A.Schiff spends 11 mill. to elevate (R)Garvey to beat Dems

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The Intra-Democratic Battles Kick Off in California: Millionaire self-funders, dirty-trick tactics, pro-Israel and crypto money everywhere. The ideological sparring within the party takes a back seat to campaign shenanigans.
BY DAVID DAYEN
The American Prospect
MARCH 5, 2024
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-03-0 ... alifornia/

Donald Trump, now confirmed for presidential balloting, will all but clinch the Republican nomination on Super Tuesday, when 15 states and one territory hold their primaries. But voting tomorrow actually begins primary season for the House and Senate, with the nation’s first contests in five states: Texas, California, Alabama, North Carolina, and Arkansas.

There aren’t many contested Democratic primaries in four of those states. North Carolina’s supreme court gerrymandered House districts into oblivion, and the remaining Democratic seats are held by incumbents without real opposition. No Democrats are competitive in Arkansas. There is a likely Democratic open seat in Alabama that was made plurality-Black after a Supreme Court redistricting fight: The top two will likely go to an April runoff in the crowded primary (read the Prospect’s analysis of that race here). Texas’s Senate race, one of the only remote chances for a Democratic pickup, is not very interesting because Colin Allred is virtually certain to win the nomination. In the Texas House, Sheila Jackson Lee might lose to her former intern, but that’s probably headed to a runoff as well.

The real action is happening in California, featuring familiar dynamics that pit ideological progressives against centrists with big money looming in the background, something we will see play out throughout primary season. While many of the ultimate outcomes in November are not in doubt, who makes it to Washington and what issues they care about really do matter. This low-turnout primary (one of the sleepiest I can remember in my home state) will set the stage. Here’s a rundown:

CA-Sen: In statewide races in California, money and name recognition dwarfs everything as a deciding factor; sadly, issue divergence or grassroots operations have limited resonance. Combine that with the top-two primary, where everyone votes on the same candidates regardless of party and the top two advance to the general election, and the fact that Republicans have no current path to statewide victory, and a pattern emerges: The person with the most money effectively donates a portion of their stash to single out a Republican they think would be easy to beat in November.

That’s the predictable display happening right now. Rep. Adam Schiff and his super PAC allies (including one made up of Indian casino owners) have outspent the entire rest of the field on advertising by more than 2 to 1, and 60 percent of those ads mention Steve Garvey, the Republican former baseball player who hasn’t run a single ad on his own behalf. This elevation of Garvey—which calls him “too conservative” for California in ways that attract conservatives—has consolidated the Republican vote; one poll last week showed him in first place.

Rep. Katie Porter, is contending with this box-out tactic while also getting hammered by a $10 million crypto super PAC campaign tying Porter to “corporate” money rather dubiously. (One of the allegedly corporate donors was from a tiny community development organization.) Despite the conviction of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, crypto cash will play a significant role in Democratic primaries once again, as we’re seeing in Texas (where candidate Julie Johnson, seeking Allred’s open seat, loudly endorsed crypto on her website and got an immediate $1 million super PAC investment) and Alabama (where Shomari Figures has received nearly $2 million in support from the same crypto PAC as Johnson).

At least one poll has shown Porter still within striking distance of second place, but fighting a multifront war with Schiff’s cynical in-kind donation to Garvey on one side and crypto billionaire half-truths on the other is probably going to be overwhelming. Barbara Lee has been unable to galvanize support because of money. There is grumbling about Lee and Porter failing to consolidate the progressive vote, but some real talk: If any race in the country can be an advertisement for public financing of campaigns rather than fake “reforms” that merely facilitate clever campaign tactics, it’s this one.

CA-12: The race to replace Barbara Lee in Oakland in the House was over largely before it began, with former Kamala Harris aide and transit official Lateefah Simon, with Lee’s support, waltzing into the top two against likely token opposition. This is an example of the invisible primary, as Simon locked up support months ago and her opponents are accusing her of refusing to debate. Low-turnout primaries in safe seats often wind up this way, especially in California, where the top politicians use the same consultants and endorsements get steered toward a favored son or daughter.

CA-16: There is a free-for-all in this Silicon Valley–area race to replace longtime Rep. Anna Eshoo, with more money spent than any contest in California. Unlike in Lee’s case, Eshoo’s endorsement of former state Sen. Joe Simitian didn’t clear the field, which includes San Jose’s former mayor Sam Liccardo, Assemblymember Evan Low, Palo Alto City Councilmember Julie Lythcott-Haims, and Peter Dixon, a veteran who co-founded a PAC called With Honor, who is getting significant support from donors and a multimillion-dollar independent expenditure campaign connected to that PAC. With Honor PAC’s most notable donor is Jeff Bezos, who has given $10 million to the organization, but there’s also money coming in from the Walmart family fortune and Michael Bloomberg. Having billionaire elites buy a safe House seat is unadvisable, but could become reality.

