Garvey will target independents, soft Dems in bid against Schiff
LOS ANGELES >> Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey calls himself a “conservative moderate” who shouldn't be buttonholed into conventional political labels, a self-styled description that provides a window into how he hopes to win over independents and soft Democratic voters in his longshot Senate campaign against Demo- cratic Rep. Adam Schiff.
A Republican hasn't won a Senate race in California since 1988, and GOP candidates running conventional statewide campaigns have a long record of Election Day misery in the heavily Democratic state.
Garvey's campaign has already benefitted from his splash of celebrity appeal — he's a former MVP and perennial All-Star who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. In a presidential election year, the campaign plans to emphasize that he is not a rigid devotee of former President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again movement, even though Garvey has voted for Trump twice and hasn't ruled out doing so again.
At the same time, the campaign will look to target persuadable, middleground voters grown weary of the state's left-leaning politics and homeless crisis, as well as rising gas prices, crime rates and housing costs. On Tuesday night, Garvey urged those disillusioned by the state's challenges to “come join us.”
“We don't have a single endorsement on the website — that's intentional. It's a Steve Garvey campaign,” said campaign communications director Matt Shupe.
“He's never been this partisan guy,” Shupe added, noting that since the start of his campaign Garvey has said he would seek votes across party lines. “We have an open field to define him politically. Adam Schiff does not.”
Given California's prominent Democratic tilt, the strategy that is only beginning to take shape is a gamble at best. And presidential election years typically see elevated Democratic turnout in the state, an additional challenge for any Republican candidate. Meanwhile, Garvey needs to quickly accelerate his fundraising if he hopes to reach potentially millions of voters with texts, digital ads and other costly communication.
He benefitted in the primary from millions of dollars in ads financed by Schiff and his supporters that attacked Garvey as “too conservative,” which indirectly lifted his profile with Republicans and right-leaning voters.
Schiff and Garvey easily outdistanced their two main rivals Tuesday, Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. Garvey notched his spot on the fall ballot by positioning himself as an outsider running against entrenched Washington insiders.
“You can't run a traditional partisan campaign,” said Ron Nehring, a former state Republican Party chairman. “He cannot take a hyperpartisan or strident ideological approach.”
Republicans account for only about 1-in-4 voters in the state, so Garvey will need to look to other groups to build a competitive coalition. Those could be built around issues, such as drug abuse or the high cost of living, or geography, such as with farmers in the state's Central Valley.
“A Republican has to build a majority in California not by party registration, but by going after one group after another,” Nehring said. He even suggested Garvey reach out to members of Porter's campaign who might be angry with Schiff to try to lure support: “Most of them will say no, but a handful of them may say yes,” he added.
The strategy to ferret out dormant, potential supporters bears resemblance to a sprawling turnout operation mounted by billionaire Republican-turnedDemocrat Rick Caruso in Los Angeles' 2022 mayoral race. He deployed hundreds of paid canvassers to reach out to undecided Latinos, Asians and independents. He lost to Bass by just under 10 points.