IMPEACHMENT draws CALIFORNIA majority — BECERRA sues JUUL — PG&E CEO grilled by CALEG — NEWSOM’s national healthcare model?

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THE BUZZ: California voters are warming up to impeachment.

For months, as momentum to try and remove Donald Trump has built to the point that every freshman California Democrat in Congress has gotten on board, the national Republican Party has derided the drive as not just pointless but as political poison. They’ve brandished Public Policy Institute of California polling from May (back before the Ukraine chapter) showing an unequivocal majority of the California electorate opposed beginning proceedings.

But new PPIC polling registers a broad shift in favor of the i-word. An eight-point majority of likely California voters now believe the president should be impeached and removed from office, including a slight majority of the all-important independent voter bloc. And those responses were recorded before public hearings launched last week with dramatic testimony from foreign policy officials.

There are warning signs within those responses, though: Probable voters were slightly more likely to disapprove of how Democrats in Congress are handling the impeachment inquiry, and the support for impeaching Trump is not uniform across California. Slightly more voters in the Inland Empire and Orange County-San Diego areas are against impeachment and removal; in the Central Valley, home to a couple of contested House races, voters overwhelmingly oppose the idea. (One more data point: a new GOP-aligned ad blitz targeting Dems over impeachment is skipping California).

PRESIDENTIAL PROSPECTS: Former Veep Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren took some flak for eschewing the California Democratic Party convention this weekend, but they remain in the good graces of California Democratic primary voters: they’re effectively tied as the top preference with about a quarter of the electorate each, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders at 17 percent. Sen. Kamala Harris is languishing at 8 percent, a notch above South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Voters continue to feel pragmatic, vastly preferring the candidate they think can beat Trump to the nominee with the best policy ideas.

FIREWALK WITH HIM: Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing alright by the state he governs, drawing plurality approval ratings without cracking 50 percent. But wildfire-connected blackouts continue to present political peril, with a plurality of likely voters disapproving of how Newsom has handled the issue. Clear majorities of adults and voters are concerned about losing power.

SPLIT ROLL STRUGGLES: The ballot initiative to lift Prop 13 property tax caps and direct the proceeds to schools continues to look politically precarious, with just 46 percent of likely voters saying they would back it against 45 percent who wouldn’t.

Take a look at the full PPIC results here.

BUENOS DIAS, good Tuesday morning. Another round of public impeachment hearings just began a few minutes ago in D.C., with Lt. Col Alexander Vindman and VP Mike Pence aide Jennifer Williams appearing this morning.

— QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I think we’re on our third strike for PG&E. Strike one was the San Bruno gas explosion that they tried to cover up and then they lied about it. Strike two was the 2017 and ’18 wildfires. Strike three is the woefully inadequate response to these power shutoffs. We cannot nip around the edges; it’s now time for this state to be able to have all options on the table. They failed us too many times.” State Sen. Mike McGuire during a legislative hearing that trained legislative anger on the embattled utility and its CEO.

— TWEET OF THE DAY: Bloomberg tech-labor reporter @JoshEidelson: “hey I just met you and this is crazy but if you’re going to claim the story is factually inaccurate then how about offering an example of a fact in it that is not accurate”

— WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.

TOP TALKERS

— “Possible pay-to-play scheme for ambassador role in Trump administration uncovered by CBS News,” via CBS: “Emails obtained by CBS News show the nominee, San Diego billionaire Doug Manchester, was asked by the RNC to donate half a million dollars as his confirmation in the Senate hung in the balance, chief investigative correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.”

— “Orinda Halloween shooting: District Attorney declines to file charges,” by the Merc’s Nate Gartrell.

— “2 victims identified in mass shooting in Fresno as famous singers by Hmong news,” by the Fresno Bee’s Brianna Calix.