CA-22: The top-two primary again plays a role in this key Central Valley swing seat in November. Incumbent Republican David Valadao barely defeated former Assemblymember Rudy Salas, a conservative Democrat, in 2022. But far-right Republican Chris Mathys almost beat Valadao (who voted to impeach Trump after January 6th) in the primary that year, and Democrat state Sen. Melissa Hurtado is in the race. (She says she got in because of EMILYs List polling showing she could win, but she hasn’t been able to raise much money.) With two viable Republican and two viable Democratic candidates, each side is worried that the votes will line up in a way to block their party out of the general election.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is actually taking sides in the primary with nearly $1 million in ads boosting Salas, who is bizarrely going after Hurtado for missing abortion votes in 2022. (The abortion rights group that dinged Hurtado that year gave her an A rating in 2023.) The lockout potential is a function of a top-two primary that does not always reflect the will of the voters.

CA-29, CA-34: Here are a couple of seats with a progressive split. Rep. Tony Cárdenas is retiring from his Northeast San Fernando Valley seat, and has endorsed Assemblymember Luz Rivas, who also got the Congressional Progressive Caucus endorsement. But Angelica Dueñas has run against Cárdenas from the left twice before, and is a Berniecrat/Medicare for All supporter. Both are likely to advance to the general election.

In CA-34 in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles, Rep. Jimmy Gomez, also a Progressive Caucus member, has barely survived two past challenges to his left from David Kim, an immigration attorney. Gomez won 53-47 in 2020 and 51-49 in 2022. They’re both on the ballot again.

CA-30: This is the race to replace Adam Schiff, and there are 15 candidates on the ballot. The most prominent, all Democrats, are state Sen. Anthony Portantino, Assemblymember Laura Friedman, former city attorney Mike Feuer, and L.A. school board member Nick Melvoin. Also, the guy who played Cory in Boy Meets World is running.

One issue in the race is Azerbaijan’s attack on the Armenian-held territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which makes sense if you know that Glendale, part of the district, is home to a significant number of Armenian Americans. This will be an unpredictable race: Friedman is the only woman and has a progressive record, but Portantino has labor support, and all four have raised enough to compete.

CA-31: Another open seat in L.A. to replace Rep. Grace Napolitano, this race is notable for one big-money entrant: Gil Cisneros, a former lottery winner who self-funded his way into Congress for one term in a swing district before losing in 2020. Between his $4.3 million in new self-funding, Napolitano’s choice of state Sen. Bob Archuleta (who has an alleged sexual harassment case hanging over him), and center-left state Sen. Susan Rubio, it’s slim pickings here. Cisneros is playing the Schiff tactic of accusing a rando Republican candidate of being “too conservative,” to boost him and lock Rubio out of the general election. Rubio responded by elevating a different Republican. Fun stuff.

CA-47: Katie Porter’s old seat has gotten a lot of attention because of AIPAC’s first foray into 2024 primaries, spending millions to knock out state Sen. Dave Min. I wrote about the race, and the puzzling AIPAC attack, last month. The important thing to know is that this is a road test of AIPAC’s strength in 2024; they reportedly have $100 million to spend and plan to be very active (an AIPAC ally, Democratic Majority for Israel, has endorsed Rivas in CA-29). Most House candidates can’t survive these kinds of assaults. But will this flip a Democratic seat in November? Joanna Weiss, the indirect beneficiary of the Min attacks, is a first-time candidate, and it’s not certain she will get the same support against staunchly pro-Israel Republican Scott Baugh if she reaches the general election. In this sense, EMILYs List, which supported Weiss early, could be boosting a Republican flip.

That’s the rather grim picture in California: millionaire candidates, pro-Israel and crypto money everywhere, bizarre bank-shot campaign posturing to help Republicans earn a general-election spot. This has backed the question of what candidates will do in office to the sidelines. Welcome to politics in 2024.

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Katie Porter TRIGGERS Establishment By Calling Out Corruption
by Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur
Young Turks
Mar 7, 2024

Rep. Katie Porter is taking heat saying her election to replace the late Dianne Feinstein's senate seat was "rigged." Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks.



