SACRAMENTO, Calif — The race for one of California’s U.S. Senate seats is heating up ahead of the March 5th primary election.
The top four candidates will meet again in a televised debate Tuesday, exactly two weeks before voters go to the polls.
The top two vote getters in March advance to the November General Election, regardless of party, a voting method that has resulted in some gamesmanship, according to political analyst Steve Swatt.
“A change in tactics, and it’s really kind of topsy-turvy,” Swatt said.
In this so-called jungle primary, Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff leads the polls, followed by Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey. Schiff’s colleagues in the U.S. House, Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee trail behind.
Swatt says Schiff’s campaign wants to avoid a run-off against a fellow Democrat, so it’s running ads and boosting the Republican challenger's profile, thinking he’d be easier to beat in November.
“Calling him a Trump voter and very conservative, in the hopes that Republicans watching those ads will galvanize behind Garvey and push Garvey to the number two spot,” Swatt said.
Meanwhile, Porter’s campaign is running ads boosting Republican Eric Early, in hopes of knocking Garvey out of the number two spot.
“Some very interesting shenanigans going on here,” Swatt said.
Basically, it comes down to the fact that Katie Porter right now is trying desperately to become at least second to make that run-off. And Adam Schiff does not want another Democrat in that run-off, Swatt said.
This is the seat that was held by Dianne Feinstein for more than thirty years, until her death last September.
Governor Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to fill the seat; she announced in December that she would not run in the election.
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