BAD APPLES? “Noose, threat of lynching, racist graffiti during construction of Apple’s Spaceship campus: feds,” by the Merc’s Ethan Baron: “All of this happened at Apple’s ‘Spaceship’ campus in Cupertino while the $1.1 billion project was under construction, and a San Jose electrical subcontractor for Apple tolerated it, a just-filed civil-rights lawsuit by federal employment regulators alleges.”

THE TRUMP ERA

— “Congress strikes stopgap funding deal, postpones border wall fight,” by POLITICO’s John Bresnahan and Caitlin Emma: “The continuing resolution unveiled by House Democrats would last until Dec. 20, leaving out any restrictions on border barrier spending, which President Donald Trump demanded in exchange for his signature.”

— “ICE quest for detention space in California draws fire from top Dems in state,” by the SF Chronicle’s Tatiana Sanchez: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to lock in new contracts for four privately operated detention centers before the state bans such agreements with companies on Jan. 1.”

PRESIDENTIAL PURSUIT

BAD FOR KAMALA: “‘Joe is an uncle to our state’: South Carolina polls show Biden with blowout lead,” by POLITICO’s Marc Caputo: “The newest polls are a gut-punch to the two African-American senators who have looked to the state as a springboard, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.”

— “Free public college tuition will expand opportunity to more Americans,” by South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the Sacramento Bee: “Cost should never be a barrier to a brighter future – and we can’t build a 21st century economy without including all Americans. So I’m releasing an ambitious plan to make educational opportunity available whether you go to college or not.”

BERNIEFORNIA: Sen. Bernie Sanders picked up another California endorsement Monday from Assemblyman Ash Kalra. The San Jose Democrat emphasized Sanders’ economic agenda, which he said would “reverse the 40-year decline of the middle class.”

— “California and Nevada Ask: Iowa Who?” by NYT’s Jennifer Medina: “In a series of forums in California and Nevada this weekend, candidates offered a glimpse of how they were pitching themselves to an electorate that is less white, more likely to be represented by a labor union, and often more liberal than crowds in New Hampshire and Iowa.”

CAMPAIGN MODE

TEAM SMITH: Assemblywoman Christy Smith continues to pile up the establishment endorsements for her CA-25 bid, with the Democrat adding Reps. Ami Bera and Alan Lowenthal to her growing California delegation list of supporters. Rival Democrat Cenk Uygur has the backing of Rep. Ro Khanna.

GAVINLAND

HEALTH CARE: “Does Gavin Newsom have the answer to Democrats’ health-care fights?” by POLITICO’s Angela Hart: “Newsom’s is by far the most relevant — and revelatory — experiential test of the Democratic health care ideas that will be so hotly debated on the Atlanta debate stage Wednesday night. And it offers something for everyone in the race to chew on:

“A testament to the power that a promise of a single-payer system can have in galvanizing the party’s base; the unforgiving realities that make a quick conversion to single-payer practically, and probably politically, impossible; and a way for a leader to win broader support for incremental steps that — if pursued diligently enough — could lead to universal coverage.”

CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR

PRESSURE ON PG&E: “PG&E aims to reduce shutoffs by one-third in 2020,” by POLITICO Pro’s Colby Bermel: “In an all-day hearing, legislators grilled PG&E CEO Bill Johnson for his company’s forced blackouts last month and heard from other utilities, state officials and community representatives in a standing-room-only auditorium.”

— “800,000 people could be blacked out Wednesday, Thursday,” by the SF Chronicle’s J.D. Morris and Carolyn Said: “Power shutoffs could begin a few hours earlier and last hours later than the weather issues but appear likely to be shorter-term than October’s multi-day outages.”

JUUL DRAMA: “California sues Juul, alleges company targeted youth,” by POLITICO’s Victoria Colliver: “In the 78-page complaint filed in Alameda Superior Court, the state also alleges that Juul failed to verify consumers’ ages and violated the privacy of minors by using their personal email addresses for marketing.”

