Adam Schiff’s new ad draws ire from GOP and Dem opponents: Schiff, a preeminent defender of democracy, is meddling on the Republican side of the aisle. by CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO Politico 02/01/2024 01:42 PM EST https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/0 ... d-00139094
[x] “Adam Schiff knows he will lose to me in November. That's what this brazenly cynical ad is about," said California Rep. Katie Porter. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff is making crystal clear who he would rather run against in November, releasing a new TV ad Thursday that contrasts himself with Republican former Major League ballplayer Steve Garvey.
Schiff’s ad describes Garvey as too conservative for California — “he voted for Trump, twice, and supported Republicans for years, including far right conservatives.”
It’s hardly a new approach — with candidates from both parties employing the bank-shot strategy to boost an opponent for the primary whom they view as less of a threat to them in a runoff or general election.
Garvey, a first-time contender with little chance of winning an election in deep blue California, has barely raised enough money to run an operation and lacks the resources to air TV ads of his own. The assist from Schiff — which sends a strong signal to Republican voters in the state that Garvey should be their choice — comes just as the GOP candidate and Democrat Katie Porter are battling for a second-place finish on March 5 to advance to the fall runoff.
Porter blasted Schiff out of the gate, calling the tactic “cynical” and saying the Congress member acted out of fear he would fall to Porter in a November matchup.
“Adam Schiff knows he will lose to me in November. That’s what this brazenly cynical ad is about — furthering his own political career, boxing out qualified Democratic women candidates, and boosting a Republican candidate to do it. We need honest leadership, not political games,” Porter wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Nora Walsh-DeVries, Porter’s chief of staff, added, “I would not want to run against Katie Porter in a general election either!!”
Schiff’s camp, in a statement to POLITICO, defended its decision to target Garvey, ignoring Porter’s broadside and contending that Garvey’s candidacy poses the biggest threat to Californians.
“No one in this race has fought harder than Adam when it comes to protecting our democracy, our economy, and our planet. Steve Garvey will be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda if elected. California voters deserve to know the differences between the two top-polling candidates,” said Marisol Samayoa, a spokesperson for the Schiff campaign.
Porter and Garvey have been running neck in neck in public polls, and Porter herself went after Garvey in the race’s first debate on Jan. 22, sponsored by POLITICO.
Some outside groups supportive of Schiff have privately suggested they were considering running ads of their own pointing out Garvey’s past support of Trump.
The approach has become somewhat common in California, where the top-two finishers regardless of their political party meet again in a fall rematch. Gov. Gavin Newsom ran a contrasting campaign against wealthy Republican John Cox in his first race for governor in 2018, stunting Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa’s chances. Newsom did it again in 2022. And Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, promoted Republican Eric Early in his 2022 campaign.
“Republicans for statewide office can’t raise any money so they aren’t masters of their own fate,” said Jon Fleischman, a former executive director of the California Republican Party and strategist who has lamented the top-two primary as well-intentioned but allowing for too much gamesmanship. “These ads from Schiff will do more to promote Garvey than anything Garvey can do on his own.”
Still, Fleischman called Schiff’s ads “smart.”
“If he can successfully bring Garvey into the runoff with him, then his campaign is over and he won’t have to spend any money because we live in a blue state and a Republican isn’t viable statewide,” he said.
Matt Shupe, Garvey’s spokesperson, characterized the spot as a “trite political hatchet job.”
“Steve Garvey’s campaign has always been and will continue to be about bringing all Californians together for commonsense, compassionate solutions to today’s real problems, not trite political hatchet jobs. Californians are tired of this divisive rhetoric that aims to separate us into simple buckets against ourselves rather than unite us in common cause to better all of our lives. This is why Steve Garvey continues to rise in the polls.”
Perhaps the most enduring example of this was Missouri’s former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, whose 2012 ads held up then-Republican Rep. Todd Akin as “the most conservative congressman in Missouri” and “Missouri’s true conservative.”
McCaskill’s campaign billed the spots as an aggressive effort to tarnish Akin’s standing in the race. Three years later, POLITICO Magazine ran an excerpt from her book, which ran under the headline “How I Helped Todd Akin Win — So I Could Beat Him Later.”
But the tactic has come under more scrutiny in the Trump era, with Democrats in key battleground states receiving criticism for playing with fire by promoting hard-line MAGA Republicans and election deniers even as they claim that democracy is under threat.
That argument could be particularly damaging to Schiff, who’s billed himself as a strong defender of democracy following his role as lead prosecutor in the first Trump impeachment hearings. Though it’s not as potent in California compared with a state like Pennsylvania or Colorado where Democrats aren’t as dominant.
