‘Indispensable’ Feinstein gets Obama backing

Former President Barack Obama announced his support Friday for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s re-election bid, calling her a partner in his work and an effective champion for progress.

Feinstein has “always been an indispensable leader for California, and we became dear friends and partners in the fight to guarantee affordable health care and economic opportunity for everybody; to protect our planet from climate change, and our kids from gun violence,” Obama said in his endorsement message. “I ask Californians to join me in supporting Dianne Feinstein’s reelection and returning one of America’s most effective champions for progress to the Senate.”

Obama’s “effective” comment is exactly the message Feinstein is trying to get out to combat complaints from progressives that she is too moderate and too willing to compromise with President Trump and other Republicans.

Los Angeles state Sen. Kevin de León, a

fellow Democrat who is challenging Feinstein, has argued that all-out resistance is the only way to deal with Trump and that the 84-year-old former San Francisco mayor is out of touch with a younger, more liberal California.

Feinstein held out Obama, an icon for Democrats, as an example of what she wants to see in a president — and the model she will follow if she wins re-election.

“President Obama had the grace, wisdom and even-handedness that we quickly came to expect from a president — and that we’re now so sorely disappointed by its absence,” Feinstein said in a statement. “I’ll do my level best every day to build on President Obama’s accomplishments and carry his torch forward, no matter the obstacles that stand in our way.”

Polls in the Senate race have consistently put Feinstein comfortably ahead of de León and a pack of littleknown Republicans in her bid for a fifth sixyear term. She has the backing of most bigname Democrats, including Gov. Jerry Brown, Sen. Kamala Harris, former Sen. Barbara Boxer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Joe Biden.

The top two finishers in the June 5 primary will advance to the November general election.

De León got good news Friday when La Opinión, one of the nation’s most influential Spanish-language newspapers, announced its support.

“We believe that Kevin de León, more so than Feinstein, is capable of waking up our youth and energizing Latinos to take part in the process that determines their lives,” the paper said. “We believe de León’s trajectory has prepared him to serve in the United States Senate,

where he would be the right person at this moment in history.” — John Wildermuth Gun fight: On the day the president addressed the National Rifle Association’s convention in Dallas, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom launched a TV ad criticizing GOP hopeful John Cox for standing “with Donald Trump and the NRA.”

Newsom’s 30-second spot said Cox has “called gun laws ‘a waste of time,’ opposes background checks and a ban on assault weapons.”

The lieutenant governor is trying to isolate Cox by highlighting his support for the NRA in a state that has approved

some of the nation’s strictest gun laws. In 2016, Newsom fronted Proposition 63, which requires background checks for ammunition purchases and bans large-capacity magazine clips.

Cox’s team did not dispute that the San Diego County businessman once called gun laws “a waste of time” or that he opposes strengthening background checks intended to keep people with serious criminal convictions and mental health problems from buying guns. Aides defended the candidate’s opposition to banning assault-style weapons.

“Calling a ban on modern sporting rifles a commonsense gun regulation is absurd and unconstitutional,” said Cox spokesman Matt Shupe.

For his part, Cox said Friday that “President Trump didn’t give Californians outrageously unaffordable housing, the highest in the nation taxes, the worst poverty in the country — Gavin Newsom and the Democratic leadership of the past eight years did.”

This could be a preview of attacks the men will use in Tuesday’s gubernatorial debate, which will be televised statewide. Several recent polls show that Cox is potentially in position to finish second behind Newsom in the June 5 primary and advance to the general election in November. — Joe Garofoli