Newsletter: Essential Politics: Standing up on Capitol Hill by sitting down

It was perhaps the perfect blend of a 1960s protest and the viral media technology of 2016: a marathon sit-in on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives by congressional Democrats from California and around the nation.

Good morning, I’m Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers, and what those Democrats wanted was a vote on gun control legislation.

Georgia Rep. John Lewis was the instigator, but he was joined early by a number of Golden State members. The sit-in started Wednesday morning and lasted into the early morning hours.

Sarah Wire and Lisa Mascaro chronicled both the events and the emotion of the day’s protest.

“Mr. Speaker, where the hell are you?” Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) yelled when it was his turn to speak in a message for House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis). “Your chair is empty. I don’t believe your heart is empty.”

And perhaps no one did more to make the event viral than San Diego Rep. Scott Peters. When Republican leaders of the House turned off the chamber’s cameras that feed video to C-SPAN, Peters logged on to his smartphone and started streaming on Periscope. Lucky for him, he had a phone charger and on the feed went into the night.

A CALL FOR GUN VIOLENCE ACTION IN SACRAMENTO

Some 2,776 miles away, state lawmakers in Sacramento also lashed out at inaction in Congress. At a rally on the steps of the state Capitol, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) and others contrasted efforts in Washington, D.C., with those of the state Legislature, saying lawmakers in the statehouse hope to send Gov. Jerry Brown a package of more than a dozen gun-control bills by the end of this month.

“We all know that Congress may not have the courage to do something about it, but we do,” De León told the crowd of 100 activists from the Moms Demand Action/Everytown for Gun Safety coalition.

“We will act with the appropriate level of urgency in response to the scourge of gun violence on our streets, in our schools, our places of worship and other gathering places.”

SANDERS SAYS IT FOR THE FIRST TIME… SORT OF

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders got as close on Wednesday as he’s come to saying his quest for the White House is over.

“It doesn’t appear that I’m going to be the nominee,” he said in an interview on C-SPAN.

Even so, Sanders didn’t actually say that his campaign is over. Nor did he endorse Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democratic nominee. Meantime, Clinton’s lead in the slow count of California ballots stayed at about 9 percentage points on Wednesday -- narrower than last week, but about where it had been on Tuesday.

MORE TRUMP U. DOCUMENTS

Trump University urged its students to profit during the height of the foreclosure crisis, including in California, according to recently released court documents.

As Seema Mehta reports, the revelations come from a deep dive into the hundreds of pages of documents in the lawsuit against Donald Trump, documents that include advertisements, speaker scripts and slide shows for a free introductory workshop designed to enroll students in courses costing as much as $35,000.

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S WALL

The idea made perfect sense to the CEO of a company that makes 360-degree cameras: Depict Trump as president having built a massive wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, and a “broader perspective” – thanks to the camera – shows people have dug underneath the wall.

But as Christina Bellantoni reports, the commercial apparently didn’t meet the guidelines laid out by networks.

Is the spot offensive, or satire? The Trump impersonator who stars in the ad, John Di Domenico, said he loved the concept.

“It doesn’t matter what your views are on Trump, Hillary or Bernie, it’s a funny idea that was well executed on a ‘yuuuuge’ scale,” he said.

EMERGENCY CASH FOR COASTAL COMMISSION

State lawmakers and finance officials were asked this week to sign off on an emergency $1.45-million loan to the California Coastal Commission, or else the agency risked not making its payroll in July.

This is the second time, said a letter obtained by The Times, that the commission has had a cash flow crisis. And state finance officials are preparing to conduct a formal audit to get to the root of the problem.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- Dozens of faith-based colleges in California are objecting to legislation that they say would infringe on religious freedom by allowing lawsuits from gay and transgender students who feel discriminated against because their sexual orientation conflicts with church tenets.

-- Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican who has never been afraid to veer off the party line, on Wednesday endorsed Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez for the U.S. Senate. He also called her rival, Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, a “crazy liberal.”

-- A group of Northern California lawmakers are sponsoring competing bills in response to a six-month jail sentence levied against a Stanford student convicted of rape. They aim to make prison time mandatory and ensure that rapists are ineligible for early release.

-- State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the author of failed legislation to open up some police misconduct records to public disclosure, said he might force the issue on the statewide ballot in 2018.

-- One week before the Legislature leaves town for its July recess, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and a few of his Democratic colleagues are squeezing in a quick trip to Panama.

LOGISTICS

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