On Super Tuesday, millions of voters cast ballots in primaries across the United States, and we look at key contests in California, North Carolina, Arizona and elsewhere with American Prospect executive editor David Dayen. He says the California race to fill the seat of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein highlighted the ideological fight inside the Democratic Party, with centrist Congressmember Adam Schiff successfully boxing out his more progressive rivals by spending millions to elevate the profile of Republican candidate Steve Garvey. Both men are now headed to the general election, where Schiff is all but certain to win. “It was quite successful,” Dayen says of Schiff’s strategy.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with the results from Super Tuesday, when millions of voters in 15 states went to the polls.
President Biden and Donald Trump appear headed for a rematch in November after both candidates won nearly every race. Former President Trump defeated Nikki Haley for the Republican presidential nomination in Texas, California and 12 other states. Haley beat Trump in Vermont but is now reportedly expected to suspend her campaign today. President Biden won in all 15 states with Democratic contests.
Despite Biden’s victories, many Democratic voters continue to show their opposition to the president’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. In Minnesota, 19% of voters in the Democratic primary cast their ballots for “uncommitted.” About 12% voted “no preference” in North Carolina, as did 9% in Massachusetts.
In North Carolina, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary. MSNBC described him as a, quote, “Holocaust-denying, gay-bashing, extreme anti-abortion radical.” The Human Rights Campaign described Robinson as one of the most radical anti-LGBTQ MAGA politicians on the ballot in the country. Last week, Trump praised Robinson, who is Black, saying, quote, “I think you are Martin Luther King times two. In November, Robinson will face off against Josh Stein, who won the Democratic primary in North Carolina for governor.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced she will not run for reelection this year and will leave the Senate after one term, during which she left the Democratic Party after years of shifting further to the right.
Super Tuesday was the start of the primary season for House and Senate races in at least five states. In Texas, Colin Allred won the Democratic Senate primary, defeating state Senator Roland Gutierrez and others. Allred will face Republican Ted Cruz in November.
Many contested races were in California. In the primary race to replace longtime California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died last fall, Democratic Congressmember Adam Schiff defeated progressive Congressmembers Barbara Lee and Katie Porter. Under California election rules, the two Senate candidates with the highest number of votes advance to the general election. In this race, Republican Steve Garvey, the baseball star, came second, knocked out the other two Democrats. Garvey is a former Major League Baseball player, first-time contender, celebrated his victory Tuesday night.
STEVE GARVEY: Welcome to the California comeback. What you all are feeling tonight is what it’s like to hit a walk-off home run.
AMY GOODMAN: Democratic Congressmember Adam Schiff was the front-runner through much of the race, and he and his allies spent more than $11 million to elevate Garvey in hopes of beating his main intraparty opponents and keeping them off the ballot. This is one of the ads.
NARRATOR: Democrats agree: Conservative Republican Steve Garvey is the wrong choice for the Senate.
REP. BARBARA LEE: Our Republican opponent here on this stage has voted for Donald Trump twice.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Mr. Garvey, you voted for him twice.
REP. KATIE PORTER: As your own man, what is your decision?
NARRATOR: Garvey is wrong for California, but Garvey’s surging in the polls. Fox News says Garvey would be a boost to Republican control of the Senate. Stop Garvey. Adam Schiff for Senate.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, this is part of the concession speech Tuesday night from Congressmember Schiff’s opponent Katie Porter, who slammed Schiff’s spending during the primary.
REP. KATIE PORTER: Our opponents threw everything, every trick, millions of dollars, every trick in the playbook, to knock us off our feet. … We’re standing three to one in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires who spent millions peddling lies, and our opponent spending more to boost the Republican than promoting his own campaign.
AMY GOODMAN: Also on Tuesday night, protesters chanting “ceasefire now” interrupted Schiff’s victory speech.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: … get through all the travails of these challenging times without my incredible family.
PROTESTERS: Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I also want to thank my brother Dan and my brother David, who’s also here this evening.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Los Angeles to speak with David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect. His latest piece, “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.”
David, welcome back to Democracy Now! For people who don’t even understand what happened in California’s Senate primary, that it’s an open primary, if you can explain how the winner, Adam Schiff, the congressmember, helped to propel Garvey, the Republican, to be his opponent over his Democratic colleagues Barbara Lee and Katie Porter?
DAVID DAYEN: Sure. In California, everybody, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican or whoever, no party preference, gets the same ballot with all the same candidates on it. And then, the top two, regardless of party, advance to the general election.
