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Schiff’s ads are lifting Garvey’s poll numbers, possibly enough to get him onto the November ballot under California’s unusual primary system, in which the top two finishers, regardless of party, will advance. There are more than two dozen contenders in the primary. Some of the latest polling shows Garvey moving into second place, past Democrats Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, both of whom are members of Congress.
Porter, a darling of the activist left, is calling foul. (This will be the last lame baseball pun I use in this column, I promise.) Were she to come in second, Schiff might actually have a competitive race in the fall.
Schiff’s tactic, as cynical as it is, is becoming common in California and elsewhere. What’s more, Porter began running digital ads touting another Republican, attorney Eric Early, a perennial candidate polling at slightly more than 2 percent, as “the real Republican threat in the California Senate race.” She hopes Early will cut into Garvey’s vote.
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In an interview, Porter noted that early voting in California has been light. “Given where turnout is right now, there are lots of ballots still out there, and so I think there are lots of undecideds and lots of room for maneuver,” she said. “I feel heartened that we have enough time and millions and millions of voters to still connect with.”
The race to succeed Feinstein, who held the seat for three decades, comes at a generational hinge point for the Democratic Party, both nationally and here in the Golden State. Thus, it has exposed some of the Democrats’ intraparty tensions and fissures, notably over the war in Gaza. Schiff has been the most staunchly pro-Israel, while Lee called for a cease-fire the day after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. Porter has sought a middle ground with a vague call for a “bilateral cease-fire.”
Beyond their styles, though, there aren’t all that many sharp differences among the three leading Democrats in the race. All, for instance, said they would have voted against the bipartisan $118 billion border security and foreign aid bill that recently died in the Senate.
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Where Schiff is an institutionalist, Porter has a confrontational style and a flair for viral moments. Her fire is often trained on her colleagues in Washington. Which explains why only one other member of California’s congressional delegation has endorsed her. Meanwhile, virtually the entire Democratic establishment in California, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, has lined up behind Schiff.
Though Schiff is known nationally as one of former president Donald Trump’s chief antagonists, having been the lead House manager at one of his impeachment trials in the Senate, what came up more often during the days I followed the campaign were California-centric issues such as building more housing and cleaning up the water in the state’s vast agricultural Central Valley.
“People are looking at the candidates and saying, okay, there’s not that much difference policy-wise between the three Democrats. They’re all fairly progressive, but who has a record of getting things accomplished? And who’s going to bring down the cost of housing and the cost of child care and who has a record of being able to deliver?” Schiff told me. “The race is shaping up to be a race between results and mere rhetoric.”
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Schiff constantly mentions the federal money he has brought home, for instance, while Porter denounces earmarks — appropriations directed to individual projects in specific districts — as inherently corrupt. She also points out that big states such as California usually lose out to smaller ones, proportionally speaking, in the scramble for money.
It would be wrong to overlook the struggling, underfunded effort of Lee, who is the only person of color among the leading contenders. Though she is vigorous and sharp at 77, her age is a liability, especially given Feinstein’s incapacity during her final years in office.
Yet, over her decades in the House, Lee can claim to have been in the vanguard of — and often a lonely voice for — causes that are now in the mainstream of Democratic progressivism. Among them are repealing the Hyde Amendment, which denies federal funding for abortion, and reforming marijuana laws as a racial justice issue.
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In the wake of 9/11, Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for use of military force that gave President George W. Bush the go-ahead to launch the global “war on terror” and subsequently led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Her warning that giving the president a blank check would lead to “forever wars” turned out to be prescient — even many Republicans now agree.
“I have sort of pushed the envelope on issues,” she told me. “I think a lot of it has to do with leadership, looking at who’s followed, once I’ve stepped out.”
This year will likely mark another turning point for California. The 1992 election, in which both of its U.S. Senate seats were on the ballot because of vacancies, was a first in U.S. history: Both were won by female candidates — Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. They became the emblem of what is now remembered as the “Year of the Woman.” At least one woman has represented the state in the Senate ever since.
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That will change if Schiff, as expected, wins in November — a point about which he is sensitive. “I think representation and diversity are really important. And I think voters will consider both of those things, and they should,” he told me. “What I’m asking voters to also consider is my record of getting things done for California.”
As for his two Democratic opponents? Schiff would be just as happy if voters forgot they were there. He has picked whom he wants to run against. It’s that other guy. The one who can’t possibly win.
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LOS ANGELES — If you are anywhere in the vicinity of a television in California, it is hard to miss the ads being run by Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic front-runner in the March 5 primary to fill the Senate seat of the late Dianne Feinstein. They warn, as one puts it, that someone in the race is “too conservative for California.”
Those spots — on which Schiff’s campaign has spent close to $5 million, according to media tracking firm AdImpact — are pretty much the best thing that political novice Steve Garvey has going for him. They aim not to quash support for Schiff’s only significant GOP opponent but to gin it up in right-leaning corners of the state.
