Newsletter: Essential Politics: Donald Trump hustles, Jerry Brown huddles on Capitol Hill

Two political forces of nature found themselves on Capitol Hill, one under fire and one trying to take the pulse of the political battles on hand.

Yes, such was Tuesday for President Trump and Gov. Jerry Brown.

Good morning. I’m Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers and traveling with Brown on his four-day trip to Washington, which wraps tomorrow afternoon. More on the governor’s shuttle diplomacy across the Capitol corridor in just a moment.

THE DAY BEFORE THE BIG DAY

As Wednesday begins, it marks the final day for the president and Republican leaders to scrounge for votes in the House in support of the GOP healthcare plan that downsizes the coverage guaranteed in the Affordable Care Act.

And Trump made it clear on Tuesday that the stakes are very high. Lisa Mascaro takes a look inside the president’s meeting with Republican lawmakers, where he warned that votes against the repeal of Obamacare could lead to electoral losses in 2018.

Still, he didn’t quite close the deal.

“I haven’t heard anyone who changed their mind after this morning,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) — a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who opposes the plan — said Tuesday.

Mascaro has additional details here, as well as a look at the Republican war room ahead of Thursday’s critical vote.

THE EFFECT OF WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

From Denver, Noam Levey takes a look how the GOP healthcare legislation threatens to not only strip Medicaid coverage from millions of poor Americans, but also to take away the funding that has allowed communities like Denver to build better systems to care for them.

That’s fueling rising alarm in cities such as Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Boston and Charleston, W.Va., where safety net hospitals have also used the existing law’s insurance expansion to take on underlying challenges that make lower-income Americans sick, including unsafe housing, poor diet and untreated mental illness.

So where does your lawmaker stand? Sarah Wire takes a head count of the California delegation in repealing Obamacare, and who’s still undecided on the eve of the vote.

ALL GOV. BROWN, ALL THE TIME

From a breakfast meeting discussing dozens of big issues to a dinner with California’s senior senator, Brown was crisscrossing Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

It was the first full day of a trip that runs through Thursday, and it certainly looked a lot like shuttle diplomacy, taking the pulse of the state’s Democrats and Republicans about what’s on the political horizon.

The governor was hopeful on one important front: His quest to get federal help in an expansion of Bay Area commuter rail, money held up in February due to its connection to high-speed rail.

Today, Brown joins former Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a Capitol Hill event marking — what timing! — the seventh anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. He then participates in a meeting as a board member of the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative.

I’ll have ongoing coverage on our Essential Politics feed as Brown keeps up his busy D.C. schedule.

MEANTIME, THERE’S JUDGE GORSUCH

As an infrequent visitor to Washington, I found it striking how much energy and focus are being devoted to the healthcare fight, when there’s a historic choice being considered by the Senate in the confirmation hearings of Judge Neil Gorsuch.

Tuesday’s event was a fascinating look at the man and the political math he faces in getting to the U.S. Supreme Court. Gorsuch signaled a reluctance to overturn Roe v. Wade, a huge piece of information about the man from Colorado.

Meantime, Gorsuch faced tough questions from Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, who branded the nominee a “partisan” and called one of the judge’s written opinions on an emotional case “absurd.”

David Savage take a broad look at Democratic opposition to Gorsuch.

You can follow the hearings live with us.

THE LATEST ON RUSSIA

After the leaders of the FBI and the National Security Agency denied on Monday any evidence to Trump’s claim that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped him, the president’s Twitter account went silent on Tuesday — a sure sign of how the White House would respond.

And as the probe into Trump ties to Russia continues, some right-wing outlets are facing scrutiny as well, Kurtis Lee reports.

THE CALIFORNIA FACES OF THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

In the House, the question of whether members can produce a bipartisan investigation of Russia’s attempts to interfere in the election is largely in the hands of a pair of soft-spoken Californians. Sarah Wire takes a look at the chairman and ranking minority member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank).

Meantime, David Cloud takes a closer look at Schiff’s line of questioning in the must-see televised hearings.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- Good news, sort of: Voter turnout in the March 7 mayoral election in Los Angeles was actually 20%, just above the record low.

-- Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s social-media feud with Trump resurfaced Tuesday when he blasted Trump for low approval ratings and a budget proposal that cuts funding for after-school programs and Meals on Wheels.

-- Michael Finnegan explores the new Democratic National Committee chairman’s challenges ahead. And on the other side, Finnegan interviewed Ronna Romney McDaniel, the new chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.

-- State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) who has proposed a single-payer healthcare system for California, will run for state insurance commissioner in 2018.

-- Tuition-free college? A Democratic assemblywoman has proposed a tax on millionaires to do it.

-- Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and other L.A. leaders called on state legislators to end a stalemate over approving a transportation funding plan to cover a $130-billion backlog of repairs to California’s roads, bridges and highways.

-- Two state lawmakers have introduced a package of bills to divert children and young adults from the path to incarceration. The legislation advanced Tuesday.

-- State Republicans and Vietnamese American protesters alike decried the removal of state Sen. Janet Nguyen (R-Garden Grove) from the Senate floor last month as a violation of free speech. But free speech has long been a complicated issue for the Little Saigon community Nguyen represents, where vocal anti-communist factions have long dominated the political culture.

-- New legislation from three Democratic Assembly members would block state pension funds from investing in any company that helps build Trump’s border wall.

-- 2018’s first statewide ballot measure could be coming soon. Assembly Democrats passed a $3-billion bond proposal to fund state parks. The measure still needs supermajority approval in the Senate and Brown’s signature before it would go on the ballot.

-- With so many candidates in the race to replace Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra in Congress, many are eschewing expensive TV and radio ads and releasing video ads on social media instead. Two candidates, Yolie Flores and Maria Cabildo, released their first campaign videos this week and played to their strengths.

-- A measure requiring California police to disclose surveillance equipment cleared its first hurdle in Sacramento.

LOGISTICS

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