Because of the size of California, money and name recognition are big factors. And what we’ve seen in a lot of races over the years, since this top-two primary has been put in place, is that the front-runner will try to pick their opponent. And in California, a very blue state, if the front-runner is a Democrat and they can pick a Republican for the general election, then in a statewide race they’re almost guaranteed to win that general election pretty easily and not have to exert too much effort.
So Schiff made a very concerted effort to elevate Steve Garvey. Steve Garvey did not run a single advertisement on his behalf. He did not campaign very much. Adam Schiff spent upwards of $40 million in terms of his total ad spend between him and his allies, and 60% of those ads mentioned Steve Garvey or, in the case of the ad you played, were entirely about Steve Garvey, including playing ads on Fox News saying Steve Garvey is too conservative for California, he voted for Trump, he’s too conservative. The idea was to consolidate the Republican vote in California and use that to force Garvey into the top two, thereby boxing out Schiff’s rivals Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. And it was quite successful.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, David, California is also important in terms of the results of House races for potential control of the House of Representatives. What did you see happening in the races for some of the congressional seats there?
DAVID DAYEN: Well, here we have some very interesting results, at least preliminarily. The one race I would point to is California’s 47th District. This is actually Katie Porter’s seat that she vacated to run for Senate. And there were two top Democratic candidates and one Republican. And it turned into a proxy fight involving AIPAC. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, their super PAC spent close to $5 million in negative ads against Dave Min, who’s a state senator in that district. And, you know, these supported Joanna Weiss, who is an attorney and a first-time candidate down there. And despite that onslaught, which is a really large amount of money for a primary race, it looks like Min is going to reach the top two, defying that almost $5 million in AIPAC spending. And he’s currently up by about 7,000 votes on Weiss in second place. And so it looks like Min is going to advance to the general election.
This is kind of a seismic result. We know that AIPAC is going to spend something around, according to reports, $100 million in primary races throughout the country this year. And the fact that their first foray, their first main race, they come up short, I don’t know — you know, every race is different, and Min was an elected official. He had won in that district before. But this is a pretty bad result for AIPAC in their very first attempt to influence the Democratic Party primaries.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I wanted to ask you also about Alabama. There was a significant redistricting battle in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. There were nearly two dozen candidates. How does this primary differ from previous elections in Alabama?
DAVID DAYEN: Yeah, so, it was because of a Supreme Court ruling that they added this second, plurality-Black district in Alabama. Before this point, there was only one Democratic member of Congress in Alabama. This was the 2nd District. And as you say, it spawned a free-for-all, opened up — people who live 200 miles away from the district were running in this race, because it was a rare Democratic-leaning seat in Alabama.
What happened was, there’s going to be a runoff in April between the top two candidates, because nobody reached a majority. One of them is a guy named Shomari Figures, who is the son of a state legislator down there, who was boosted by a good deal of support from the crypto industry, got millions of dollars of ads on his behalf from a crypto super PAC.
I should mention that in California, in addition to the spending by Schiff, you know, elevating Steve Garvey, Katie Porter was subject to $10 million in negative ads by — also by the crypto industry, by a crypto super PAC. And the combination of that, you know, the elevation of Garvey for second place to box her out and this heavy negative spending — I mean, practically all of the ads that I saw in the run-up to the election were negative ads against Porter or these ads against Garvey that were kind of too clever by half. So, you know, I think the crypto industry — we thought, after Sam Bankman-Fried was disgraced and convicted, that — you know, he was the main funder of crypto super PAC ads in 2022 — you thought that would die down. But, no, there are other crypto millionaires who are spending lots of money to get their favorite candidates into Congress.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to play a clip of the now North Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary winner, North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson winning the gubernatorial primary, MSNBC describing him as a “Holocaust-denying, gay-bashing, extreme anti-abortion radical,” Human Rights Campaign saying he’s one of the most radical anti-LGBTQ MAGA politicians on the ballot for making comments like this one from 2021.
MARK ROBINSON: The transgender movement in this country, if there’s a movement in this country that is demonic and that is full of anti- — the spirit of Antichrist, it is the transgender movement. And these same people gonna tell me, “You need to believe in global warming.” And then they tell me, “Follow the science. Follow the science.” You don’t even know what gender you are!
AMY GOODMAN: David Dayen, Trump praised Mark Robinson, saying, “I think you are Martin Luther King times two.” The significance of this primary victory for him?
DAVID DAYEN: Well, we’ve seen all over the country in past elections Republicans nominate very extreme figures that end up hurting not just their own candidacies, but the candidacies of other Republicans in these races. We saw it in Arizona last election with Blake Masters, very extreme Senate candidate, and Kari Lake, the gubernatorial candidate, both of whom lost. We saw it in Pennsylvania with — Josh Shapiro had a very large gubernatorial victory against an extreme candidate.
