Newsletter: Essential Politics: $8 million in less than six hours

I’m Christina Bellantoni, the Essential Politics host today. It’s time to start the week.

President Obama had a busy weekend in West Los Angeles. He hung out with "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" director J.J. Abrams and answered questions from political donors. He joked around with Jamie Foxx under a tent in the backyard of well-known psychiatrist Robin Berman after Foxx sang Motown. He joined a prominent interior designer and the U.S. ambassador to Spain at a dinner party, and implored the wealthy Democrats he met to get more people to vote.

In all, the president pulled in at least $8 million for Democratic campaigns Saturday during the trio of fundraisers.

Foxx sang some James Brown and brought Kelly Rowland from Destiny's Child up to perform with him. Among their songs was the duet "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." One attendee said Foxx told the crowd that Democrats need to win the White House.

The dinner party was hosted by interior designer Michael S. Smith and his partner James Costos, a former HBO executive who is now the U.S. ambassador to Spain. Smith, known as a designer for stars including Steven Spielberg, was chosen to redecorate parts of the White House in 2009.

The Democratic National Committee gave estimates of the money raised, saying roughly 200 people attended the Foxx concert and approximately 50 people were at the Smith home, each contributing up to $33,400 a person. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee did not give an estimate from their event at Abrams’ home, but said tickets were $33,400 each. The Hollywood Reporter reported the Q&A had 20 people, raising an estimated $750,000.

At two of the events, the president made a personal appeal for Rep. Scott Peters of San Diego, calling him "one of the finest members of Congress." He said Peters, who represents the 52nd district and is considered among the vulnerable House Democrats, has taken tough votes on trade and equal pay.

"He not only has a good heart but knows how to get things done," Obama said.

Peters won reelection last fall after a tight race. Obama won his district, one of the nation's wealthiest, by six points in 2012.

The president also talked about the importance of increasing voter turnout, remarks that came on the same day that California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that will allow eligible Californians to be automatically registered to vote when they obtain or renew a driver's license at the DMV.

"My favorite statistic in 2012 was that among people who don’t vote I beat Mitt Romney by 25%," Obama said, as the crowd at the Berman event laughed. He said if more people had participated, he would have had a Congress "that would have cooperated with me."

I was the local pool reporter during the president’s visit, which meant I was trailing him for the duration of the day. Here’s the story we put together while I was zipping around in the motorcade.

The president headed to San Diego for the rest of his weekend.

NEW CANDIDATE IN CENTRAL VALLEY

Javier Panzar reports that Tulare County native Connie Perez used a flashy 2-minute YouTube video mixing Spanish and English to launch her campaign for the 21st congressional district in the Central Valley.

Standing in front of the Woodville Labor Camp in Porterville where she was raised, Perez declared, "The American dream to me is my life," over a series of photos from her childhood.

Perez, an accountant and a partner at the Bakersfield-based Brown Armstrong Accountancy Corp., is the latest Democrat to challenge Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford).

Fowler City Councilman Daniel T. Parra has struggled with fundraising since announcing his run in April, raising just $24,134 as of July. Perez’s campaign hasn’t yet filed financial reports, but she had enough money to hire Los Angeles consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker to promote her video.

Valadao has trounced his previous two challengers despite the Democratic Party’s 47%-to-31% registration edge over Republicans. Obama won his district by an 11-point margin in 2012.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Zach Hunter made sure reporters had seen a Fresno Bee story in which Fresno County Democratic Party chairman Michael Evans criticized Perez’s ties to the Central Valley and called her a "recent convert" to the Democratic party.

Public records show Perez registered to vote as a Republican in 2004, then later as decline-to-state. She registered again as a Democrat in 2013 listing a Pasadena address. A Perez spokeswoman said she was working in Pasadena and recently moved back home to Bakersfield where she is now registered to vote.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- Brown took action on a bunch of bills ahead of his Saturday night deadline. Get caught up here with everything our hard-working Sacramento team filed.

-- Chris Megerian finds Brown is already looking to the future after an uncharacteristically bumpy stretch this year.

-- Mark Z. Barabak on how Sen. Bernie Sanders tripped up Hillary Rodham Clinton's waltz to the White House.

-- Sanders will raise money in Los Angeles the day after the first Democratic debate. He also is making a new gun control push.

-- Senate hopeful and Atty Gen. Kamala Harris had harsh words of her own about gun control at the Politicon convention Friday. "They should have closed the chambers of Congress, on the House and the Senate side, and said all you members go in there, only you, and spread out the autopsy photos of those babies and require them to look at those photographs. And then vote your conscience," she said, referring to the 2012 shooting at Newtown, Conn.

-- Noah Bierman explores what is next for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

-- Don’t miss the first in an investigative series examining what Exxon knew about climate change and how the melting ice made it cheaper and easier for the giant to explore for oil.

-- California’s $68-billion bullet train project isn’t getting the massive infusion of private capital officials were counting on. Read the story.

-- Have suggestions for squares on our Democratic debate bingo cards? Send them our way! We’ll post them online and use them at our debate watch party in downtown Los Angeles. If you’d like to join us, please RSVP.

LOGISTICS

As a reminder, Monday through Thursday, we’ll send a morning email from Los Angeles. Fridays, you’ll get an afternoon note with the week’s best stories that provide fresh insight on the presidential campaign and other great long reads to take you into the weekend from Washington bureau chief David Lauter. Learn more about the newsletter here.

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