Feinstein prepared to take on all comers
Sen. Dianne Feinstein has a message for state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León and anyone one else who might want to run against her next year: Bring it on.
“I’ve been challenged before. That doesn’t bother me,” the state’s senior senator told us. “Michael Huffington spent something like $33 million to try to unseat me in 1994, so I pretty much assume that it comes with the territory.”
Feinstein waited until this month to announce that she will run for another term. She’s 84, and there had been speculation that she will step aside.
“I’ve given this run for reelection a lot of thought,” Feinstein said. “These are very uncertain and troubling times, and I think there is a lot of value in what I’ve done.”
Among those accomplishments, she counts sponsoring a federal assault weapons ban that lasted from 1994 to 2004; co-writing a ban on torture in military and other government interrogations; and sponsoring the Desert Protection Act, the 1993 law that created Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks.
Few of the progressives who are lining up against Feinstein begrudge her those accomplishments, but they wonder whether new blood is needed.
“Let’s see what the new ideas are,” she said. “I want to
change things as much as anyone out there, but you don’t just jump up and down to solve problems. You need to be in a position to get things done and be ready to do the work.”
De León, for one, says he decided to run against Feinstein when he heard her tell a Commonwealth Club audience that if President Trump could only “learn and change,” he could be “a good president.” He wasn’t the only Democrat dismayed by her remarks. She says they were misunderstood.
“I said that I hoped he could change and become a good president, and for that I was bombarded with criticism,” Feinstein said. “But I also said that we are going to see if he is going to change. And it looks like he has not.
“Also, if there is an impeachment, we in the Senate will sit as a jury. So I feel I have to be somewhat careful.”
Still, Feinstein makes no apologies for working with the other side. Her co-sponsor on the torture ban, for example, was Sen. John McCain ,RAriz.
“I want to get things done, and sometimes that means working with Republicans,” she said.
If she wins re-election, 2019 will mark Feinstein’s 50th year in political office. Especially given the toxic atmosphere in Washington, you’d think she might get tired of it all.
“I do, sure, but you know, I deeply believe that this is what I was meant to do,” Feinstein said. “So I listen to my body and pace myself. I have learned over the years that I can go the distance. I’ve left some things out of my personal side. I don’t go to many social events, and I can’t remember the last movie that I’ve seen.”
As for the strain of another statewide campaign?
“I did five events last week,” she said. “I’m ready.” Tunnel trim: Despite a personal push from Gov. Jerry Brown, the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Board of Directors gave a resounding “no” the other day to helping to pay for his plan for two 35-mile tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to help deliver water to the Central Valley and Southern California.
The district was being asked to kick in $620 million to the project. The seven-member board’s vote against the idea was unanimous.
“I don’t want to hand ratepayers a huge bill without the voters having their say,” said board Chairman John Varela.
It was the second big water district to turn thumbs down on the twin tunnels. The other was the agricultural giant Westlands Water District on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.
Varela said the Santa Clara Valley board is still open to the project, but that it should be scaled back to a single tunnel. That would mean starting over on a project that has already cost $262 million in planning and environmental studies.
State Natural Resources Secretary John Laird said a redo might be on the table, but it “too soon to speculate on where that discussion will land.”
Valera said that when Brown called him the day before the vote, he was “absolutely clear” that he still wanted two tunnels. Valera said he had invited the governor to come down to the board’s meeting to make his case, but that Brown said he had to go to L.A.
“Well, you know,” Verela said, “Santa Clara is on the way.”
And that was pretty much how the conversation ended.
At least for now. Coffin races: The sight may be a bit disturbing, given the tragic wildfires in the North Bay. Nevertheless, organizers are going ahead with the fifth annual Napa Valley Coffin Races charitable event next weekend.
The races, scheduled for Saturday in downtown Napa, feature coffins on wheels being pushed along a 230-foot course by teams of racers, some of them wearing Halloween costumes. “Think of a go-cart, but probably not built as efficiently,” said Craig Smith of the Napa Downtown Association, which organizes the event.
“It’s a bit of a tricky thing” this year, conceded general manager Sara Brooks of the Napa River Inn, one of the businesses that help put on the event. “But it is also a charity event that brings the community together.”
Smith said proceeds from this year’s races will go to Teens Connect, a local group that helps troubled youths.
Organizers’ main worry is whether the smoke from all the wildfires will clear up in time. The optics? Not a big deal.
“Far from invoking any bad connections, it’s going to be way for people to finally relax and have fun,” Smith said.
So it’s game on, at 11 a.m., just after the Zombie Run.