With Tuesday only a sunset away, California prepares for it's most significant election in years -- not only for Democratic presidential candidates, but for U.S. Senate candidates as well.
LA Daily News' David Montero writes: "All of the rallies, all of the fundraisers, all of the phone banks and organizing events have brought California to the brink of its first meaningful primary in decades."
"Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have been locked in a protracted primary fight for five months and, while the former secretary of state holds a significant delegate lead over the Vermont senator, both candidates have treated The Golden State like it’s the golden ticket to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this summer."
"Eric Bauman, chairman of the Los Angeles Democratic Party, said he expects a high voter turnout, though he also isn’t sure it will be “off the charts” like some have predicted.
Meanwhile, exit polling shows that absentee voters favor Clinton over Sanders by a significant margin.
Capitol Weekly's Johnathan Brown writes: "With just 48 hours until polls close in California, the crucial Democratic presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders appears to be tightening. On the Republican side, the unopposed presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump is trying to show that he can consolidate the Republican electorate behind his candidacy."
"Both make for interesting contests, albeit for completely different reasons."
"As a core part of the Capitol Weekly Absentee Voter Exit Poll, we sought to develop a tool that would allow us to survey enough of the early electorate to track support at the statewide level for each candidate and obtain similar results from each of California’s 53 congressional districts. We seek to give our readers a sense of which districts are solid for a candidate and where the battlegrounds lie, based solely on absentee voters who have returned ballots."
Back to the campaign trail: Clinton stops by an Oakland church to continue garnering support--meanwhile, Sanders claims Clinton is overconfident and shouldn't count her superdelegates before they hatch.
John Wildermuth reports in The Chronicle: "Hillary Clinton rolled her campaign through the Bay Area on Sunday even as a pair of island victories brought her to the brink of a landmark Democratic presidential nomination."
"A Saturday win in the Virgin Islands left the former secretary of state needing 60 more delegates to secure the nomination over Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Her victory Sunday in Puerto Rico — which has, conveniently, exactly 60 delegates — is expected to leave her just short of the number she needs for a first-ballot nomination."
"That’s not the way Sanders sees it. He argued Sunday that Clinton can’t count the 547 officially unpledged superdelegates who have vowed to support her."
SEE ALSO: Clinton focuses on Trump (not Sanders) as she continues California campaign swing -- Ben Adler with CPR.
As the primary ramps up, special interest groups are spending more money than ever in hopes of influencing the legislature, while the G.O.P. tries to get into bed with business family Democrats.
AP's Alison Noon and Don Thompson report: Special interest groups have poured a record $24 million so far into California legislative races ahead of Tuesday's primary election as real estate agents, dentists, businesses, charter schools and others seek to influence the makeup of the Legislature."
"California Republicans are often on the margins in a state dominated by Democrats. With that being the case, some traditional GOP donors are now throwing their money behind business-friendly Democrats."
"Instead of giving directly to candidates, groups representing oil companies, education interests, developers, and businesses are increasingly likely to make independent expenditures that leave politicians with little control over campaigns that promote or tar candidates with mailers and other advertising."
Barbara Boxer's retirement has forced replacement candidates to go out and grab votes any possible way that they can -- especially the weekend before the primary.
Phil Wilon, Sarah D. Wire and Javier Panzar report: "The top candidates in California’s U.S. Senate race cooed at babies, schmoozed with hot rod aficionados and hung out with shotgun-shooting dentists this weekend, all hoping to win over a few last voters before Tuesday’s primary."
"Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in Inglewood, where President Obama made a surprise stop in 2011, was the must-see spot for Democratic hopefuls state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Orange, who lead the polls."
"George “Duf” Sundheim knocked on doors in Orange County, and campaign volunteers for fellow Republican Tom Del Beccaro spent Saturday morning burning up cellphone minutes pleading with voters to back their guy."
SEE ALSO: In open Senate primary, GOP is probably DOA -- George Skelton in LA Times.
And now from our "Cost to be the Boss" file ...
Some people are content with being number two, but not Arif Ahmad al-Zarouni from the UAE--a businessman who just spent millions of dollars on his country's most expensive vanity plate.
MSNBC: "A businessman in the United Arab Emirates has paid almost £3.4 million ($4.9m) for a licence plate bearing just the number “1."
"My ambition is always to be number 1,” said Arif Ahmad al-Zarouni, the businessman who emerged triumphant from the auction hall in Sharjah, the third-largest emirate of the UAE."
"Authorised by the police, sales of “distinguished” licence plates have become an increasingly lucrative business."