Newsletter: Essential Politics: A weekend of debate prep

I’m Christina Bellantoni, and this is a special presidential debate edition of Essential Politics. Here we go.

Calling it highly anticipated would be the understatement of the campaign. We don’t know if the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will change everything, or just give fresh fodder for the candidates in what is a neck-and-neck race.

What we do know is they have employed very different styles of preparing for the debate, that it’s a matchup that could set a record for viewership, and that truth-squadding is going to be a crucial element of what’s said Monday night.

As Michael Finnegan writes, never in modern presidential politics has a major candidate made false statements as routinely as Trump has. Over and over, independent researchers have examined what the Republican nominee says and concluded it was not the truth — but “pants on fire” (PolitiFact) or “four Pinocchios” (Washington Post Fact Checker).

Our data team built a handy primer on what to expect tonight. From the tactics Clinton and Trump deployed during primary face-offs to how many people watched them on debate stages, catch up quickly on everything to watch for.

When does the debate start? 6 p.m. Pacific. There are a bunch of ways to join us tonight. You can follow along live on Trail Guide and follow @latimespolitics.

You can check out round-by-round debate scoring by Cathleen Decker, Mark Z. Barabak and David Lauter on Facebook.

Or hear from us in person at the Los Angeles Times Debate Watch Spectacular at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. There will be games and live music. After the debate, Robin Abcarian, Kurtis Lee and I will offer some analysis about what happened. Doors open at 5 p.m. and tickets are $13. There’s still time to RSVP.

TED CRUZ JUMPS ON THE TRUMP TRAIN

It began as a political bromance, with Ted Cruz praising Trump as “terrific” near the start of the Republican primary. But as the primary dragged on, Trump insulted Cruz’s wife and spread a false conspiracy theory about the involvement of Cruz’s father in the JFK assassination. Soon enough, the candidate was calling Trump a “sniveling coward” and a “pathological liar.” After dropping out of the race, Cruz refused to endorse Trump during a high-profile speech at the Republican convention.

But last week, Cruz decided to stop holding out and endorse Trump, saying he felt an obligation to help stop Clinton. Seema Mehta has the story on Cruz’s turnaround, and Chris Megerian rounds up those nasty moments of the primary season.

As the race continues, check our daily USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times tracking poll at the top of the politics page.

DEMOCRAT’S LEGAL CAREER HELPS AND COULD HAUNT IN HIGH-PROFILE CONGRESSIONAL RACE

First-time candidate Bryan Caforio, the man Democrats hope can unseat freshman Republican Rep. Steve Knight in a North Los Angeles swing district, has built his political narrative around a legal career as a trial lawyer. That is where he says he saw a system in which “far too many people in our community were taken advantage of on an almost daily basis,” because politicians were “looking out for the biggest banks and the wealthiest corporations instead of the people back here at home.”

But an examination of Caforio’s six-year tenure at the Century City firm Susman Godfrey suggests his work more often involved large corporations and multimillionaires from around the globe in times of legal need, reports Javier Panzar. Among them: Union Oil Co., former Dodger Frank McCourt, an Egyptian activist investor valued at $400 million, and a financier in a dispute with his architect over a backyard cabana.

ATTACK MODE

Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez has ramped up her attacks against her rival, state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris. Phil Willon reports that Sanchez’s aggressive tactics come as she tries to close the gap on Harris, who has been the solid front-runner throughout the campaign for California’s open U.S. Senate seat. While the attacks have targeted Harris’ record in office, generally considered fair game during the election season, Sanchez still may face a backlash among Democrats.

CYBER-SPYING ALLEGATIONS PROMPT KHANNA CAMPAIGN SHAKE-UP

For months now, Democrat Ro Khanna has been hounding his opponent, eight-term Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose) about an ongoing ethics probe into his use of official resources for campaign purposes and decrying “politics as usual.”

On Thursday, Khanna’s campaign manager resigned after a lawsuit by the Honda campaign alleging that he had improperly and illegally been accessing donor lists and other campaign files throughout the campaign.

Brian Parvizshahi, who joined the Khanna campaign in 2014 and was promoted to campaign manager last year, previously worked as an intern for Honda’s fundraising consultant. During that time, Honda’s campaign alleges, Parvizshahi was granted access to Honda donor data and other proprietary campaign information. He continued to access the documents even after he left the internship in 2012, Honda’s campaign claimed in the lawsuit, which cited “digital fingerprints” showing what appeared to be Parvizshahi’s computer accessing the files as late as June 2015.

