California Senate 2024 - Schiff (D) vs Garvey (R)

[Utah Neolib]

Porter is apparently weighing a Senate run even before Feinstein has announced any retirement plans:

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/06/katie-porter-eyes-senate-run-as-feinstein-stays-mum-00076832

Rep. Katie Porter is weighing a campaign launch for Sen. Dianne Feinstein‘s seat — potentially even before her veteran Democratic colleague announces her plans for 2024.

Fresh off a bruising battleground reelection win, the third-term Porter is now considering a bid for what is likely to be an open Senate seat in deep-blue California as a next step, according to five Democrats familiar with her plans. Feinstein is widely expected to retire after her current term, but she isn’t making any firm moves yet ahead of what’s expected to be an official announcement within the next couple months.

It will play to Barbara Lee's advantage, and the article makes it sound like she is likely to run. Porter should prolly have just stayed in her House seat at this point :/

Barbara Lee is 76 today and 78 in 2024. Dianne Feinstein is 89 today and 91 in 2024. Why should California replace someone very old with someone old?

[Utah Neolib]

Endorsed, regardless of who else runs.  


Side note: Porter was clearly right to fire that moron for ignoring the office’s COVID testing policies and then proceeding to give her COVID; if some selfish dumba** gave me COVID and put my and my family’s lives at risk with their stupidity, you better believe I’d fire them too!  This isn’t a scandal and there is no good-faith argument for pretending that it is

The person was not ignoring the office COVID policies from what we know. Would you fire someone for getting a disease outside of their control? No one purposely gets a disease and firing someone for it is genuinely misguided.

[Utah Neolib]

Really, Newsom shouldn't have backed himself into the corner of saying he'd only appoint an African-American woman.

The best appointment, really is Kounalakis, because even if she did run, she'd be no threat in a primary, and she probably won't run because she wants to be Governor more.

Boxer would also be a decent choice imo. She literally already knows the job and considering her willingness to retire back in 2016, there’s very little chance of her running again.

Would seem very Jon Kyl-esque except she probably wouldn’t resign after being appointed.

[Utah Neolib]

Newsom pledged to appoint a Black woman, but Barbara Lee won't get the nod because she's currently in the Senate race, so who would that leave?

-London Breed
-Malia Cohen
-Sydney Kamlager-Dove
-Karen Bass
-Kamala Harris
-Lola Smallwood-Cuevas
-Shirley Weber

I imagine it won’t be Karen Bass. She was only elected Mayor in 2022, and she left Washington to take that post. I don’t think she’d leave so early in her term to accept what will likely only be an interim appointment (she already endorsed Barbara Lee for the full term).

Shirley Weber makes the most sense by far. She (ironically) succeeded Padilla as Secretary of State and is old enough to definitely not run again. She would probably happily be a senator for a year and a half as the end to her career.

[Utah Neolib]

So Newsom endears himself to Labor, Women, and the LGBT probably ending slightly disfavored to even with black voters, and pissing of progressives and labor.

We’ll see how this plays out.

How is he endearing himself to labor and pissing them off at the same time?

[Utah Neolib]

At this point Porter's best move is to lay the groundwork for a run for Governor with her Senate campaign. I don't see a path for her even in a top two with Schiff but she could start out as a favorite in the 2026 Gov primary.

Not sure that would get better for her. Big names are already in, like Kounalakis and Yee. Bonta is probably going to join them as well. Maybe she should try another statewide office first or just work towards becoming a member of House leadership.

Wasn’t there rumors Schiff was going to be AG instead of Bonta? Porter could definitely run for that if Bonta runs for governor.