Adam Schiff joins the race for California's Senate seat; Senator Feinstein still on the fence

Originally published at: Adam Schiff joins the race for California's Senate seat; Senator Feinstein still on the fence | Boing Boing

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Is she just sticking around to help Biden look younger?

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“On the fence” is not a term I’d use for someone with her (rumoured but all-but-confirmed) condition. Anyone she knows who’s still humouring her that she can or should run again is not helping her.

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I adore both Katie Porter and Adam Schiff! If I were still living in CA, my head would explode! :exploding_head:

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Yeah, I really hope they can keep it civil in the lead-up to the primary; they’re two of my favorite Congresspeople, and I wouldn’t want a bitter race to diminish either one of them.

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Feinstein has spent decades defending Social Security because we, as a society, recognize that people who are age 67 or older shouldn’t be expected to do the same work that they were able to do earlier in life.

She’s going to be in her early 90s at the end of her current term and by all accounts she has been experiencing cognitive decline for years (as almost all people do with advanced age). Feinstein needs to accept that there’s no shame in retiring while you still have a pulse.

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And her people need to tell her that she’s done more good work in her career than most of us could do over several lifetimes. It’s clear that some of them are not, which is cruel and (9n some cases) self-serving.

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… when people say California should be broken into multiple states, this is why—MORE SENATORS

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By and large the people who support the “State of Jefferson” proposal don’t want Senators who share the values of these three candidates. There’s a reason they never include the San Francisco Bay area in their plan to secede from the southern part of the state.

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They tried to pitch a 3 state solution recently as well. Jefferson, central and southern ca. hoping that splitting SF and SB from LA it might let San Diego and the OC win more red seats.

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As a near-DC these days, I hope for DC statehood first. :pray:

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Why settle for gerrymandering a single state when you can gerrymander the entire west coast?

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… if D.C. can have its own two senators then surely L.A. (where Adam Schiff lives) would also qualify

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I’d vote for either Schiff or Porter. However, do either live in a district that might flip to R if one of them is not running. I recall Porter’s district being borderline R.

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@gracchus knows what’s up. From the peeks I’ve gotten in the past two years, her entire operation is now self-piloted. It is in accordance with her politics, it’s run by a very adept and sophisticated team, but she’s not really at the helm. This is definitely not a time in our political history where there is not the talent coming out of California to do the job - even sweeping aside the corruption, racism and ineffective governance surrounding L.A. City Hall, there are MANY excellent politicians in our state, not the least of whom is Adam Schiff. I also like Ted Lieu and have even had positive interactions with republican congressional reps. Lieu has very broad expertise and a potentially broader support base than many other candidates (he reps West LA, is an Air Force veteran, sits on Judiciary & Foreign Affairs and Vice Chairs the Democratic Caucus. He has a pretty sophisticated social media presence where he was a bulldog against the Trump BS.

Schiff is formidable. I think this announcement actually IS the best way to talk to Feinstein about quitting. It would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
If she were a Supreme Court justice, people would be tapping her on the shoulder.

California’s politics may have also outgrown Feinstein’s. Her crew would say she’s more practical in compromising which has made her an effective legislator. But we need people who are serious about addressing climate change and our impossible-by-design health system.

Katie Porter’s district in coast north Orange County may be less right wing than had been thought. The Proud Boys planned a skinhead rally in Huntington Beach which failed spectacularly while anti hate protesters did show up - 500 of them. This is small for the area but as I recall there had been a lot of talk on both sides of not showing up. Proud Boys may have a stronger base in Los Angeles - they’re certainly doing stupid shit here all the time (proud boys = anti mask grocery clerk bashers - literally, exactly the same handful of people).

There are some small 50/50 split zones in Shiff’s district but it’s mostly an ancient and coveted liberal territory - this is where the Clintons and every Dem POTUS since Bill would come out to fundraise. Schiff will likely raise the war chest that’s needed to pull this off.

Eliminate all the population centers and you’ve got Wyoming 2.0!

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I just hope we don’t get a few more Dems jumping in, and only 2 Republicans… our bullshit top-2-primary system could well give us a GOP v GOP general election “choice,” with more Dems splitting the vote. It’s happened in house races. I wish we’d get rid of the stupid thing.

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Her district offices have been a mess for way to long now. I suggest she has been failing me for some time. No hate because she did some great work in her time. Way back then.

Those jerks you’re talking about are driving in from Bakersfield. When they tried their anti-vaxx protests (really covers to provoke white supremacist brawls) in Beverly Hills and then in West Hollywood they were quickly rousted by the local cops.* It was only when they tried the same thing downtown under the watch of the LAPD that they got a little traction.

[* Cops lean right, but when their jurisdiction is an affluent town they really don’t like outsider fascists coming in and causing trouble. They’ll let the local fashies do what they want, though.]

The only thing that concerns me is that the California state Dems can get complacent and sclerotic. They’d be fine supporting Feinstein for yet another term.

The situation isn’t as bad as what happened in NY last November and the candidates you mention (Schiff, Porter, Lieu) are more dynamic than some of the hacks the NY party put up. Still, nothing can be taken for granted these days and Dems should be fighting like they’re on the ropes even when they’re not.

West L.A., like the UWS and UES in Manhattan, is where the liberal money is. Fundraising is just the start, though. Dem candidates for Senate and President and their supporters will have to campaign hard and strategically throughout the state if they want to win it.

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Not all of them. There’s RooftopKorean. There’s the woman who was running for office locally. A number of them were based out of San Pedro. A friend just moved there and the signs are literally everywhere.