Porter fades, Garvey rises in Senate race

The latest polling in California’s bitter U.S. Senate race on Tuesday provides a glimmer of good news. U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, a progressive firebrand from Orange County, is fading in the polls. Porter epitomizes one of the most annoying character types in D.C. politics. She’s an unctuous moralizer with the thinnest legislative record and a personal background peppered with scandal.

A protégé of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-massachusetts, she built a fund-raising juggernaut by trading in leftist clichés. And she did so from a district with a slight Democratic lean. Most “purple” district lawmakers take a moderate tack, but she’s unabashed in her positions, earning some credit for forthrightness. But we’re pleased voters are likely to send her packing — or back to her subsidized university housing.

Under California’s jungle primary system, the top two votegetters move on to the general election in November. Final pre-election polling shows Adam Schiff, the Democratic representative from Pasadena, with 28%, former Major League Baseball player Steve Garvey (the nominal Republican) with 20% and Porter with 17%.

Porter supporters cry foul because Schiff — who has plenty of his own baggage — is running ads in conservative media attacking Garvey. The obvious goal is to boost support for Garvey among the state’s remaining conservatives and help him secure the second spot, thus assuring Schiff an easy victory in a one-on-one November matchup.

Such deceptive strategies really are the function of the state’s absurd top-two primary. Supporters of that measure (Proposition 14 in 2010) argued it would create more competitive elections by forcing primary candidates to campaign for all voters. Instead it has led to gamesmanship. Porter can’t complain too loudly, given her campaign has tried to boost the campaign of another longshot GOP candidate.

The likely outcome of a Schiff victory won’t be great for conservatives, but at least we will be spared a senator who specializes in economically illiterate bromides such as this one (as Porter posted last year on X): “Giant corporations are hiking prices with impunity because they don’t have to compete for consumers.”