I do think Schiff played dirty in the primary but I don't see the point of Porter going all scorched earth now. She's young and if things pan out right she should have an opening to come back to the House soon enough, but antagonizing the Dem establishment so directly could make things harder for her going forward. And yeah, at the end of the day Schiff will probably be a fine Senator and a clear improvement over Feinstein.
Porter and Schiff started out basically neck and neck, the fact that Porter collapsed so badly is a sign of how weak her campaign is. That's her fault, not her opponents'.
This is kind of like saying that it's the Chiefs' "fault" that the 49ers lost the Super Bowl, the Chiefs won because they just played a better game.
By boosting Garvey's profile, obviously. Helping a Republican get on the ballot because he'll be easier to beat than a fellow Democrat is a dirty move, even if it makes perfect sense strategically.
I agree - it's a penny-wise, pound-foolish sort of move that hurts the left as a whole.
1) backstabbing people
on your side and boosting
your opponents (especially when those opponents are as vile as the modern GOP)
for personal advantage is extremely cynical, destroys trust in the party and the values it claims to represent.
2) doing so in collusion (even if that collusion is never explicit) with a pack of effing-crypto billionaires is even worse
3) this has turned from an in-house primary into a debacle that has handed Donald Trump a full clip of ammunition for his attempts to overturn any Democratic victory this fall. Between Porter's own "billionaires rigged the election" rhetoric, and the various Democratic establishment variations of "it was technically legal" this was pretty much the worst possible precedent to set in the run-up to November
Party loyalists may not see what the big deal is, but I expect this is going to leave a legacy of long-lasting disgust in the minds of attentive voters who care about principles. (I've no idea if that group is at all numerically significant. I hope so.)
Speaking for myself I've been skeptical about the CA Democratic party, but this tells me I will never vote for Schiff for higher office - he'd obviously trade damned near anything for personal advancement, and not even bother to try and pretend doing so was wrong.
