Feinstein at risk of losing in 2018? Don’t bet on it
Sen. Dianne Feinstein doesn’t need to worry about being challenged for re-election by state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León or any other single candidate.
What she needs to worry about is a posse of challengers getting into the race and making her the target. That’s especially true if some of them are wealthy enough to mount a sustained negative campaign. Those can damage any incumbent, no matter how popular.
But without that, I imagine she’ll still have “senator” in front of her name in 2019.
Feinstein is more than a politician. She is an instantly recognizable brand, and de León and all the others making noise about running are not.
As a matter of fact, I was in a bar the other night when a guy tried to convince me that Feinstein is vulnerable. There were about a dozen other customers in the place. Finally I said, “Tell you what — you go around and ask each one of these people who Dianne Feinstein’s opponent is. And when you come back and you’ve got at least five of the people in this room who even know she is being challenged, I’ll buy the whole house a drink in your name.”
He came back after a while and said to me, “I think I’d better buy you dinner. There wasn’t one person who knew who of any possible challenger.”
Wine aide: Word is Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, along with tech investor Ron Conway and Tipping Point’s Daniel Lurie, are working with Giants President Larry Baer and Another Planet Entertainment’s Gregg Perloff on a big benefit concert at AT&T Park for the Wine Country fire victims.
The goal would be to raise between $30 million and $50 million, with all of it going directly to those hit by the fire and with none to the “overhead” usually taken by big charities.
The exact date is still in flux, depending on which performers are available when. But they’re aiming to make it happen in early November. Kamikaze play: Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to file a collusion grievance against the NFL over his alleged blacklisting for starting the “take a knee” protests is a bad move.
Maybe he wasn’t ever going to be signed by another team, but this guarantees it. Football is not a civil service job, and no business is going to hire a guy who’s suing it. Civic improvement: The green covers along the fence at the ferry landing construction site on the Embarcadero are gone. And none too soon — they looked just like a line of garbage bags.
This wart on the waterfront was no way to treat one of the city’s showplace viewpoints.
It took a bit of work by local merchants and a helping hand from Supervisor Aaron Peskin, but the blight is gone and the light is shining.
And a tip of the hat for a quick response from the port.
Movie time: “The Foreigner.” Jackie Chan is back and as good as ever in this action feature. No need to get into the plot, other than to say it takes place in England and involves British intelligence and a bombing.
The best part: All the stunts look real, not like the computerized gimmickry you see in so many Hollywood movies these days. Great Eight: If you just won the lottery and are looking for a good place to celebrate, let me suggest dinner at Eight Tables.
It’s located at 8 Kenneth Rexroth Place, in back of China Live, but you might need a GPS to find it. It truly has only eight tables, but the tables are in four different rooms.
If it’s just you and a companion, you might get away for under four figures. Dateline London: Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta and I are on the advisory board of a transportation outfit that meets all over the world. Last week we were in London, and boy was it an education.
The downtown traffic gridlock makes San Francisco look like the Indy 500. Everyone, and I mean everyone, of every race, economic and social standing takes the Underground. And no homeless people on any of the platforms or trains. There isn’t room.
Once people found out I was from the Bay Area, the conversation naturally turned to the fires.
“Aren’t you worried, being in San Francisco?” one man asked me.
“Not at all. We learned how to handle fire back in 1906 during the big quake,” I boasted.
“Really?” the man said in that airy English way.
Then he looked me over and added:
“And were you there for that fire as as well?”