Newsletter: Essential Politics: Meet the factory workers who stitch ‘Make America Great Again’ hats

I’m Christina Bellantoni, the Essential Politics host today. Let’s get started.

Donald Trump’s campaign caps have become something of political legend this year.

People spend $25 to wear them both proudly and ironically. Voters ask the real estate mogul to autograph them. Trump alternates, wearing red, white and even camouflage. If you follow politics, no doubt you’ve seen the "Make America Great Again" slogan.

Lesser-known is that the hats are made in Los Angeles, roughly 130 miles from the border with Mexico. The Carson-based hat manufacturer pulled in more than $270,000 from the Trump campaign last quarter.

We sent a reporter to the Cali-Fame factory. Brian Kennedy downplayed the role Trump’s orders have played for his family-owned business, but several employees said this is the busiest November they’ve seen in years, with plenty of overtime work to go around.

Yolanda Melendrez, who has worked for Cali-Fame since 1991, said she tries to ignore things Trump has said about immigrants and people who look like her over the course of the campaign.

"A lot of what he says about Latinos is not correct," she told Christine Mai-Duc at the end of a recent Saturday overtime shift, over the sound of workers speaking Spanish on the floor. "When we first got the order [for the Trump hats] I said to myself, ‘Just wait until he sees who’s making his hats. We’re Latinos, we’re Mexicans, Salvadoreños.'"

Mai-Duc went inside the factory and delivers this report.

DONOR BACKLASH

Sarah Wire reports that last week’s vote on the Syrian refugee legislation might cost the Democratic Party.

Blake Byrne, a longtime art collector and philanthropist in Los Angeles, wrote a letter to several Southern California Democratic members of the House to scold them for voting with the GOP to pass the measure curbing the program for Iraqi and Syrian refugees.

"I too want a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives, but not people who use others hardships as their stepping stones," wrote Byrne, who has contributed $1 million to Democratic campaigns over the years, noting he would be withholding future funds.

He specifically criticized Rep. Scott Peters (San Diego), calling him an "immense disappointment."

"I know you’re in a very competitive district, but reelection at the expense of the Syrian refugees is not worth reelection," he said.

See who else received Byrne’s missive.

VOTER DATABASE HALFWAY THERE

A dispatch from Sacramento bureau chief John Myers:

California has struggled to build a robust statewide database of its 17 million voters for more than a decade, a project that received federal funding in the wake of the 2000 presidential election.

But slowly, progress is being made. On Monday, Secretary of State Alex Padilla reported that 31 of the state’s 58 counties have now connected to the new database, known as VoteCal, with the remaining counties scheduled to be plugged in by next June.

The database has taken on new importance with its operating status a key hurdle to implementing this year’s new law to create an automatic voter registration system linked to applying for a driver’s license.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- Scott Harrison reflects on Jerry Brown's rock and roll years. Don’t miss the photos.

-- John Myers reports that Brown has selected Obama admininstration housing official and Berkeley native Ben Metcalfe to be the new Department of Housing and Community Development director.

-- Todd Bosnich, the former campaign worker in the failed congressional bid of former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, was put on probation Monday for spreading a lie that may have contributed to DeMaio's 2014 defeat. The former aide was sentenced to 240 hours of community service, fined $2,500 and required to receive mental health counseling, Tony Perry reports.

-- David Zahniser finds a fight on Hollywood Boulevard he dubs Round 1 in what's expected to be a bruising citywide debate over growth, development and the city's willingness to stick with the zoning that's on its books.

-- Iowa has at best a spotty record when it comes to picking presidents, especially on the Republican side. Still, the candidates keep descending. Mark Z. Barabak explains why.

-- Michael Finnegan and Kurtis Lee use crucial general-election battlegrounds Colorado and Nevada to evaluate how Sen. Marco Rubio has been navigating the volatile issue of immigration in the primaries, and how that risks undercutting his support among Latinos there.

-- David Lauter reports on a new Pew survey showing voters are deeply frustrated with government leaders. And it turns out Donald Trump appeals to those voters.

-- A new study confirms what every Southern Californian behind the wheel already knows: Freeway traffic jams in the Los Angeles region are some of the worst in the United States.

LOGISTICS

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