Is California Ready To Finally Replace And Upgrade From Dianne Feinstein?

A few months ago, conservative L.A. Democrat Adam Schiff, my congressman, was looking for operatives to help run his Senate campaign. He was telling people that Dianne Feinstein had told him she would retire after her current term expires in 2019, when she will be approaching her 86th birthday (as long as her new cardiac pacemaker holds out). She wants another conservative Democrat like herself to occupy the seat. Schiff fits the bill. Remember, being anti-Trump, which he certainly is, does not make someone "progressive," which he has never been. He was a conservative in the state legislature and joined the Blue Dogs as soon as he was elected to Congress. After his district was redrawn as one of the most liberal in America-- adding Hollywood, West Hollywood, Los Feliz and Silverlake and shedding some more conservative neighborhoods-- he fled from the Blue Dogs and joined the less well-known, but also quite conservative, New Dems. But somewhere along the line Feinstein changed her mind and Schiff called his contacts and told them he's not running for Senate after all. Yesterday, she hinted on Meet the Press that she will probably run again.

When I first moved to California, it wasn't to Adam Schiff's district; it was to San Francisco. After years of traipsing around the world and then living in Amsterdam, I was cold stoned broke and without many prospects. I wound up meeting camera store owner Harvey Milk, who fronted me the darkroom equipment I could use to set up a little business. We became fast friends and when he was elected Supervisor I would listen to his constant critiques of the two conservatives on the Board of Supervisors, Republican Dan White, who eventually assassinated him and Mayor George Moscone, and pseudo-Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who he disliked even more than White. I never voted for Feinstein for anything ever. After Harvey and Moscone were murdered, she ran for mayor. I helped Dead Kennedy's lead singer Jello Biafra run against her (1979). Biafra came in 3rd in the 9-person race. Feinstein took 81,115 votes (46.6%) to Biafra's 6,591 (3.79%). An ugly and aggressive old-style homophobe her whole wretched life, as mayor Feinstein vetoed San Francisco's domestic partnership bill in 1982. After losing a gubernatorial race to Pete Wilson in 1990, she was elected to her first Senate term in 1992 to fill Wilson's seat. She has always been notoriously corrupt, sending billions of dollars in contracts to her husband's (Richard Blum) companies in return for her support in funding corporate projects, overt bribery that should have landed her in prison many times over.

Meanwhile, half the likely voters in the state think she should just retire already. A poll by the Public Policy Institute of California 2 weeks ago found that 41% of adults say she should run and 46% say she should not. But among likely voters, 43% say she should seek another term and half (50%) say she should not. Most Democrats (57%) say she should run again, while most independents (55%) and Republicans (69%) say she should not. Mark Baldassare, president of Public Policy Institute of California said that "Partly, this is a holdover from last year’s election in which you saw many Democrats wanting a more liberal alternative at the presidential level and you saw many independents wanting an outsider. As people are looking to next year, there’s a desire for something new." Feinstein is the polar opposite of "something new."

When Meet the Press host Chuck Todd asked her about her poor polling, she replied, "There are polls and then there are polls. I'm ready for a good fight. I've got things to fight for. I'm in a position where I can be effective, and hopefully that means something to California." Her most likely challenger is state Senate President Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), an unabashed and extremely effective progressive and someone widely seen as part of the future of California politics. There is no political leader in the state more feared and hated by the extreme right than de León and they attack him endlessly, a good indication of what an outstanding champion he will make for working families. Feinstein is rounding up all the corrupt establishment "moderate" Dems she can find to back her and many are willing to tarnish themselves by supporting a nearly dead horse.

Ro Khanna, the most progressive member of California's congressional delegation isn't falling for it. He told the media that Feinstein is "out of touch with the grassroots" on bread and butter issues Democrats need to be talking about with voters. "The fact that the establishment is rallying around her re-election shows that DC insiders continue to privilege protecting one of their own over the voters' concerns."