Newsletter: Essential Politics: Trump finally pivots as he looks to govern

Donald Trump’s White House is starting to take shape. What’s less clear at this point is what sort of policies he will pursue as president, even as states like California spring into action with some fearing what’s to come.

I’m Christina Bellantoni. Welcome to Essential Politics.

The president-elect on Sunday signaled that the dual forces that helped get him elected — Republican loyalists and far-right conservatives — will share power in his administration. He named Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff and Stephen K. Bannon, the campaign CEO who helped amplify some of his most incendiary rhetoric, as his chief strategist. The men, who each helped him win, were labeled “equal partners” in a statement announcing their new roles.

But the bigger headline from the weekend was Trump saying on CBS’ “60 Minutes” he would defer the wider deportations he promised on the campaign trail until “after the border is secure.”

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records … probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,’’ Trump said. “After the border is secure, and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination’’ on whether to deport others, he said.

With Californians and others attempting to understand if people who were granted legal status under President Obama’s executive orders will face deportation or be forced to go back into the shadows, Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Sunday the GOP isn’t planning any sort of “deportation force” come January.

Either way, the Golden State’s political leaders could be on a collision course with Trump if he pushes hard-line immigration policies enthusiastically backed by many of his supporters.

The Times over the weekend examined Obamacare’s future in California, profiled the man who could be the next Treasury Secretary and covered the thousands of people taking to the streets to protest Trump’s election.

Our team also talked with members of Trump Nation, who say they are being depicted unfairly as racist and ignorant.

In other transition news, the president-elect’s lawyers want to delay the Trump University legal proceedings.

Get the latest about the Trump transition on Trail Guide and follow @latimespolitics.

AND THEY’RE OFF!

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has been out of California’s political limelight for the past three years, has launched a 2018 bid for governor. Villaraigosa joins a list of well-known fellow Democrats in the race, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Treasurer John Chiang, both of whom have been feverishly raising campaign funds. Villaraigosa told Phil Willon that his campaign will focus on helping Californians who have been “left behind” in the new economy, as well as improving the state’s public schools and crumbling infrastructure.

George Skelton devotes his Monday column to the 2018 race, writing that this contest is unlikely to be a slugfest.

As always, we’re tracking California politics on our Essential Politics news feed.

KAMALA HARRIS PREPARES TO TAKE ON TRUMP

Just two days after her landslide U.S. Senate victory, Kamala Harris vowed to do everything in her power to protect immigrants who entered the country illegally from Trump’s immigration agenda, including his calls for mass deportations and the construction of a border wall. Harris made the comments at her first public event since election day, which she held with immigrants and immigrant rights activists at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

Harris also said she plans to continue serving as California attorney general until she is officially sworn into the U.S. Senate on Jan. 3.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR LORETTA SANCHEZ?

Will Rep. Loretta Sanchez stay involved in California politics after her landslide loss against Harris for the U.S. Senate seat? And if she does, what routes are there for her to run again?

Sanchez said she’ll take a few weeks to ponder the next move.

Sarah Wire spoke with some strategists about what might be ahead politically for Sanchez as she packs up her 20-year career in Washington and looks toward the future.

MEET THE THREE LATINOS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JUST ELECTED TO CONGRESS

Southern California voters elected three Latinos to fill open seats in Congress, increasing the diversity of the state’s delegation in Washington and showing the growing clout of the state’s largest ethnic group, Javier Panzar reports.

The three Democrats — Nanette Barragán, Salud Carbajal and Lou Correa — won seats representing parts of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Orange County, respectively.

Though Democrats failed to win control of the House, Senate or the presidency, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was strengthened by eight new lawmakers for a total of 31 members in the next Congress — when its size will be the largest in history.

“The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is the biggest bright spot in this election,” said Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Los Angeles).

DEMOCRATS’ BIG BET ON A ‘TRUMP BUMP’ IN CALIFORNIA DIDN’T QUITE PAN OUT

A few weeks ago, it seemed Democratic legislative candidates up and down the state were banking that tying their Republican rivals to Trump would pay big dividends. To do otherwise would be “political malpractice,” one consultant said. Now, with most election results in, it appears the strategy didn’t pay off as well as Democratic leaders had hoped.

Christine Mai-Duc reports that while it appears Democrats did pick up seats in the Assembly, only three of the seven districts where the anti-Trump strategy was used will likely go to Democrats, and at closer margins than pollsters had expected.

“The overall impact was kind of a dud,” said Andrew Acosta, a consultant for Dawn Ortiz-Legg, a Democrat who compared her Republican opponent Jordan Cunningham to Trump in mailers and television ads.

DEATH PENALTY BATTLE NOT OVER

Public opinion of the death penalty might have hit a record low across the country but not low enough to abolish the practice in California. Voters defeated a ballot measure to repeal capital punishment and instead are on course to narrowly approve a dueling proposition to amend and expedite it.

The results reflect a sharp divide on state-sanctioned executions, and the final outcome will conclude a closely watched ballot race to address what people on both sides of the debate have agreed is a broken system. But death penalty abolitionists say their fight is not over. They’re waging their next challenges back in court.

CALIFORNIA POLITICS PODCAST: THE AFTERMATH

This week’s topic: What just happened?

JOIN US THURSDAY

The Los Angeles Times this week will look back at the election and look ahead to what the Trump administration might mean for California.

We’ve got a hot lineup of lawmakers, political consultants and your favorite members of our political team. The symposium will be held in downtown Los Angeles. Buy tickets here.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- The ballot may have been long, but voters don’t actually mind, John Myers writes in his weekly column.

-- Rep. Jared Huffman was shocked by Confederate flags he saw flying in a local parade.

-- Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) was named to Trump’s transition team and Rep. Duncan Hunter’s name is being tossed around as a possible pick for secretary of Defense and a few other Californians may be on the consideration list for Cabinet positions.

-- Democrat Madison Nguyen conceded to San Jose City Councilman Ash Kalra in one of the most expensive intraparty Assembly races this year. Outside interests spent more than $7.5 million trying to sway the contest, most of it coming from business groups and charter school advocates supporting Nguyen.

-- When the newest class of legislators is sworn in next month, the California Legislative Women’s Caucus says it expects to lose two seats each in the Assembly and Senate. If the trend in the closest races holds, women will hold 10 of 40 seats in the state Senate, and 17 of 80 positions in the Assembly, according to California Women Lead, a nonpartisan association that recruits and trains women to run for public office. One encouraging sign: The number of Latinas in the Assembly will double from five to 10.

-- With the election over, 24 California state lawmakers have begun their annual migration on fact-finding and trade missions, this year to locations including Germany, China, the Czech Republic and Hawaii, officials confirmed Thursday. “Given recent events, it has become even more urgent to assure our global trading partners that California is still open for business,” said spokesman Kevin Liao.

-- Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore was spotted in Trump Tower this weekend.

LOGISTICS

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