No one thinks Garvey, mostly remembered for his decades-ago career as a first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, has much of a chance of actually getting elected in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2-to-1. And the truth is, Garvey is barely bothering to campaign. (The subject line of one of his recent fundraising emails was: “Remember the 70’s?”)
So why the curveball commercials?
Schiff’s ads are lifting Garvey’s poll numbers, possibly enough to get him onto the November ballot under California’s unusual primary system, in which the top two finishers, regardless of party, will advance. There are more than two dozen contenders in the primary. Some of the latest polling shows Garvey moving into second place, past Democrats Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, both of whom are members of Congress.
Porter, a darling of the activist left, is calling foul. (This will be the last lame baseball pun I use in this column, I promise.) Were she to come in second, Schiff might actually have a competitive race in the fall.
Schiff’s tactic, as cynical as it is, is becoming common in California and elsewhere. What’s more, Porter began running digital ads touting another Republican, attorney Eric Early, a perennial candidate polling at slightly more than 2 percent, as “the real Republican threat in the California Senate race.” She hopes Early will cut into Garvey’s vote.
In an interview, Porter noted that early voting in California has been light. “Given where turnout is right now, there are lots of ballots still out there, and so I think there are lots of undecideds and lots of room for maneuver,” she said. “I feel heartened that we have enough time and millions and millions of voters to still connect with.”
The race to succeed Feinstein, who held the seat for three decades, comes at a generational hinge point for the Democratic Party, both nationally and here in the Golden State. Thus, it has exposed some of the Democrats’ intraparty tensions and fissures, notably over the war in Gaza. Schiff has been the most staunchly pro-Israel, while Lee called for a cease-fire the day after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. Porter has sought a middle ground with a vague call for a “bilateral cease-fire.”
Beyond their styles, though, there aren’t all that many sharp differences among the three leading Democrats in the race. All, for instance, said they would have voted against the bipartisan $118 billion border security and foreign aid bill that recently died in the Senate.
Where Schiff is an institutionalist, Porter has a confrontational style and a flair for viral moments. Her fire is often trained on her colleagues in Washington. Which explains why only one other member of California’s congressional delegation has endorsed her. Meanwhile, virtually the entire Democratic establishment in California, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, has lined up behind Schiff.
Though Schiff is known nationally as one of former president Donald Trump’s chief antagonists, having been the lead House manager at one of his impeachment trials in the Senate, what came up more often during the days I followed the campaign were California-centric issues such as building more housing and cleaning up the water in the state’s vast agricultural Central Valley.
“People are looking at the candidates and saying, okay, there’s not that much difference policy-wise between the three Democrats. They’re all fairly progressive, but who has a record of getting things accomplished? And who’s going to bring down the cost of housing and the cost of child care and who has a record of being able to deliver?” Schiff told me. “The race is shaping up to be a race between results and mere rhetoric.”
Schiff constantly mentions the federal money he has brought home, for instance, while Porter denounces earmarks — appropriations directed to individual projects in specific districts — as inherently corrupt. She also points out that big states such as California usually lose out to smaller ones, proportionally speaking, in the scramble for money.
It would be wrong to overlook the struggling, underfunded effort of Lee, who is the only person of color among the leading contenders. Though she is vigorous and sharp at 77, her age is a liability, especially given Feinstein’s incapacity during her final years in office.
Yet, over her decades in the House, Lee can claim to have been in the vanguard of — and often a lonely voice for — causes that are now in the mainstream of Democratic progressivism. Among them are repealing the Hyde Amendment, which denies federal funding for abortion, and reforming marijuana laws as a racial justice issue.
In the wake of 9/11, Lee was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for use of military force that gave President George W. Bush the go-ahead to launch the global “war on terror” and subsequently led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Her warning that giving the president a blank check would lead to “forever wars” turned out to be prescient — even many Republicans now agree.
“I have sort of pushed the envelope on issues,” she told me. “I think a lot of it has to do with leadership, looking at who’s followed, once I’ve stepped out.”
This year will likely mark another turning point for California. The 1992 election, in which both of its U.S. Senate seats were on the ballot because of vacancies, was a first in U.S. history: Both were won by female candidates — Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. They became the emblem of what is now remembered as the “Year of the Woman.” At least one woman has represented the state in the Senate ever since.
That will change if Schiff, as expected, wins in November — a point about which he is sensitive. “I think representation and diversity are really important. And I think voters will consider both of those things, and they should,” he told me. “What I’m asking voters to also consider is my record of getting things done for California.”
As for his two Democratic opponents? Schiff would be just as happy if voters forgot they were there. He has picked whom he wants to run against. It’s that other guy. The one who can’t possibly win.
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