Essential Politics: An electoral college reality check - Los Angeles Times

Monday will bring the long presidential campaign to a close as electors across the nation meet in state capitals to certify the results. The moment marks an important shift for the country, just over one month before Donald Trump is inaugurated.

I’m Christina Bellantoni, here with the last edition of Essential Politics for the year. Let’s get right to it.

While there are plenty of Hillary Clinton supporters holding out some hope the result will somehow be different at the end of the electoral college process, all signs point to the status quo.

Will it bring some finality, even as Russian involvement in the elections continues to stir up political unrest and spark renewed calls for investigations on Capitol Hill?

Cathleen Decker reports on the millions of Americans who have have signed petitions, deluged electors with letters and emails and indulged in elaborate hypotheticals about how those votes might be swayed, but she bursts that bubble.

Trump’s comfortable lead of 306 votes to 232 for Clinton isn’t budging, she writes, and that margin means 37 electors would have to turn from him to Clinton or some other candidate to deny him the majority. Even if that were to happen and someone else emerged, it would serve only to send the election to the Republican-controlled House, which would presumably side with Trump.

But of course it won’t get that far, because the whole thing is controlled by a cabal of elites who are, for the most part, party loyalists. There was that time Congress actually tried to get rid of the electoral college, but it’s not going anywhere, at least for now.

Reality checks about how the process works didn’t stop a coalition of activist groups from taking to the streets of downtown Los Angeles on Sunday to protest Trump’s labor and immigration policies in hopes of changing Monday’s results.

California’s 55 electors are convening in Sacramento on Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. to cast their votes for Clinton. The Democratic contender will collect all of the state’s votes after decisively winning California in November.

(For a refresher on who they are, catch up quick here.)

We’ll cover the day’s events in California and across the country live at latimes.com/electoralcollege. Join us.

CALIFORNIA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH DONALD TRUMP

As California prepares to assume the role of top antagonist to the Trump administration, there is no shortage of political figures leading the opposition from the Golden State. Melanie Mason assembled a field guide to the various players who are positioning themselves to be a thorn in the president-elect’s side, from the governor’s office in Sacramento to city halls across the state.

Sarah Wire took a look at the California members of Congress who could help or hinder Trump’s administration, from the guy helping him with intelligence issues during the transition (Rep. Devin Nunes) to Sen.-elect Kamala Harris, who has made clear she will challenge the incoming president on immigration issues.

The president-elect also has the support of Shirley Husar, a Republican convention delegate from Pasadena who visited Trump Tower last week. She met with Omarosa Manigault to talk about “urban renewal.”

We’ll be tracking these lawmakers and California’s continued reaction to Trump closely on our Essential Politics news feed, so don’t miss a minute.

UNTIL NEXT YEAR

This is the last edition of Essential Politics for 2016. We’ll be taking a holiday hiatus and will return on Tuesday, Jan. 3, as Congress gavels into a new session and the California Legislature prepares for its Jan. 4 return.

Watch for news in California on Essential Politics and track the Trump transition on Trail Guide. Also make sure to follow @latimespolitics for in-the-moment news on what’s happening in Washington.

On a personal note, you won’t hear from me for a while. Sarah Wire will be taking over the newsletter on Mondays for a few months during my maternity leave. Sacramento bureau chief John Myers is in charge on Wednesdays, and Washington bureau chief David Lauter will continue his look at the week that was from a national perspective on Fridays.

Thanks for reading. Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season and happy new year.

A RUN ON GUNS

In the six months since Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that will bar the sale of some semiautomatic rifles, the number of those weapons sold has doubled over sales from 2015. The guns are being purchased ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline for ending the sale of rifles with bullet buttons that allow the ammunition magazines to be easily detached.

ROAD MAP: A COLD WINTER AHEAD FOR PUBLIC PENSIONS

Leaders of the California Public Employees Retirement System meet this week in a prelude to what could be a big showdown come the new year: whether to lower CalPERS’ official prediction of investment returns, thus sending a bigger invoice to taxpayers.

In this week’s column, John Myers lays out an overview of the stakes involved. And the state’s major pension fund for teachers, CalSTRS, also faces tough questions in 2017 about overly optimistic investment expectations.

THE PATH FORWARD FOR CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS

For California Republicans, the road ahead could be a difficult one in a state where Democrats have supermajority status in both houses of the Legislature. But Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley could be just the person to pave the way to a successful future for the GOP here, George Skelton writes in his Monday column.

Mayes, who declined to say whether he voted for Trump in November, told Skelton he’d like to see a return to civil discourse and a move away from the divisive rhetoric of the campaign. “Running for office doesn’t have to be a blood sport,” he said. “We can and should be civil, intelligent and honorable in our campaigning.”

Meeting with the Sacramento bureau, Mayes also said he didn’t believe there was any widespread voter fraud in California.

PODCAST: BROWN COMES OUT SWINGING

This week’s California Politics Podcast dives deep into the governor’s decision to throw down the gauntlet when it comes to climate change policies and the new Trump administration.

And in the last episode of 2016, Myers also leads a discussion of the year’s big political lessons in the Golden State and how they could continue to reverberate in the year ahead.

A COMPROMISE FOR GOV. BROWN’S DELTA TUNNELS PLAN?

Fights don’t get any more ferocious than the one over water in California, with several different parties at odds over Brown’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta twin tunnels plan, Skelton wrote in his Thursday column. Now the Public Policy Institute of California has proposed an idea for a compromise: Build one tunnel instead of two.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

— A former top deputy for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign was one of the latest to throw his hat in the ring to replace Rep. Xavier Becerra. Arturo Carmona joins two other candidates actively vying for the votes of Sanders supporters.

— On Friday, former LAUSD board member Yolie Flores also announced her intention to run.

— In the meantime, Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles), widely regarded as the frontrunner, is racking up endorsements from Latino elected officials.

— California Sen. Richard Pan has filed legislation to establish the rights of children and spur proposals that provide more assistance to their parents.

— Three prominent California Republicans are asking party delegates to keep Jim Brulte on as chairman of the state GOP. Party activists recently changed the rules to allow Brulte to take on two more terms if he’s re-elected.

— Residents of government housing would be barred from smoking and using electronic cigarettes inside their residential units and within 25 feet of buildings under legislation introduced by Assemblyman Jim Wood.

— The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. has filed a lawsuit against Brown that seeks to invalidate a new law that will allow public funds to be used for political campaigning. The legal challenge says that a law signed by Brown in September that allows cities and counties to use public financing for political campaigns violates Proposition 73, which voters approved in 1988 and prohibits public funds from being used in campaigns.