In the final primary debate, Senate candidates discuss Israel, immigration and campaign donations
California Politics
Benjamin Oresces Laura J. NelsonFebruary 21, 2024
The top four candidates vying for California’s open Senate seat faced off Tuesday night for the final debate before the March 5 primaries, riffing on their record in Congress and their political integrity.
Democrat
ic
Representatives Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, Barbara Lee of Oakland and Katie Porter of Irvine, along with Republican retired baseball player Steve Garvey, emphasized their differences during the hour-long televised event and did their best to play up their appeal to the 22 million registered to increase the state’s electorate while undermining their opponents.
The sharpest attacks came from Porter, who repeatedly criticized Schiff for accepting political donations from special interest groups funded by oil and gas companies. She also criticized Schiff for campaigning on his support for expanding affordable housing and child care while failing to add his name to bills in Congress that would address those issues.
“That’s the divide between Congressman Schiff and candidate Schiff,” Porter said.
Schiff fired back at Porter, saying “real legislators” write bills, rather than simply adding their names to those drafted by other lawmakers. He said he wrote bills to lower the cost of child care, add child care to federal benefits and increase wages for child care workers.
The debate was held as the primaries were approaching, with voting
S
sent to California voters earlier this month
.
According to campaign consulting firm Political Data Inc. Only 4% of registered voters in the state had cast their ballots on Tuesday. Voters have been inundated in recent weeks with millions of dollars in political ads in their mailboxes, on their television sets and in the media. their social media feeds.
Most of the spending has come from Schiff and his allies, who have worked to contrast his record with Garvey’s top Republican in the race, who supported former President Trump in the last two elections.
Under California’s “jungle primary” system, which voters approved a decade ago, the two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the November general election, regardless of political party. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1, Schiff’s path to election would be much easier if he were to face a Republican in November.
The effort seems to be having an effect. An Emerson College poll released Tuesday showed Schiff in the lead, with the support of 28% of likely voters. Garvey came in second with 22% of likely voters. Porter and Lee followed with 16% and 9% respectively.
As a result, Porter, Lee and Schiff cannot stand for re-election to the House of Representatives
election
because they are running for Senate.
All four candidates in the debate said they would have voted against the bipartisan $118 billion border security and foreign aid bill, which Trump publicly opposed and has been left for dead in the Senate. President Biden has said that if the bill reaches his desk, he will sign it.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who opposed the bill, had no place at the negotiating table, nor did members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus or any Democrats from the border states, Schiff said. Porter said the legislation “demonized immigrants,” while Lee said the bill did not include comprehensive immigration reform and needed more humanity.
and include
due process committees.
Garvey also said he would have voted against it, saying, “Not the way it was laid out. There were too many things in there. Too many things hidden.”
The debate revealed deep-seated disagreements on topics such as who would accept donations from companies or how they would respond to the Israeli government.
Gaza
Hamas was.
During a question about climate change, Porter accused Schiff of accepting campaign funds from political action committees paid by companies she called “polluters,” including BP, Sempra Energy and
SoCalGas
Southern California Gas Co.
Schiff argued that Porter had “not been entirely clear about her own record,” saying she had accepted political contributions from people working in the oil industry, on Wall Street and for pharmaceutical companies. The problem with the “purity tests” Porter tried to establish, Schiff said, is that “the people who administer them invariably fail to comply.”
Schiff’s accusation reflected a new multimillion-dollar campaign targeting Porter launched this month. The ad claims that Porter took more than $100,000 “directly from executives of big pharmaceutical companies, big oil companies and big banks,” and plays on her now-famous use of a whiteboard during congressional hearings, with handwriting all over the line scrawled with the text ‘deceptive’. politics, as usual.”
The ad is funded by Fairshake, an independent expenditure committee funded by Silicon Valley investors and cryptocurrency executives. (Such groups, also known as super PACs, can accept unlimited donations but cannot coordinate with the candidate’s campaign.) According to federal filings, the group has spent more than $3.6 million on Porter’s candidacy.
Porter described the group as a “dark, shady super PAC.” She said fact-checkers at the Sacramento Bee called the claim “false.” (In fact, the Bee rated the claim as “mostly false,” noting that while Porter had accepted campaign contributions from employees at oil, pharmaceutical and financial companies, the companies are not major players in their industries.)
“When I ran for office, I decided never to take PAC money from corporations,” Porter said. “Representative Schiff has made a different choice and has raised nearly $2 million, including from major oil companies, major banks and major pharmaceutical companies.”
Fairshake reported raising more than $68 million last year and $6.8 million in January. Key backers include venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, cryptocurrency executives Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
During the debate, hosted by NBC4 and Telemundo 52, in partnership with Loyola Marymount University, each candidate was confronted with a pointed question aimed at a weak point in their campaign.
Schiff was asked about his early history as a lawmaker in Sacramento, when he wrote tough bills that aimed to expand the use of the state’s three strikes law and would have allowed 14-year-olds who accused of murder would be prosecuted. tried as adults. He responded that he “certainly would not redraft some of the legislation” but was proud of a bill he co-authored in 2000 that created the largest source of funding at the time for youth crime prevention and intervention.
Porter was asked why she was endorsed by only one California congressman: Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach). “I have something important in common with Robert: I went to Congress to avoid being tied to special corporate interests,” Porter said.
Lee was asked if she bore any responsibility for the rise in violent crime in her home district of Oakland. Lee did not answer the question directly, saying lawmakers needed to address the “root causes of some of these crimes,” including removing guns from the streets.
Garvey has said he would serve one term if elected. He was asked how he expected to govern in the Senate if he was “a lame duck on day one.” He dodged the question twice, saying instead that he would “return to reading, writing and math to ensure that the next generation of our children are the new leaders.”
During a rapid round of foreign policy questions, Lee said she would support a resolution calling on Israel to agree to an unconditional and immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war, and Schiff, Porter and Garvey said they wouldn’t do that.
“I do not see how there can be a lasting peace while a terrorist organization rules Gaza and threatens to attack them again and again, nor do I see how there can be a permanent ceasefire while that is still the case. That is true,” Schiff said. But, he said, Israel “must do everything in its power to prevent civilian casualties,” and the US must push for a two-state solution.
Porter said only Hamas and Israel can “determine what will be a lasting ceasefire for them. We can’t just pass resolutions and make it so.”
Biden has said he would send troops to Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. Schiff and Porter said they agreed with Biden; Lee and Garvey said no.

Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.