What to Know About California's US Senate Race

Episode Transcript

This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to the Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. Okay, crazy, but it’s almost February, which means it’s almost March, which means it’s election time. The primary election is scheduled for March 5th, and ballots are going to be going out soon. And we’re going to be making some big decisions, including which top two candidates should advance in the race for U.S. Senator come November. The last person who held the seat, Dianne Feinstein, held it for more than three decades befo re her passing last year.

Marisa Lagos: Yeah, this is unusual, and these are not term limited, so whoever wins could be there for most of your adult life, Ericka.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra:: Today I sit down with KQED politics and government correspondent Marisa Lagos to talk about who’s running for California’s open Senate seat and what it means for us. How rare is an open Senate seat in California?

Marisa Lagos: This is not technically true, but my feeling is that there has not been one in my lifetime as a voter. This really is the first time since 92 that there’s been a truly open seat without sort of one candidate who is just, like, overwhelmingly favored to win.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra:: The Senate seat, Marisam is currently occupied by Laphonza Butler who was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom. But she’s not running right.

Marisa Lagos: That’s right. You know, she was a little bit of a surprise appointment. And I think a lot of us, myself included, I will admit, I really expected her to run. Why that is, is not a question that we all sort of fully understand the answer to. I know she talked about the fact that after her appointment, it was really tough on her family. She’s a black woman, she’s openly gay. She has a daughter. I think that this is a very difficult time to serve, and she apparently just did not feel that she wanted to turn around right after being appointed and run a very tough campaign. So she will only hold this seat for about a year.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra:: Let’s walk through the four major candidates then. Who is running and what are each of them known for, starting with the Democrats?

Marisa Lagos: Yeah, well, let’s start close to home here in the Bay. Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee is running. She came up in Oakland politics, organized with the Black Panthers.

Barbara Lee: I have been a consistent progressive who gets the job done.

 

Marisa Lagos: I think she’s best known for her vote against authorizing force after nine over 11.

Barbara Lee: I voted against the authorization to use military force right after the horrific attacks of 9/11. I voted against the Iraq authorization. I said then.

Marisa Lagos: And I would frame her as really running, you know, as as a Bernie Sanders type candidate. Medicare for all. Very anti-war. Came out early for a cease fire. The only black woman in the race and also the oldest candidate in the race.

Adam Schiff:  I took on the president, I investigated him, I led his impeachment when he.

Marisa Lagos: Adam Schiff , Los Angeles Democratic congressman, probably best known for his role in, running the first impeachment inquiry of former President Trump.

Adam Schiff:  When he inciting an insurrection against our country. I served on the January 6th the committee to hold him accountable.

Marisa Lagos: Former federal prosecutor. He’s really running on this kind of defend democracy argument.

Adam Schiff:  I if Donald Trump is elected president than we are. And it rhymes with crude. He is crude. He is the greatest threat to our democracy in our history. The best thing that we can do. And I’ve gone toe to toe with him, and if need be, I will go to toe to toe with him again to defend our democracy.

Marisa Lagos: You know, a lot of his policy positions really center around things like strengthening institutions like the Supreme Court and the voting system in order to protect against somebody like Trump.

Katie Porter:  Before I was elected to Congress five years ago, I was a consumer protection advocate. I took on greedy corporations and Washington officials asleep at the wheel.

Marisa Lagos: Riding on the kind of more populist angle is Katie Porter, Orange County congresswoman. She’s a protege of Senator Elizabeth Warren. She’s best known in Congress for coming in to committee meetings and, holding folks like Chase CEO Jamie Diamond to account with her handy dandy white board.

Katie Porter:  I’m willing to hold Wall Street to account for its failure to build the housing that we need. And we can afford to hold Big Pharma to account for overcharging us, for prescription medicines, to hold big insurance, to account for denying our claims.

Marisa Lagos: You know, she’s really trying to frame herself as an outsider, even though she’s been in Congress. As I said, she really sort of relies on a much more populist message. She’s a single mom of three kids, former UC Irvine professor. And she really, I think, has relied heavily on that personal narrative, as well as her sense that the whole system is rigged and that a lot of what she wants to do is kind of push back against the power of corporations and also members of Congress.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra:: And before we kind of talk about the differences between some of these candidates, there is one Republican, Steve Garvey. Can you tell me a little bit about him and what he’s known for?

Marisa Lagos: Yeah, I mean, he is definitely in the mix. The last poll actually had him a few points behind Porter.

Steve Garvey:  I think many of you know me. Over 50 years ago, I came to California. The Dodgers brought me up for the day my dreams came true.

Marisa Lagos: So he’s a former first baseman for the, L.A. Dodgers. He also played with the Padres. He retired back in 1987. So some of our younger listeners may not be as familiar, but I think long time Major League Baseball watchers do remember him. Pretty well. Never run for office. Is running as a Republican.