Transcript

Katie Porter has unleashed the ire of
the establishment the Democratic
establishment for stating that the
California Senate primary race was
rigged against her by the ultra wealthy
now this was a story that we actually
covered yesterday there was a concerted
effort to defeat her um and the way that
they did so was through Adam Schiff
propping up the Republican in that race
and then the other way in which it
happened was uh the tech industry came
in crypto came in and uh basically spent
a ton of money to destroy her because
she's one of the few Democrats in
Congress who uh has questioned what
about has basically said that the crypto
industry needs some regulation crypto
industry doesn't want regulation so you
can understand why they would spend a
lot of money to destroy her now with
that said uh Porter came in third in the
race uh to fill Diane Feinstein's seat
in California meaning that she did not
end up qualifying for the general
election so uh representative Adam
Schiff came in first with 33 % of the
vote and then the Republican that he
propped up uh Steve Garvey uh came in
second with 32% of the votes so the
general election will be between the two
of them Katie Porter only received 14%
of the vote now yesterday on Twitter she
writes that uh thank you to everyone who
supported our campaign and voted to
shake up the status quo in Washington
because of you we had the establishment
Running Scared withstanding 3 to one uh
in TV spending and an onslaught of
billionaires spending Millions to rig
the election so the rig the election or
rig this election is the part that uh
definitely drew the eye of establishment
Democrats which we'll get to in just a
moment Porter also wrote that special
interest like Politics as it is today
they want to keep it the way it is
because they control the politicians as
we've seen in this campaign they spend
Millions to defeat someone who will
dilute their influence and disrupt the
status quo but take my word for it I'll
never stop fighting for you okay so what
Katie Porter is referring to is just
this effort to destroy her because of
what her message was and the one debate
that I watched of these different
candidates Katie Porter really did come
out on top she was the only one who had
any specificity in that debate she was
clearly prepared she talked about
corruption and money in politics over
and over again which I think is an
important message to spread because it's
a virus that really has infected both
political part parties which leads to a
situation in which the politicians don't
really listen to the concerns of their
constituents they're more persuaded and
seduced by the money that's been given
to them by their campaign donors and so
uh Porter is referring to the crypto
industry Super PAC Fair Shake which
spent more than $10 million opposing
Porters campaign Fair shak's top donors
include the crypto exchange coinbase
crypto firm Ripple Labs Venture Capital
firm and dreon Horwitz and its Founders
and the winkl Vos twins now Fair Shake
has had over uh $73 million on hand to
uh spend in the way that they spent uh
in the senate race and so here's a blurb
from schiff's campaign website where
it's clear that he uh is not interested
in regulating crypto California is on
the Forefront of new developments in
technology from web 3 and Quantum
Computing to cryptocurrency and
blockchain Technology we need to develop
comprehensive regulatory Frameworks to
ensure that these companies and jobs
stay here meaning in California and grow
here and that the United States REM
Remains the global leader in these
important new technologies so that let
me decode it for you that means
deregulation and tax breaks which is
what the crypto industry absolutely
wants now let's just quickly go to the
backlash and then Jen I'll let you go
off so Porter has been widely criticized
by liberals on social media and neocons
ever since she posted what she posted on
Twitter but the most infuriating
response actually came from the
fairshake pack itself they write thank
you Katy Porter for giving fairshake
credit for your loss but don't forget to
give some credit to Elizabeth Warren and
Gary gendler for their misinformed and
misguided attempt to destroy a critical
foundation of the Innovation economy
hilarious and then you have CNN reporter
Andy uh kazinski saying that uh she lost
by 20 points but is saying the election
is rigged because she was outspent yeah
it's not that hard to understand but
there seems to be like that response Jen
seems to just be not only an acceptance
of the corruption in our political
system but like an attempt to protect
and defend it we might have millions of
people watching this show but you can be
the Difference Maker because we just
need 1% of our audience to be paid
members and then this show can be around
forever so you can make that difference
click join now what kazinski is saying
is Well that's her fault for not being
brib more if if she was just more
corrupt she would have gotten more money
and she would have finished better and
now she's
complaining get better at bribery Katie
Porter that's so crazy says a CNN
reporter yeah okay so I mean you read
the we read you the exact quote there
and that's my interpretation it's I hope
it's not that complicated for you all so
because people like to pretend that they
can't understand simple things okay so
let's let me explain simple things uh
and I write out a lot about this in my
book Justice is coming about 95 % of the
time the person with more money wins a
congressional race whe whether it's the
house or the Senate now it doesn't
matter if they're Republicans Or
democrats conservatives or liberals
nothing matters just whoever has more
money wins 19 out of 20 races so that so
that means if you're a reporter that you
should talk about hey the one
determinative factor is not their
policies at all at all it's not even
close the determinative factor is who
got bribed more and if you think that
it's like a great thing oh well he took
money from the uh Drug Company companies
and he took money from the insurance
companies and from the banks and from
the defense contractors and from APAC
and from this kind Lobby and that Lobby
and you think that's a good thing well
I'd love for you to defend your position
so Andrew kazinski tell us how how
wonderful money in politics is and are
