, meaning she is poised to clinch the magic number when polls close in New Jersey at 5 p.m. Pacific time tomorrow.

Clinton’s total includes pledged delegates and super-delegates, who are party leaders and elected officials who can decide which candidate to support at the Democratic National Convention in July. She is beating Sanders in both categories. She also has won more states, and more votes, than Sanders.

Track the delegate race in real time.

TOUGH WEEKEND FOR TRUMP

Defying critics across the political spectrum, Donald Trump continued to insist that the ethnicity of a Latino judge should disqualify him from presiding over a fraud lawsuit against the business mogul and suggested that no Muslim could oversee the case either. Even for a man who launched his candidacy by accusing Mexico of sending rapists and drug dealers across the border, Trump’s recent remarks about Latinos and Muslims were extraordinary, sparking fresh accusations of bigotry, Michael Finnegan reports.

Plus, don’t miss Greg Moran’s profile of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel.

WHERE THINGS STAND

On Friday, my colleague David Lauter detailed the top results from our USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. We’ll have more in tomorrow’s newsletter, but if you missed it, the dead-heat race between Clinton and Sanders all hinges on which voters show up.

STATUS OF THE SENATE RACE

U.S. Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez’s chances of finishing in the top two in Tuesday’s primary, which would win her a ticket to the November general election, may depend on turnout among Latinos and Sanders supporters, according to the USC/LAT poll. The survey found that the Orange County congresswoman had strong support among Latinos and was statistically tied with Democratic rival Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris among Sanders supporters. Harris has solidified herself as the frontrunner. And while Sanchez is in the No. 2 spot, Republicans Duf Sundheim and Tom Del Beccaro could be within striking distance.

Will Tuesday spell the end for GOP hopefuls looking to succeed Sen. Barbara Boxer? Some say it’s time for California Republican candidates to adapt to the “political Darwinism” of the state’s top-two primary system, George Skelton writes in his Monday column.

ON THE SENATE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles in Inglewood was a popular place among California’s U.S. Senate hopefuls this weekend. Harris and Sanchez both stopped by the L.A. institution to hobnob with potential voters. The stops were among the flurry of campaign events by Senate candidates during the home stretch to Tuesday’s primary election.

As she has done in previous races, Harris spent Sunday morning campaigning at black churches.

Our team was all over the state this weekend tracking the flurry of activity in what has mostly been a quiet contest.

THE MOST INTERESTING CONGRESSIONAL RACES

California voters are confronted with congressional races that involve vulnerable incumbents, competitive open seats and intra-party fights this Tuesday.

We broke down some of the most interesting, and most closely watched, races in the state, including the big open-seat contests in Southern California, the rematch between Democrats Rep. Michael Honda and Ro Khanna and the handful of seats the political parties are hoping to flip in November.

One of the most competitive open seats is along Santa Barbara’s coastline, where there is no clear picture of which candidates will finish in the top two.

Javier Panzar noticed a strange pattern with donors to 28-year-old Justin Fareed’s campaign, and his investigation found nearly $200,000 of his $1 million has come from donors with ties to two of the state’s largest nursing home operators.

One of those races is to replace outgoing Rep. Janice Hahn an intraparty battle between state Sen. Isadore Hall III (D-Compton) and Nanette Barragán, an attorney and former member of the Hermosa Beach City Council. As Panzar reports, the contest touches on the environment and race, and is fraught with accusations of political misdeeds and carpetbagging.

Barragán has mounted a sharp primary campaign in part by hitting Hall for his ties to special interests in the oil, alcohol and tobacco industries. Last week her campaign accused Hall of violating federal election law by spending general election money in the primary. Panzar truth-squadded the claims, and it’s a bit more complicated.

THE MOST INTERESTING LEGISLATIVE RACES

We’ve compiled a roundup of California’s most interesting and competitive legislative races as a handy guide ahead of Tuesday’s primary.

There are 26 seats up for grabs due to term limits or incumbents leaving office, and 59 other lawmakers are defending their seats. Fifteen are running unopposed. The races include fierce fights among Democrats, wide-open seats where anything could happen and re-matches with ousted lawmakers hoping to reclaim their seats, Christine Mai-Duc reports.

