Rep. Katie Porter needs an influx of “undecided” votes to qualify for the November run-off for the late Dianne Feinstein’s seat in the U.S. Senate.
As ballots land throughout California, Rep. Katie Porter’s mission in the U.S. Senate race is to swing the 17% undecided in the latest Emerson College poll, chip off support from Reps. Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee, and tear down Steve Garvey.
That’s a lot of whiteboard to cover with the March 5 primary looming. Porter is now 12 points behind Schiff and is six points behind Garvey. Every public appearance is now fraught for Porter, who started the race looking like she’d easily waltz into the November runoff.
Porter’s appearance in the final Senate candidates debate Tuesday showed her certainly making her points, and she returned again and again to the influence of corporate PACs and earmarks. Schiff’s latest earmarks are the bite-sized chunks removed courtesy of his Mike Tyson-inspired colleague from Orange County. Was it enough?
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Porter’s “purity test,” in Schiff’s words, was the main theme of the debate held on the Universal Studios lot, which happily featured no annoying sound effect bells like the second debate. However, someone at Universal obviously CGId a man named Steve Garvey into the debate, but someone forgot to write him a script.
Properly lit and seasoned, a baked potato could beat Garvey in a debate. The threshold for Porter is much higher than a baked potato, but her law school professor presentation style is probably lost on any voter persuaded by Garvey’s vanilla banality.
Taking Schiff on directly is a different matter entirely. Sure, Porter landed some hard punches on Schiff and his positions on corporate PAC money and earmarks, and she had to. Schiff took it all in, looking like he was channeling the Dalai Lama.
“The problem with purity tests as Representative Porter likes to establish is invariably the people establishing them don’t meet them,” Schiff aridly noted without remotely altering his facial expression.
Schiff’s dismissal of Porter’s critique on earmarks as a “political talking point” goes to a larger question about her: Is she all whiteboard and soundbites, or can she actually get things done in the less-and-less-staid Senate, where faux collegiality is key? Mostly, Porter doesn’t seem to do collegiality with much enthusiasm; what she does do is take the bark off people on television.
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Unfortunately for Porter, Schiff is her nightmare opponent. He is accomplished, popular, likable and blandly appealing, like Mr. Rogers. Schiff doesn’t inspire strong reactions in the Democratic Party as much as a sense of zen-centeredness. If Schiff were a jerk, Porter’s jabs might be more effective against a more vivid personality.
Perhaps the most awkward moment in the debate was when Porter was asked why she has only one endorsement from her California Democratic congressional delegation colleagues, from Rep. Robert Garcia. For the record, Schiff has 27, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, and Lee has eight. This was a little like asking a high school kid why no one picked them for their kickball team.
Porter gamely responded that she was endorsed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and some members of the state Legislature. This begs the question: To Schiff’s barely concealed point, can Porter effectively serve as a senator outside of the World Wrestling Federation/House of Representatives rules of engagement?
Porter needs to answer that question yesterday, and it may be her biggest obstacle to moving past the March 5 primary. That’s not a purity test question, for her, it’s an existential one.
Porter managed to link Schiff to earmarks (CHOMP!) again on the defense colloquy, saying that “Washington gave sweetheart deals to certain defense contractors through earmarks, and there is a candidate on this stage who has done that again and again, getting earmarks for his private corporate donors who are big defense contractors.” Schiff looked almost beatific.
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Interestingly, Lee had perhaps her strongest debate performance, repeatedly invoking her hardscrabble upbringing in El Paso, Texas, being a single mother and being the tip of the sword among congressional progressives. Now it seems to be too little, too late for her. If she dropped out now and endorsed Porter, it could swing the race. But she won’t.
Where does this leave Porter? With a gaffe-less Schiff, an accomplished Lee and an amorphous Garvey, it’s hard to see how much harder she can punch or where. With Schiff absorbing Porter’s torrent and only lightly interacting, it doesn’t make for many opportunities to move an increasingly frozen needle. The trouble here for Porter is that if she doesn’t get a ticket to the top-two round, her future political options look limited.
She’d be an obvious and effective gubernatorial candidate in 2026, given that thus far not-jelled field. If she keeps calling Schiff a corporate shill and pork-barrel pig, he’d be unlikely to turn over his mailing list with much enthusiasm. She’d also be an interesting candidate for California attorney general.
Porter’s hope now is the 17% undecided breaks her way. That’s a lot of voters who have been gnawing on their cuticles for months about choosing between her and Schiff.
What would move that voting bloc is elusive, but it may be the choice between the progressive heart of the California Democratic Party and the consensus approach of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whom Schiff has mentioned every time he sees a hot mic.
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Porter is now out of TV debates to make her mark. The whiteboard is all she has now, and it’s running low on space.
Jack Ohman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and columnist.
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