Money talks in Calif. Senate race
Rep. Schiff leads field in funds, support as other Dems, GOP follow
LOS ANGELES — A crowded primary contest to fill the U.S. Senate seat once held by the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein is showing again that money matters in notoriously expensive California while testing whether the state’s long-squabbling Republicans can unite behind a single candidate for an outside chance at the seat.
Voting is about to start, with a Monday deadline for counties to mail ballots.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, who rose to national prominence as the lead prosecutor in then-president Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, has built up a a dominant advantage in fundraising while consistently topping polls. But a large chunk of voters remains undecided heading toward the March 5 election.
Under California rules, Democrats and Republicans appear on the same primary ballot and the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general election, regardless of political party. Schiff, who has warehoused plenty of money to blanket the state with ads on TV, cable and streaming services, appears to be in the strongest position to gain one of those two November slots.
He’s being pursued by two other wellknown Democratic House members, Reps. Barbara Lee and Katie Porter, and Republican and former Los Angeles Dodgers star Steve Garvey, a former National League MVP who is making his first run for public office 37 years after retiring from baseball.
In all, more than two dozen names will appear on the Senate ballot for the six-year term that begins next year, though many of them are political unknowns.
Come November, the seat is expected to stay in Democratic hands in a state where Republicans haven’t won a U.S. Senate election since 1988.
With Schiff appearing poised to take one of the November spots, Porter’s campaign has been routinely targeting Garvey, with a recent fundraising email warning the former MVP’S fame threatened to “be the reason we lose Katie’s voice in Congress for good.”
Schiff, meanwhile, is running ads statewide that call Garvey “too conservative for California,” which might be intended to lift Garvey’s profile with conservatives and dampen Porter’s chances since Garvey would be a longshot in the fall.
Porter said in a statement that Schiff is trying “to game the system to get an opponent they have the best chance of defeating” in November.
Feinstein died in September, ending a long career in which she broke gender barriers and was a passionate advocate for abortion rights and gun control.