Steve Garvey:  At one party. Started to take over. There was only one voice in California, and this vibrant state became a member. As a conservative moderate, I thought it was time to stand up.

Marisa Lagos: Says he voted for Trump the last two times, but doesn’t know if he’ll vote for him again. Has been pretty vague about his policy positions, although I would, you know, argue as parroting some kind of familiar rhetoric around border security, homelessness and public safety. But, you know, this is a very deep blue state. Republicans have virtually the same number of registered voters as independents. And so I think there’s a chance that he could get through this primary in the top two, but it would be a very steep climb for him to win the actual seat. That would be pretty extraordinary, just given the numbers.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: What is then the biggest difference between these candidates, especially the three Democrats?

Marisa Lagos: Isn’t that the million dollar question? I mean, if you look at their voting records in Congress, there’s been a number of analyzes. They voted similarly, like 90% at the time. I do think that that belies some of their differences. But in general, when it works, when it comes to a policy that’s actually going to make it to the floor of the Senate. I think they would be in lockstep on most issues. But one area we’ve really seen a lot of daylight between them is on what’s happening between Israel and Hamas and the Gaza Strip. And, you know, we saw some of the differences between these candidates at the debate last Monday.

Barbara Lee:  Yes. I called for a cease fire, a permanent cease fire. Israel deserves to live in peace with security free from Hamas and all terrorist attacks. And I’m going to continue to condemn the horrific attacks.

Marisa Lagos: Barbara Lee has always been really sort of anti-war. She talks a lot about the fact that what happened after nine over 11 didn’t necessarily make the US safer in a lot of ways, that there is this tendency to get dragged into these conflicts. And she’s really framed this as a question of security, not just, you know, for the Palestinians, but the Israelis and the U.S..

Barbara Lee:  Killing 25,000 civilians. It’s catastrophic, and it will never lead to peace for the Israelis nor the Palestinians. It will spiral out of control, like I said it did. And what, after 2001 and it did.

Marisa Lagos: That she feels like what’s happening is not doing a service to anybody’s sort of safety.

Adam Schiff:  No country, after having been attacked by terrorists like Israel was on October 7th. No country could refuse to defend itself. It has a duty to defend itself. And I think the United States should support Israel in defending itself.

Marisa Lagos: More on on the side of what Israel has been doing. Would be Adam Schiff, very staunch Israel supporter. It says that we would never, you know, ask ourselves to not respond if we were attacked as Americans and that he really doesn’t see a path to a cease fire right now with Hamas.

Speaker: Congressmember Porter, some critics have said you’ve tried to have it both ways on this. You just heard two different worldviews laid out on this. Where are you?

Marisa Lagos: Katie Porter ‘s had a little bit of challenge on this issue. You know, foreign policy is not her strong suit. As I said, she came out more as a consumer advocate, and I think she’s struggled to find a lane on this. She had resisted calls for a cease fire. And then a few weeks ago, kind of put out a pretty extensive statement saying that she would like to see a cease fire, however she wants all these conditions met, which includes some very sort of high bars that feel very unlikely politically.

Katie Porter:  So I’ve called for a release for all the hostages resources to rebuild Gaza, making sure Israel is secure and a free state for Palestinians where they can thrive. So just to be clear, she’s calling for a cease fire right now. You’re saying we need to do all this other stuff first, right? The parties to this conflict are Israel and Hamas. Cease fire is not a magic word. You can’t say it and make it so.

Marisa Lagos: I mean, recent polling has shown a lot of divisions within the Democratic Party on this question. Younger voters, voters of color, really tend to sympathize more of the Palestinians and oppose the way Israel has responded. Older voters, whiter voters in the Democratic Party tend to side more with Israel. And so I do think that that’s there’s an opportunity there for both Porter and Lee. But one of them is going to have to make it into the top two, I think, to really drill down on that issue heading into November.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Coming up. What else differentiates the three Democrats and what role Republican Steve Garvey might play in the race? Stay with us.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Another issue where some of these divisions also showed were with this issue of earmarks. Can you explain that?

Marisa Lagos: Yeah. This is like I think super fascinating, but maybe I’m just a dork. Katie Porter, whose, you know, kind of message is that the economy is rigged. Government is rigged. You know, it’s not working for for regular people has taken a very hard line against what are colloquially known as earmarks. Or maybe in the past, pork spending.

Marisa Lagos: You might remember it called. You know, this is the process by which elected officials kind of go to the administration in charge, you know, within Congress, and make the case for individual projects or other sort of spending within their district. So, you know, this is honestly what a lot of politicians run on. I will bring money back home. Your taxpayer dollars will work for you.

Katie Porter:  The earmarks process actually short changes. California, diverse districts and diverse states actually get half as much money. We only get two senators, which means will we get every state gets two sets of earmarks. So the process actually prevents us from getting the share of funding that we need based on our population and based on our problems.

