Essential Politics: Campaign gets another California twist

I’m Christina Bellantoni. This is Essential Politics, and you just can’t make this stuff up.

In yet another wild twist to the presidential campaign, the candidate who mathematically can’t reach the needed number of delegates to become the Republican nominee jumped way ahead of himself and named a vice presidential running mate.

Sen. Ted Cruz’s selection of Carly Fiorina comes just before the two of them are set to address the California Republican Party convention Saturday and as the political conversation has a sharply renewed focus on the gender gap.

The timing is probably not a coincidence.

Fiorina has long been a critic of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, and Republicans have been calling her an effective female spokeswoman for years.

But Californians, who resoundingly rejected her 2010 Senate bid and did not favor her as a presidential contender, will remember her tenure at Hewlett-Packard. She’s best known in Silicon Valley for 30,000 layoffs that the Democrats already have used against her.

In his Thursday column, George Skelton looks at the previous attempts by Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown to name a running mate ahead of a national convention. Neither of those worked, by the way.

Fiorina has held her own against Donald Trump, who insulted her “face” and sparred with her during debates.

Since she ended her bid after a poor showing in Iowa, Fiorina has been campaigning for Cruz around the country.

Will it work? As Cathleen Decker writes, Trump’s approach is probably not what Republican leaders had in mind when they declared after the last losing presidential election that the party had to do more to attract female voters:

Gender insults are nothing new for candidate Clinton. During her 2008 run, young men in the audience chanted “iron my shirts” and cable pundits compared her to hectoring mothers and the deranged bunny-boiling character in the film “Fatal Attraction.” One entrepreneur sold the “Hillary nutcracker,” a plastic representation of Clinton with serrated blades lining her inner thighs. And the “woman card” is a new flashpoint in the campaign.

Track the delegate race in real time, and if it still seems complicated, Melanie Mason has this helpful explainer.

WELCOME TO CALIFORNIA

Trump holds his first California rally since last year Thursday evening in Costa Mesa.

We’ll cover it live on Trail Guide. Make sure you’re following @latimespolitics and latimespolitics on Snapchat.

VOICES FROM THE GOLDEN STATE

As Trump arrives and with the other candidates set to join him at the California Republican Party convention Friday, we wanted to present the voices of Californians who are following the presidential contest.

From horror at this campaign’s tone to enthusiasm for Trump, 25 voters shared their views with Christine Mai-Duc and Phil Willon.

What do you think of Trump? Readers can weigh in with our quick survey.

NEXT STOP, GENERAL ELECTION

Momentous victories in Tuesday’s primaries drove Clinton and Trump ever closer to a November face-off in which the strongest argument each can make for election is the threat posed by the other, Decker writes.

Together, Clinton and Trump are the two most unpopular presidential candidates in memory, and both are moving to improve their images for the general election. But they are so well-known, and operating in such a polarized political environment, that their efforts may only serve to tinker around the edges.

SANDERS: JUST KIDDING

We detailed yesterday how Sen. Bernie Sanders had issued a statement making clear his intention to stay in through the June primaries but not with the goal of becoming the nominee.

Despite making that statement after Tuesday’s contests, Sanders on Wednesday said in Indiana he is “in this campaign to win and become the Democratic nominee.”

“If you want the candidate who will be the strongest nominee, you’re looking at that candidate right now,” he said.

But Team Sanders laid off hundreds of staffers in states that already have voted.

ANOTHER SEAT FOR CALIFORNIA?

An estimated 113,000 Latino children weren’t counted in the 2010 U.S. Census, a study by the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund and other advocacy groups found this week, and the groups want a plan from the U.S. Census Bureau about what will be done differently in 2020, Sarah Wire reports.

Most of the uncounted children are in a handful of Southern California counties, and 47,000 live in Los Angeles County alone. There is a chance California could gain another congressional seat in 2020, and “that will depend on everyone being counted,” NALEO Executive Director Arturo Vargas said. “It masks what the real population looks like in Los Angeles County when you are missing 47,000 children.”

INBOX TROUBLE

A top Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department official forwarded emails with jokes containing derogatory stereotypes of Muslims, blacks, Latinos, women and others from his work account during his previous job with the Burbank Police Department, according to city records.

Tom Angel, who is Sheriff Jim McDonnell’s chief of staff, sent the emails in 2012 and 2013 when he was the No. 2 police official in Burbank, hired to reform a department reeling from allegations of police brutality as well as racism and sexual harassment within its ranks.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- Toms Shoes is letting consumers vote with their feet.

-- Trump staked out some middle ground in his foreign policy address in Washington on Wednesday.

-- Trump’s claim that illegal immigration is at a record high? Not true.

-- A push to legalize renting cars to drive for Uber and Lyft advanced to the Assembly floor. If the bill passes, it would override regulators who are considering limiting the practice.

-- L.A. City Hall has big plans to memorialize Prince next month.

-- Our state convention coverage will start Friday morning on our Essential Politics news feed here.

LOGISTICS

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