Two and a half weeks before Election Day, Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank traveled to south Florida to shake hands with local Democrats and support U.S. Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
The same day, Republican Steve Garvey was at Temple University in Pennsylvania to accept an award at the Women’s Sports Media Symposium.
You could be forgiven for forgetting that both men were still running for the California Senate.
After losing the state’s most competitive Senate primary in a generation by an elbow, Mr. Schiff and Mr. Garvey faced off in a race that was not entirely decided.
Mr. Garvey has held few public events, Mr. Schiff regularly travels out of state to boost Democrats in competitive races, and neither campaign has undertaken a serious advertising campaign. Not yet.
It was exactly what Schiff had hoped for. He and his allies spent tens of millions of dollars touting Garvey’s conservative credentials during the primary campaign, propelling the former Major League Baseball star into the general election to become the Democratic congressman from Irvine. He avoided a more expensive and competitive runoff against Katie Porter.
“At that point, it’s just over,” said Sarah A. Hill, a political science professor at California State University, Fullerton. “The primary was the election.”
Schiff’s support among a majority of California voters has remained largely unchanged since then. Depending on who you ask, it’s either how popular Schiff is or how powerful he is against Republicans like Garvey seeking higher office in a state where Democrats hold a nearly 2-to-1 advantage in voters. It shows whether
Given that Mr. Garvey had toyed with the idea of running for the Senate since retiring from professional baseball in 1988, Mr. Schiff had a “better grasp of the issues” and “could have been more prepared.” ”, Schiff said.
“His strengths are as a ballplayer,” Schiff said. “As a policymaker, he does not exude credibility.”
Schiff said Garvey doesn’t align with what California voters want, but that’s not someone who voted for Donald Trump three times, but someone who will take action on climate change and reproductive rights. said.
Mr. Garvey and his campaign have not made clear how Mr. Schiff will vote on Proposition 36, a criminal justice reform that imposes harsher penalties for crimes involving retail theft and fentanyl. I’m criticizing things that don’t exist. Republicans support this bill.
Garvey also called Schiff a “liar” for his work on the Congressional committee that investigated the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign, saying in a debate: You can’t take it back. ”
Dan Schnur, a political science professor at Pepperdine, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California who has previously run statewide campaigns, said Garvey has a competitive advantage in states where Republicans have a fighting chance. He said it would have been a certain candidate.
“In a deep blue state like California, it’s impossible for Republicans to win statewide elections unless something extraordinary happens,” Schnurr said. And he said nothing special was happening.
Schiff fully cooperates with the Democratic Party
Since late September, Schiff has traveled to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Minnesota and Wisconsin to support Vice President Kamala Harris and potential Democratic colleagues in the Senate. .
That included a recent Saturday in Las Vegas, where Schiff campaigned for Harris and Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, who is running for re-election against Republican Sam Brown. did.
The day began at 9 a.m. outside the Nevada AFL-CIO headquarters. As more than 100 volunteers grabbed breakfast burritos and collected assignments and flyers, Schiff told the crowd, “It’s great to be in the House of Labor, or more accurately, in the parking lot of Labor.” That’s it,” he joked.
Schiff was a familiar face to many of the volunteers bussed in by the union from California to knock on doors.
Schiff then traveled to a campaign event in north Las Vegas, where he met with Mexican charro jockeys and appeared with Cesar Chavez’s grandson. At a delegate meeting for the powerful Western States Carpenters, he dropped three bombshells during a speech. Late vegan lunch with actor Bryan Cranston, who was working as a Rosen volunteer. I stopped by Congresswoman Susie Lee’s phone bank in Southern Nevada. and a return flight that landed in Burbank at 8:40 p.m.
Mr. Schiff has also been campaigning with other California Democrats this summer and fall, appearing and fundraising alongside Democrats seeking to flip the state’s most competitive House seat. Ta. He traveled the state in the final weeks of the campaign, campaigning with congressional candidates in Irvine, Fullerton, San Diego, Madera and Bakersfield.
“I never take it for granted,” Schiff said of his lead. “I have been actively campaigning throughout the state, much more aggressively than my opponent.”
Schiff’s campaign said he has raised nearly $10 million for Democrats. One brunch fundraiser in Los Angeles this summer raised $700,000, which was split between his campaign and eight Democrats running for Senate in battleground states.
“The House and Senate have a tremendous amount of control over what policies the next administration can pass,” said Kim Nalder, a political science professor at California State University, Sacramento. “He certainly understands those risks. And for him, there’s nothing wrong with setting himself up as an ally to people in need.”
Garvey is not very noticeable.
Mr. Garvey’s campaign did not respond to interview requests, and the number of public campaign events he held has decreased significantly. He toured the U.S.-Mexico border last December, visited Israel this summer and toured dams and wildfire-scorched areas in Shasta County in the fall.
Mr. Garvey also spoke at several branches of Calvary Chapel’s nondenominational evangelical church, a frequent stop for Republicans seeking high office in California. At an event last month, Garvey told an audience that California is “probably the most difficult Senate seat in the country” for Republicans.
“It’s been quite a journey,” Garvey said. “Having lived in this state for 50 years, performing and entertaining millions of people…You’ve seen me succeed, you’ve seen me fail. You’ve seen me get up and keep swinging and keep trying.” We do this because we have faith. ”
He also appeared at an Anaheim brewery in late October at a rally sponsored by the Orange County Republican Party, along with Young Kim, U.S. Rep. Michelle Steele and House candidates Scott Baugh and Matt Gunderson.
Despite what Mr. Garvey has said publicly, he “knew this was going to be the outcome,” said John Fleischman, a Republican campaign strategist and former head of the California Republican Party.
But Fleischmann said Republicans owed Garvey a “gratitude,” because a Republican at the top would boost Republican candidates in competitive voting races.
Garvey said he voted for Trump three times but did not seek the former president’s support. President Trump said in September that it was a “big mistake,” adding: “Without MAGA, there’s no chance.”
Polls show Mr. Garvey was right to move toward the middle. In a recent poll conducted by the University of California, Berkeley and co-sponsored by the LA Times, 92% of respondents who characterized their political views as MAGA said they supported Garvey.
Garvey raised more money than Schiff in the second and third quarters of this year as Schiff shifted his focus to other Democratic campaigns. Relying on the nostalgia of his days with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, Garvey is selling autographed baseballs for $100 on his campaign website and raising money under a banner depicting him swiping a baseball. It has also appeared in
In a typed fundraising letter mailed to elderly voters this fall, Garvey recalled baseball’s glory days in the 1970s. “Democratic policies have brought America to its knees, and now, as Yogi Berra used to say, it’s déjà vu all over again.”
“I am not Schwarzenegger and I would never have the courage to compare myself to President Reagan,” Garvey wrote. “But California voters know me, and Adam Schiff and the Democratic Party are shaking at how quickly I’m rising in the polls.”
At this point in the election, Fleshman said, “The metric is not how much money someone has raised, but how much everyone has spent.”
Mr. Schiff’s spending is far less than Mr. Garvey’s, including more than 40% of the $75 million spent through March 5.
In September, Mr. Garvey announced a $5 million advertising acquisition focused on Latino voters, including radio ads on 40 Spanish-language stations. Univision also aired Spanish-language ads on livestreams during the team’s playoffs. But many voters have never seen an ad at all.
The California vote includes two Senate questions. One of them asks voters to choose either Schiff or Garvey to serve out the remainder of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s final term, which ends in early January. The other asks voters to choose one of the men to serve a subsequent six-year Senate term.
Nalder said the race is so dormant that many California voters “would be surprised to see it on the ballot once, and even more surprised the second time.” That’s what it means.