Marisa Lagos: Katie Porter thinks that it essentially favors special interest, that it’s not a good way to do business, that policymakers with expertise in those policy areas should be the ones, you know, making these calls. And so she has not only said she will not, as a congresswoman, ask for earmarks for her district, that she would not, as one of two U.S. senators, do the same, and that she wants to see the entire system abolished.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: What do Schiff and Lee have to say about earmarks?

Marisa Lagos: They’re unapologetically supportive of them. Both of them point to money they’ve brought home to their congressional districts. Shift talks about homelessness in LA. And Barbara Lee actually frames that as a question of equity. She says that this is one of the only ways that you see communities of color, low income communities and neighborhoods have a say at the table because they can elect people. And that she feels that it’s a really important tool to continue to get those dollars.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, Marissa, we just talked a little bit about where some of these candidates stand on the issues. Do we know anything about who is supporting these Democrats? We know anything about the endorsements they’ve gotten so far.

Marisa Lagos: Yeah. So Schiff has really cleaned up when it comes to his colleagues in Congress. He has the support of Nancy Pelosi, former speaker, and sort of de facto leader, even though, you know, she’s an emeritus now. He has a lot of his fellow members of Congress from California are supporting him. Barbara Lee, she’s getting support from folks like reproductive freedom for all that was formerly narrow pro-choice. The Congressional Black Caucus is backing her.

Marisa Lagos: Katie Porter has a handful, you know, of of local labor unions and others, including statewide, the California School Employees Association. Senator Elizabeth Warren, I think very telling. All three of them have the support of the California Labor Federation. That is one of the biggest labor groups in the state. That tells me that they think any one of these three would be just fine. One interesting thing Garvey has no endorsements, and his campaign says he hasn’t asked for them.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Yeah, well, let’s talk just a little bit more about Steve Garvey. How should we be thinking about his role in this race?

Marisa Lagos: Democrats should be taking him seriously. While it is. As I said, it would be very extraordinary for somebody with an R next to their name to win statewide. There has not been a statewide Republican elected since 2006. But politics is crazy and the world is crazy. So you can never say never, right? You can never say that he has no shot. Who knows? Who knows what he how he pivots, what the landscape looks like. It was interesting. On Monday night, I think we saw all three Democrats really go after Garvey.

Speaker: There are a lot of people in this country that love Donald Trump and think he was a great president. What’s your what’s your view?

Steve Garvey:  It’s all a personal choice. As my personal choice, I will make it in the sovereignty of wherever that is. And that’s my personal choice.

Marisa Lagos: One after another. All three Democrats really piled on and tried to push him on. Things like whether he would support Trump, like where he stands on things like abortion, health care, you know, how to deal with things like homelessness.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: What does Steve Garvey say about Donald Trump? Anything to kind of help us place him in terms of. Republican candidates.

Marisa Lagos: His answer to Did Biden win was yes, unequivocally. So. He’s not an election denier. But if you listen here, he really is struggling to figure out how to talk about this when he is asked point blank, will he support Trump? And I think he tries, you know, to throw some meat to the base in terms of how he frames Biden as well.

Steve Garvey:  When the time comes, I’ll do exactly what I said to you. I will look at the two opponents. I will determine what they did. And at that time, I will make my choice. I don’t believe Joe Biden has been for good for this country. I heard has said that, that Trump was terrible for the world, right? Yeah. He was. We were less safe. We were safer, more under him than we are under Biden.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: I mean, all that said, Marisa, there is still a chance that Garvey advances to the November election, right?

Marisa Lagos: Sure. And you have to think about it as a sort of a math problem. So let’s assume that a little under half of registered voters are Democrats, and about a quarter are Republicans, and a quarter are independents right now. And, you know, these three Democrats will split a lot of that Democratic vote. So there is an opening for him to be in the top two. Of course, we have a you know, we don’t have a closed primary system here. It’s not by party. It’s the top two vote getters.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, Marisa, what are the stakes of this race?

Marisa Lagos: This is a six year term in a seat with no term limits. This is potentially, you know, a lifetime election, a once in a generation election, for sure. I think the stakes are who California wants to see representing them in Congress, not just tomorrow or next year, but in the coming years. And what is it that they value in terms of that voice, one of 100, only 100 senators and who they think is going to be able to, you know, whether it’s a Trump presidency or a Biden presidency, advocate for the state and the policies and positions that are important to people here.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Marisa, thank you so much.

Marisa Lagos: My pleasure.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: That was Marisa Lagos, a politics and government correspondent for KQED. This 35 minute conversation with Marisa was cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo. Maria Esquinca is our producer. She scored this episode and added all the tape music courtesy of Audio Network.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra: By the way, make sure you’re subscribed to the Bay wherever it is that you’re listening, so that you don’t miss our upcoming coverage of the March primaries and the November general election and everything leading up to it. The Bay is a production of member supported KQED in San Francisco. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Peace.