So, what tends to happen is that when Republicans nominate these real far-right candidates, their rhetoric, their comments get elevated, and other Republicans have to answer for them. And I think, almost certainly, we’re going to see that with Mark Robinson. He’s going to be one of the more famous Republicans over the next several months, you know, relative to Donald Trump, of course. And I think a lot of Republican candidates all over the country are going to have to answer for the comments of Mark Robinson.
AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of Senator Kyrsten Sinema saying she will not be running? She had been a Democrat, became an independent, famous, among many other things, for curtsying on the floor of the Senate as she then voted down an increase in the minimum wage.
DAVID DAYEN: Yeah, I think it’s quite significant. Obviously, there was going to be, it looked like, a three-way race. Sinema had left the Democratic Party and became independent this year. And so it looked like there was going to be a three-way race between her, Ruben Gallego, the Democrat, and Kari Lake, who lost the gubernatorial election two years ago but has now come back and is going to be likely the Republican nominee. And in that three-way race, it looked like Lake had a bit of an edge just because she had two people, you know, on the center-left side of the spectrum. Now it’s going to be a head-to-head between Gallego and Lake, and I think Gallego has a bit of a better shot. And as for Sinema, I guess the private equity job offer came through, and she’s going to move on.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: David, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about the presidential vote totals in the primaries. One is the significant numbers of “uncommitted” votes in Minnesota and a few other states on the Democratic side, but also the turnout. It seems to me — I haven’t looked at all the states yet, but it seems to me that there was far more turnout among Republicans than there was among Democrats in several major states. Does that suggest, obviously, the question of enthusiasm among both Republicans and Democrats as we go through this primary season?
DAVID DAYEN: I don’t think so. I mean, there really was no race on the Democratic side. Joe Biden is an incumbent. You had token opposition, people like Dean Phillips, who were running, but that race has largely been over.
It’s kind of true that the Republican race has largely been over, but you had two major candidates between Trump and Nikki Haley, and so I think there was more interest in turning out. And, of course, Nikki Haley received — you know, she won in Vermont, and she received significant vote totals in other states, so the enthusiasm may have been coming from the Nikki Haley side of the spectrum to get out and try to vote. But, of course, you know, Trump has kind of been the de facto nominee — and now probably the real nominee if Nikki Haley indeed suspends her campaign today — for a long time.
And so, even though I think voters haven’t quite tuned in yet, and they don’t really know yet that there’s going to be a rematch of 2020 — and whether that’s something they want or not, it’s clearly going to happen. But I wouldn’t read a whole lot into the turnout statistics at this point.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the uncommitted?
DAVID DAYEN: Yeah, I mean, it’s quite a phenomenon. I mean, these particular “uncommitted” campaigns in Minnesota and North Carolina and Massachusetts really sprouted up in a week in the wake of the Michigan “uncommitted” vote, which had a little bit of money and a little bit of a campaign for several weeks. The fact that 19% of the vote in Minnesota is going “uncommitted” shows that for those — you know, that small section of the electorate that is showing up in these primaries on the Democratic side, a nontrivial amount of those people are really agitated by the war in Gaza and want to see the administration change course on what they’re calling for. The administration has slightly shifted its rhetoric around a ceasefire but really is asking for the same temporary pause in fighting and return of hostages that they’ve always asked for. And so, clearly, there’s continued discontent among a slice of the electorate, which could be — you know, have a major impact in November, if they don’t see results.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, we have less than a minute, David, but the significance of one of the richest men in the world, if not the richest, Elon Musk, meeting with Biden [sic] at Mar-a-Lago this weekend, could pay off, what, all of his campaign debts, has referred to the Biden administration’s immigration policies as “amounting to treason”?
DAVID DAYEN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: He met with Trump, sorry.
DAVID DAYEN: Yes. Obviously, the factor there would be if he writes a big check, Elon. You know, he certainly has gotten more and more interested in politics. He tried to influence the DA’s race in Austin, Texas, where he lives, and failed spectacularly yesterday. Mr. Garza, the DA, progressive reform DA, won pretty convincingly in Austin. So he was unsuccessful in that foray. However, if he writes, you know, a $30 million, $50 million check to Donald Trump, obviously, there would be significant repercussions from that.
AMY GOODMAN: David Dayen, we want to thank you for being with us, executive editor of The American Prospect. We’ll link to all of your coverage of Super Tuesday.
When we come back, as Donald Trump solidifies his lead Super Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled Monday he can’t be barred from the ballot under the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment. Stay with us.
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.
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