Los Angeles Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and former baseball star Steve Garvey, a Republican who voted for Donald Trump, emerged from the March primary to be the next U.S. senator from California nearly tied with about 2.3 million votes each. But barring a major upset, Schiff is the clear frontrunner this November in the race to fill the seat former Sen. Dianne Feinstein held for three decades.
“Ever since California turned to a top-two primary system, real action has usually been in the spring, not in the fall,” said political analyst Dan Schnur, who teaches at the University of Southern California and UC Berkeley.
Regardless of the outcome, the Golden State’s two senators are set to be men from Southern California – the winner will join U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla from Los Angeles – after years of being represented by two women from Northern California.
The candidates will appear on the ballot twice, for the six-year term representing California in the upper house of Congress through 2030, and separately to serve out the final weeks of the term left vacant by Feinstein’s death in September 2023. The seat was filled the next month when Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler. She chose not to run in the scheduled election.
About 31% of March primary voters chose Schiff, who gained both fans and enemies while running the impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump.
Garvey, a former Major League Baseball star with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, dipped his toe into politics by entering the race, and also got nearly a third of primary votes.
Democratic voters were split among a competitive field, including Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee and Katie Porter. Porter came in third with about 15% of the votes, and Lee, of Oakland, got nearly 10% of the votes. Now, Schiff is likely to pick up most of those voters as he faces a Republican in the general election.
As of early September, the state has 10.2 million voters registered as Democrats, and 5.5 million registered as Republicans. So it’s little surprise that as November approaches, all signs point to California’s electorate strongly preferring Schiff over Garvey. Recent polling shows Schiff with at least a 20-point lead. And California hasn’t elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1988.
That, Schnur said, means much of the Republican party’s attention is focused elsewhere, not on boosting Garvey’s uphill battle in a famously blue state.
“Both parties only have a finite amount of money to spend on 33 Senate races… Neither one is going to spend a great deal on California.” Schnur said. And with the race’s outcome all but certified in the minds of most experts, even Schiff has focused his attention elsewhere.
After amassing $38.5 million for his campaign, Schiff has been fundraising and campaigning for other Senate races around the country, ones that will determine who his future Capitol Hill colleagues are likely to be and determine the balance of power in Washington, D.C.
“Schiff knows that barring a political earthquake, he’s …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