With Trump sure to have an outsize impact on downticket races this fall, state Democrats will be angling to restore their super-majority in both houses — or get as close as they can.

PATTY LOPEZ DOESN’T FEEL RESPECTED

One of the races we’re watching is a rematch between Assemblywoman Patty Lopez, who never expected to win in 2014, and former Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, whom she ousted from his seat by 466 votes that year.

Lopez, who failed to capture the state Democratic Party endorsement, is running with few of the advantages that incumbents typically enjoy and says she doesn’t “feel respected as a member.”

Asked why he was helping Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown and not Lopez, Assemblyman Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) told The Times his hands are tied by party rules that preclude him from using caucus resources to help a candidate who hasn’t been endorsed by the party.

FULL LOCAL BALLOTS UP AND DOWN THE STATE

There’s only one statewide measure on the ballot Tuesday -- an effort to penalize misbehaving legislators -- but local ballots have a number of hot-button issues on them.

As Liam Dillon reports, San Francisco will be deciding on police accountability and low-income housing ballot measures. San Jose will be one of many cities dealing with medical marijuana. And billions in bonds for schools are among the interesting local ballot measures in our roundup.

LATINO ACTIVISM WITHIN THE CAMPAIGNS

The prominence of Latino activists who criticize President Obama’s record on immigration within Sanders’ campaign underscores how much the race between the Vermont senator and Clinton has become entangled in another fight – a long-running battle between Obama and his party’s left wing over immigration enforcement.

CLINTON’S CALIFORNIA LOYALISTS

Eight years before die-hard Sanders supporters started declaring “Bernie or bust,” there were ardent Clinton allies who refused to accept her loss to Obama in the Democratic primary.

Now they’re enjoying a reversal of fortunes as Clinton comes closer to clinching the presidential nomination on Tuesday, Chris Megerian reports.

TIMES ENDORSEMENTS

Our editorial board put all of its election endorsements in one handy spot.

PODCAST: TURNOUT, TURNOUT, TURNOUT

One of the key issues we’re watching in Tuesday’s primary is turnout: How many voters cast ballots, and who are those voters?

On this week’s California Politics Podcast, John Myers leads a discussion on how a rather tepid state primary has been supercharged by the presidential battle. And he offers some of the more interesting races to watch once the returns start coming in after 8 p.m. on election night.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- President Obama is likely to play a more active role in the race to succeed him than any other outgoing president in the modern era. But in addition to campaigning for fellow Democrats, he’s also aiming to ensure a lasting footprint for his governing philosophy, Mike Memoli reports.

-- The Clinton campaign is counting on turning out black voters in California to offset the potential loss of young voters to Sanders. The Clintons have a long history with black voters — from Bill being labeled the first black president in the ‘90s to Hillary all but clinching the 2016 nomination thanks in large part to turnout among African American voters. But some households are divided.

-- With the primary election almost here, no clear front-runner has emerged in the crowded race for the seat being vacated by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

-- The Assembly passed a bill requiring police officers to be able to view body camera footage before writing their reports.

-- The state Senate voted to approve a bill that would prohibit the filing of criminal charges against minors for prostitution.

-- Immigrants living in the U.S. illegally could have chance to buy health coverage if Gov. Jerry Brown signs legislation approved by the Senate. The bill would seek federal approval to let undocumented immigrants pay full price for health coverage from California’s healthcare exchange.

-- The state Senate approved a bill that would require cigarettes to be sold in tobacco-only stores in California.

-- A proposal to put ads on 832 electronic freeway signs operated by the state failed to win enough votes in the state Senate after some lawmakers said they were concerned it would lead to distracted driving and visual blight.

-- Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) dropped his plan to ask voters to approve an expansion of the boards of supervisors in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties from five members to at least seven. He did not have the votes after some Los Angeles County supervisors opposed the plan.

-- What do you think of Trump? Readers can weigh in with our quick survey.

LOGISTICS

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