Newsletter: Essential Politics: Obama and Clinton hit the campaign trail

I’m Christina Bellantoni, and after a quiet holiday weekend, Essential Politics is back with a jam-packed day ahead.

Thanks to John Myers for keeping the newsletter lively while I was on vacation in Europe. And as much as I attempted to escape politics for a few days, I quickly found that wouldn’t be possible.

The “Brexit” vote was announced the first day of the trip, and I saw reverberations everywhere I went. In three countries and talking to dozens of people, I met just one person who supported the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, while the others were devastated and still a little shell-shocked.

Sure, there were jokes the trip would be more affordable given the British pound had taken a dive, and lots of comedic fodder and memes about the politicians backing away from initial claims and even pulling out of the running to become the next prime minister. (And the queen, for her part, urged people to keep calm.)

But the full-scale freak out among the British immigrants — many in the country for as long as a decade — I talked with comes as everything from home purchases, long-term moves and even retirement plans have been thrust into a period of true uncertainty.

In every case, the conversation turned to Donald Trump. Is this tumultuous vote, they asked, an indicator of a surprise Trump presidency in the United States?

It’s a question The Times examined while I was out, and it made for a lot of engaging political discussion and some U.S. civics lessons. In a few cases, I showed people our Electoral College map interactive to illustrate how the popular vote isn’t as important as the swing state vote. That said, we’re four months and three days from this election, and every indication is this will be a rough-and-tumble contest until the very end.

OBAMA STUMPS WITH CLINTON TODAY

That’s exactly why President Obama is joining Hillary Clinton today in one of the newest swing states: North Carolina. The Tarheel State’s 15 Electoral College votes went to Mitt Romney in 2012, barely, after Obama was able to win there in 2008, marking the first time in decades that a Democrat captured it.

The current president will give Clinton his all in Charlotte (where he accepted the nomination in 2012) around noon Pacific. Tuesday evening, Trump will campaign in Raleigh and no doubt give his response to the joint appearance preceding him in the battleground state.

The big question is if Clinton can absorb some of Obama’s popularity at a time when she really needs it given a rocky patch last week.

As Evan Halper writes, few nominees in recent history have had the advantage of such a popular incumbent vigorously campaigning on their behalf. George W. Bush was hugely unpopular when John McCain was the GOP nominee in 2008. Al Gore kept his distance from Bill Clinton eight years earlier, feeling stung by the scandals the president had attracted. Even Ronald Reagan, in his final months in office, did not have as high ratings or as strong a rapport with his party’s presumptive nominee as Obama has with Hillary Clinton.

We’ll be covering it all today on Trail Guide, and make sure to follow @latimespolitics.

REPORTS FROM A SWING STATE

To understand the dilemma Colorado Republicans wrestled with at a conservative gathering this weekend, one only had to look at the range of speakers, whose positions on Trump ran the gamut from enthusiastic support to vehement opposition, Melanie Mason reports from Denver.

Trump himself came to Colorado for the Western Conservative Summit, an annual weekend-long confab organized by a local Christian university. As did Hugh Hewitt, the radio personality and one-time Trump skeptic turned reluctant supporter. Yet so did Ben Shapiro, a conservative writer staunchly against Trump. Perhaps nowhere does Trump’s candidacy vex Republicans more visibly than Colorado, which is home base for the latest effort to block his nomination at this month’s national convention, and where Republicans faced Trump’s ire during the primaries for its complex caucus system.

And Lisa Mascaro notes that Colorado’s Senate race has complicated GOP hopes for retaining the Senate majority.

ASSEMBLYMAN LOSES COMMITTEE POSTS AFTER JUDGE GRANTS RESTRAINING ORDER

California Assemblyman Roger Hernández (D-West Covina) was ordered by a judge on Friday to stay away from his ex-wife for three years after she accused him of violently abusing her over the last three years of their marriage. The domestic-violence restraining order was granted after Baldwin Park City Councilwoman Susan Rubio came forward in April with allegations that he punched and choked her during their marriage.

The couple’s divorce also was finalized, Javier Panzar reports.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon stripped Hernández of his Assembly committee assignments Friday evening after the ruling saying in a statement that “Hernández has problems in his personal life that need to be addressed, and he should focus on resolving them.”

Hernández also inched ahead in his attempt to challenge Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk) this fall, with Los Angeles County reporting Friday he is now is second place by 792 votes.

THE MANY, MANY CHOICES FACING VOTERS IN NOVEMBER

Year in and year out, public opinion polls show that California voters still like having the power to write laws through ballot measures. And in November they’re going to have plenty of choices.

Last week’s deadline for measures to make the Nov. 8 ballot found 17 propositions lined up and ready to go, from competing proposals on the death penalty to legalizing marijuana and even who should get the proceeds from fees charged on paper bags at grocery stores. Secretary of State Alex Padilla assigned them all numbers, from Proposition 51 to Proposition 67, on Friday.

While political consultants ponder how to make their campaigns stand out in the crowd of proposals and researchers wonder if a long ballot makes for an angry voter, you’ve got some homework to do. John Myers has put together an early-season cheat sheet of what’s in store.

But actually, the November ballot might not be quite complete just yet. The author of a $3 billion affordable housing bond proposal is still holding out hope his measure will work its way through the Legislature and his colleagues will put it before voters.

Keep an eye on our Essential Politics news feed as we cover these measures and more. The Legislature is on recess until August.

BROWN SIGNS GUN-CONTROL BILLS

Just as lawmakers were headed back home, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a sweeping package of measures aimed to further tighten California’s restrictions on guns and ammunition.

The governor, who has a mixed record on the issue, signed six bills into law, including new restrictions on semiautomatic rifles and a requirement that ammunition purchasers undergo background checks. He also vetoed five other measures, including an expansion of the use of restraining orders to take guns from people deemed to be dangerous.

Brown’s office pointedly noted “voters will have a chance to go even further in November, if they choose,” with the ballot initiative championed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- This week’s California Politics Podcast takes a closer look at the politics of gun control this election season, as well as the new high-profile status of efforts across the state to confront homelessness.

-- From Joe Arpaio on down, Trump’s ascent to the top of the Republican ticket has changed the fortunes of immigration hardliners.

-- Panzar explains how a former Trump campaign bus has transformed into a moving piece of anti-Trump protest art.

-- If anyone has noticed an uptick in emails from Trump asking for money, it’s because he’s purchased lists from other GOP campaigns, Seema Mehta reports.

-- The latest charges on the campaign trail? Anti-semitism.

-- Think you know who Clinton and Trump will choose as their running mates? Better read Mark Z. Barabak’s veepstakes myth-debunker first.

-- The state agency in charge of handing out hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits to companies that promise Californians jobs is moving closer to requiring those businesses to say how they plan to make their workforce more diverse. Businesses soon will have to describe their hiring and recruiting practices to ensure women and people of color have equal access to jobs as part of their applications for tax dollars, Liam Dillon reports.

LOGISTICS

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