In a statement, the Khanna campaign said Parvizshahi stepped down at his own request, and said the Honda campaign was “trying to distract voters from the ongoing investigation” the congressman has faced.

For the latest on California’s congressional races, keep an eye on our Essential Politics news feed.

HOW WILL THE GOVERNOR WEIGH IN ON SEX CRIMES BILLS?

For years, getting tough on sexual assault in California has meant going aggressively after sex offenders. But this year, as Gov. Jerry Brown weighs several bills that would increase repercussions for defendants in sex crimes, a growing number of lawyers and advocates are reevaluating the tough-on-crime strategies and their effect on minorities.

Opponents of the legislation say they are not against holding sex offenders accountable but that they are against proposals that continue to stack the deck against poor and minority defendants in a criminal justice system where laws are often unequally applied.

RECREATIONAL NONSENSE

George Skelton skewers pro-Prop. 64 arguments, saying supporters of legalizing recreational marijuana are rushing into it without thinking of the long-term consequences.

CALIFORNIANS WEIGH IN ON BLACK LIVES MATTER

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus stood before the doors of the Department of Justice on Thursday and demanded a greater reaction from Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch to repeated instances of police shooting black men.

Three California members joined colleagues for the trip down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol, which was a response to the deadly shootings of black men by police in Tulsa, Okla., and Charlotte, N.C.

Rep. Maxine Waters delivered a letter to Lynch from the caucus saying they want her to do more to investigate and prosecute officers who shoot unarmed black people.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

— Donald Trump has some Latinos so unnerved, they’re turning to the supernatural for help.

— Brown vetoed a funding measure to further defray local emergency costs in last year’s San Bernardino terrorist attack.

— Trump takes center stage in a new ad in the Santa Clarita State Assembly race from Democrat Christy Smith attacking the GOP’s Dante Acosta.

— California women will soon will be able to pick up a year’s worth of birth control pills at once under a bill the governor signed Friday. But Brown vetoed a program that would have provided poor families a voucher to buy diapers.

— Continuing the state’s campaign against tobacco use, Brown on Friday banned smoking and the use of electronic cigarettes within 250 feet of any Little League baseball game or other youth sports event.

— Brown approved some changes to the Coastal Commission.

— It’s now OK to break into a car to save an animal.

— The California Police Chiefs Assn. has decided to oppose Proposition 63, arguing the gun control measure that will be on California’s ballot “fails to meet the appropriate balance between public safety and individual gun rights.” The group’s president also objected on the grounds that the initiative, which was spearheaded by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, creates “a duplicative database” that will be an expensive and less effective way to monitor ammunition purchases.

— A national gun control group that helped write California’s Proposition 63 released a study indicating that thousands of felons disqualified from owning guns are keeping their firearms in this state and most others because of the lack of an effective enforcement mechanism.

— Check out video of Reps. Mark Takano (D-Riverside) and Scott Peters (D-San Diego) competing against reporters in the National Press Club’s spelling bee. They both made it through several rounds but were not the champion.

— California’s state auditor continued the chorus of criticism against the state’s energy regulator, the California Public Utilities Commission. A new audit says the agency doesn’t adequately guard against improper influence from the utility companies it oversees.

— Many expected U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn to wrap up the race for Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe’s seat in the primary. Instead, she’s locked in a bitter and expensive race with rival Steve Napolitano.

— Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel) is in Colombia for the signing of a historic peace agreement. He was once a Peace Corps volunteer there.

— Comparing her to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the Progressive Change Campaign Committee endorsed Democrat Nanette Barragán in the 44th Congressional District race.

— Can reversible lanes — which can be switched to allow traffic in either direction — improve congestion on California roads? Drivers in the state could start seeing more reversible lanes now that Brown has signed a bill officially encouraging their use.

— We hosted a lively Twitter chat on Friday on why state politicians haven’t solved the state’s housing affordability problems. The answer? It’s hard.

— The Mark Cuban saga continues on the campaign trail.

— The Times’ Editorial Board endorsed Clinton, saying that electing Trump “could be catastrophic” for America.

— Who will win the November election? Give our Electoral College map a spin.

LOGISTICS

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