Newsletter: Essential Politics: Catching you up in 5 minutes or less

I’m Christina Bellantoni, the Essential Politics host starting off your week.

If you opted against spending Saturday night tracking the three Democratic presidential candidates dueling for the nomination, we can catch you up in a few quick clicks.

The testy exchanges during the debate in the first primary state of New Hampshire marked an antagonistic new chapter in what had been, to this point, a fairly agreeable contest.

The forum from the beginning was colored with tension from the controversy over Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign's unauthorized access to proprietary Hillary Clinton files on a joint voter database maintained by the Democratic National Committee, write Cathleen Decker, Evan Halper and Mike Memoli.

Halper explained why the data breach issue was such a big deal as the Democrats head into the final stretch before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses.

Our politics team followed each twist and turn, adding a bit of truth squadding as the evening progressed.

And read ABC’s justification for starting the debate after a commercial break without Clinton on stage.

After the debate in which Clinton and Sanders passed up chances to go on the attack, David Lauter took time to analyze the contrast in campaigns right now between Republicans and Democrats. "While the GOP anxiously eyes February's primaries, the Democrats already have shifted focus to November's general election," he writes.

WHAT CALIFORNIA STANDS TO GAIN IN BUDGET DEAL

Christine Mai-Duc and our team in Washington culled through the sweeping budget deal — a $1.1-trillion omnibus spending measure signed into law Friday — to find items that would help California.

There’s money toward an earthquake early warning system, solar and wind tax credits and $50 million to help Western states for the drought (a smaller sum than the GOP wanted).

NUMBER CRUNCHING

California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris has spent close to three times the amount spent combined by her Democratic rival and the three top Republicans in the race, with large sums to some of the most successful political advisors and campaign fundraisers in California and across the nation, including aides who worked for Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Phil Willon details how you spend $600,000 on 19 consultants in a Senate race.

CAMPAIGN AGAINST BIGOTRY

House Democrats have put forth a resolution to condemn "violence, bigotry and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States" after the San Bernardino attacks. A total of 72 Democrats, 11 of them from California, signed on as co-sponsors of the resolution, including Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana), who has been criticized recently for her comments about Muslims, and Democratic Reps. Mike Honda (San Jose), Judy Chu (Monterey Park) and Mark Takano (Riverside).

The latter three have spoken out in recent weeks after rhetoric veered toward comparing the proposed ‘pause’ on Syrian refugees to the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

Cathleen Decker devoted her Sunday column to Sanchez, finding that the Senate hopeful keeps getting in her own way. "Sanchez has burst into the public eye twice, and not in a good way," Decker writes.

RIDDLE ENDORSEMENT

Mai-Duc reports that Phlunte Riddle, one of several Democrats vying to replace outgoing state Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge) has won her second congressional endorsement of the race.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) endorsed Riddle this week, saying she has "a lifetime of experience breaking down barriers to succeed."

Riddle, a former Pasadena police lieutenant and the first black woman to serve in that role for the department, will face former assemblyman Anthony Portantino, a Democrat, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, a Republican.

Chu was among Portantino’s endorsements in his first Assembly race in 2006. Riddle has picked up several other endorsements from Democratic elected officials, including Rep. Karen Bass and 10 state legislators.

PODCAST: UTILITIES INFLUENCE, SENATE STUMBLE?

One of California’s most powerful agencies is the state Public Utilities Commission, and also one that’s been the subject of a number of high-profile scandals. In this week’s California Politics Podcast, Sacramento bureau chief John Myers and his reporter roundtable looks at whether Gov. Jerry Brown has been too slow to act on reforming the commission. And they examine the tough few days Sanchez has had over her comments about Muslim extremism.

The free podcast is now on iTunes — subscribe today!

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- Seema Mehta takes a look on Monday's front page at how a sharp increase in heroin overdoses in the Northeast has put drug abuse in the campaign spotlight, especially as presidential candidates from both parties appear in New Hampshire to lobby voters in the nation's first primary. "The presidential candidates today have placed a far greater emphasis on rehabilitation than punishment," Mehta writes.

-- Patrick McGreevy reports that a mistake in drafting new state regulations for medical marijuana in California has cities and counties scrambling to ban or restrict dispensaries before a March 1 deadline, after which, they fear, more lax state rules may apply.

-- California is reaching deeper into its pocket to cover the costs of this year’s devastating wildfires, Chris Megerian reports.

-- George Skelton uses his Monday column to give Gov. Jerry Brown a list of ideas for him to take care of at home, now that the climate summit is over.

-- President Obama said his three-hour meeting with families of the San Bernardino victims "could not have been more inspiring."

-- Long before his run for president and his reality TV career as the ruthless boss, Donald Trump fought an ugly decade-long battle over a Los Angeles landmark. It's not an exploit he's bragging about on the campaign trail. Doug Smith explains.

-- Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) filed a bill Thursday that would make the Tule Lake Incarceration Camp in Northern California a National Historic Site. It was the largest "War Relocation Authority" camp during World War II, holding nearly 19,000 Japanese Americans.

Currently, the Tule Lake Camp is one of many sites that make up the "World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument" created by President George W. Bush in 2008.

-- It may look quiet now, but the Legislature returns in January.

LOGISTICS

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