you saying that it didn't affect this
election you can't be saying that I mean
it doesn't look like you're saying that
and you would be a lunatic to say that
Ian it seems like he's saying this did
the money in politics did impact this
this race and why is Katie reporter
complaining she didn't raise enough she
didn't get bribed enough that's that's
how it reads maybe he meant something
completely different and by the way
we're we're fair so Andrew if you meant
something else explain what you meant
because right now it looks like you're
like yes corruption is awesome look at
this sore
loser didn't get bribed enough if you
just taking more Ron money and help them
start more Wars you would have won but
instead you didn't you were honest boo
okay so by the way remember the reason
why Adam Schiff propped up the
Republican in the race is so the general
will be between Schiff and Steve Garvey
and then he can fearmonger about how
Steve Garvey voted for Trump and he's
very dangerous and he doesn't value
democracy and he's going to dismantle
democracy that's that's it one trick
ponies that's the problem with these
Democrats okay he didn't want to run
against Katie Porter because Katie
Porter actually was prepared during that
debate and I just remember thinking to
myself man she is trouncing everyone on
that debate stage way easier to run
against a republican that you can
fearmonger about which is exactly what
Adam Schiff is going to do yeah and then
they say absurd things like well no she
lost because of her ideas okay you don't
if you say that you literally know
nothing about politics most people have
no idea who these candidates are said
they might have seen Adam Schiff in a
congressional hearing because he was
part of the impeachment of Donald Trump
so they saw him on TV they might have
seen Katy Porter with the white board do
you think they know barbar Lee's voting
record are you crazy okay no most people
have no idea and what where's the one
place they get their idea two places one
is ads and so if you buy more ads you
know some of the ads against Katy Porter
were ranked just false not even close to
True okay so they lie about who she is
so the people vote against her CU they
don't know who she is at all they think
she's a completely different person CU
she was they were lyed to and the other
place they get their Viewpoint is
mainstream media and mainstream media
tells you Adam Schiff is an American
Hero he was the one defender of us
against Donald Trump Adam stff is
supported by Pelosi and all the
establishment but Pelosi also took a
billion dollar in corporate campaign
contributions and is Alo deeply C how
dare you n see Pelosi is the greatest
human being Master legislator so when
mream media says crap like this gee I
wonder who has the advantage so then now
everybody else dog piles and like uh K
Port is wrong for pointing out
corruption no no no you if you're
pointing out corruption you're Pro Trump
lunatics go ahead final thing I'll say
is look there's a problem in the
Democratic party in that it has
absorbed never Trump
neocons and so that already crowded tent
has become a little too crowded for my
taste so George
Conway well who gives a damn what George
Conway has to like why is George Conway
involved in Democratic politics he's a
republic
okay he's a neocon but he's been you
know enemy of uh enemy of my enemy is my
friend that's the mindset of the
democratic party so since George Conway
despises Donald Trump then he must be a
good guy he chimes in on all this and
says Kudos and thanks to all the
Liberals and Democrats calling out Katie
Porter for her
language what was her language oh she
used the word rigged oh how dare you
that's trumpi it wait are you saying
that the lobbyists and the donors don't
control our politics that they don't in
a sense rig the results by funding one
candidate over another with millions of
dollars so that people are tricked by
their false ads are you because only a
lunatic who should be confined to a
mental hospital would say that you know
oddly enough I mean they're proving
Katie Porter's Point these are people
who love the status quo they love that
corruption has been baked into our
system as something that's totally legal
and okay bribery is part of our
political system it just is now and it's
not ex they don't call it bribery but
that's what it is that's what it is I
mean come it's bribery you morons you
call you call yourself reporters and you
can't tell what decides elections and
you can't tell that no one's voting on
ideas they're just voting on lives from
ads and you think that you you know
politics and you think that these dogs
these politicians don't do exactly as
they're ordered by their donors okay why
don't you look it up why don't you prove
me wrong cuz this your all the hundred
other reporters who are like how dare
Katie Porter how dare Katie Porter point
out corruption she's just like Trump
well I look guys you guys are
accidentally complimenting Trump when he
doesn't deserve it at all so prove me
wrong and show me the number of votes
that for example let's take Adam Schiff
who I think is a deeply corrupt
corporate Democrat show me the number of
votes that where he has disagreed with
his donors my guess is you won't
find I don't know if you'll find any but
you're not going to find more than half
a dozen and you'll find hundreds where
he did exactly what his donors want and
you don't you can't figure out the
pattern gee I wonder what's happening in
politics is it the money from the donors
or are they having ideological debates
and an and Adam Schiff has won the
Battle of ideas and Steve Garvey too
even though he's a republican in
California you don't think that was the
ads you think that people like Steve
garvey's idea by the way have you ever
heard Steve Garvey speak yes I have
during that debate okay please if you're
interested I believe it was a local Fox
news affiliate uh that had uh hosted
that debate there are no ideas being
shared in that debate it was it was one
of the worst debates I've ever seen
other than ktie Porter Point pointing
out accurately corruption Steve gargy
can barely put together a sentence he he
makes Trump look bright okay Steve
Garvey is like a
b and you think that guy won the Battle
of ideas in the state of California and
you think you're a reporter