— “Emergency measures: Bay Area cities scramble to stop recent spike of displaced renters,” by The Mercury News’ Marisa Kendall: “Assembly Bill 1482, passed in September, will cap annual rent increases at about 9% and prevent landlords from removing tenants without an approved reason, such as failure to pay rent. But the law doesn’t go into effect until Jan. 1. In the meantime, activists around the state report some landlords are using this window to kick existing tenants out now, presumably with the hope of moving in new, higher-paying renters.”

— “Stunned with grief after Saugus shooting: ‘The scares and trauma we see on TV came to Santa Clarita,’” by the LA Times’ Marisa Gerber: “Here in Santa Clarita, in this park that is forever changed, people crumple to their knees before the flag flapping at half-staff. Parents pray and sob, teenagers stare at the balloons, blue and silver for their school colors.”

— “Top Senate Democrats release principles for federal privacy legislation,” by POLITICO Pro’s Cristiano Lima.

SILICON VALLEYLAND

BECERRA SPEAKS: “Decoding California AG Xavier Becerra’s battles with Silicon Valley,” by POLITICO’s Cristiano Lima, Nancy Scola and Alexandra Levine: “In a meeting with reporters and editors in the POLITICO newsroom this week, Becerra ... discussed how he’s approaching investigating tech, his thoughts on existing antitrust laws and what he’s telling his old colleagues in Congress.”

— “Inside Facebook’s efforts to stop revenge porn before it spreads,” by NBC’s Olivia Solon: “The team’s goal is not only to quickly remove pictures or videos once they have been reported, as happened in Zehara’s case, but also to detect the images using artificial intelligence at the moment they are uploaded, to prevent them from being shared at all.”

— “Top Senate Democrats release principles for federal privacy legislation,” by POLITICO Pro’s Cristiano Lima.

LABOR STRUGGLE: “How Workers Are Fighting Back Against Big Tech,” by Vice’s Rick Paulas: “As these truths become more blatant, a diverse group of workers—programmers and coders, drivers and cafeteria staff—are beginning to bond as a sort of cohesive class. If they get there, it’ll finally force tech to do what it’s been claiming it does all along: make the world a better place.”

— “Silicon Valley’s Biggest Foe Is Getting Even Tougher,” by the NYTimes’ Adam Satariano and Matina Stevis-Gridneff.

— “WeWork May Lay Off Thousands,” by NYT’s Peter Eavis and Mike Isaac.

CANNABIS COUNTRY

— “Judiciary Committee schedules markup for marijuana legalization bill,” by POLITICO’s Natalie Fertig.

— “New Jersey marijuana legalization bill dead; lawmakers will let voters decide,” by POLITICO’s Sam Sutton.

HOLLYWOODLAND

— “Justice Department to Terminate Longstanding Legal Rules for Movie Distribution,” by WSJ’s Brent Kendall and Erich Schwartzel: “The department’s antitrust division has concluded that the rules, laid out in long-ago legal settlements known as the Paramount consent decrees, have outlived their usefulness in a world where the movie business has changed considerably.”

MEDIA MATTERS

— Christine Mai-Duc, until recently an LATimes political reporter, announced yesterday that she’ll be covering state politics and housing for the Wall Street Journal out of Los Angeles.

MIXTAPE

— “Homeless mothers, activists take over vacant Oakland house,” by the East Bay Times’ Marissa Kendall.

— “Outgoing Costa Mesa Police Chief Claims Retaliation at City Hall,” by the Voice of OC’s Brandon Pho.

— “Bay Area home to 55 of the nation’s 125 most expensive ZIP codes,” by the SF Chronicle’s Kathleen Pender.

— “‘I stand for the truth': the man sentenced to 47 years for crimes he didn’t commit,” by The Guardian’s Sam Levin.

— “Citrus Heights wanted this $1.2 million payout in police excessive force lawsuit kept secret,” by the Sac Bee’s Sam Stanton.

BIRTHDAYS

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is 43 … Larry King is 86 … Hunter Sprole … Nicole Isaac

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