Here are four key takeaways from Monday night’s California Senate candidate debate
The second debate in the race to fill the seat vacated by the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is over, but how did the candidates fare?
Once again, U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank; Katie Porter, D-Irvine; and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, shared the stage with former baseball player and Republican Steve Garvey.
The debate, which took place in the KRON4 News studio in San Francisco, differed in a number of ways from the previous candidate get-together.
It was less free-wheeling. Moderators kept the debate moving at a steady clip, there was no audience, and candidates were quickly silenced if they went over their allotted time.
Here’s are some key takeaways from Monday evening’s debate:
Garvey stayed in his comfort zone
Garvey, who last debate appeared to be channeling late Republican president and Californian, Ronald Reagan in both look and speech pattern, stuck to his comfort zone on Monday. He railed against political insiders and castigated them for everything from homelessness to California’s crime problem.
He blasted President Joe Biden for what Garvey called a crisis at the border, saying that the president “should be the one to step up and close the border.”
Garvey decried regulations that he said were tying up developers and preventing them from building more housing in the state, though he did not specify which regulations he would support cutting when asked.
He blasted the government, both state and federal, for throwing billions of dollars at the homelessness crisis without results.
“It’s been wasted,” he said, adding that it is “inhumane” to allow unhoused people to camp in tents if they are unable to find other housing options.
And Garvey criticized California policies, such as Proposition 47, that were aimed at reforming criminal justice in the state, saying (incorrectly) that “there has never been more crime in the streets of California.”
It was veteran pols vs so-called outsiders
Monday’s debate turned into a battle between the alleged insiders and the so-called outsiders, with veteran Congress members Schiff and Lee squaring off with Porter, a relative newcomer to Congress, and Garvey, who has never held political office.
Garvey, in particular, made it a point to repeatedly bring up that he is a Washington outsider, while Schiff and Lee both touted the financial support that they have brought their districts over the decades.
Despite their disagreements on many subjects, there was something all four candidates could agree on: None of them supported instituting age limits for politicians, a question asked in light of the advanced ages of Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 77.
“Now some people are unfit for office at any age, and I put Donald Trump in that category,” Schiff said.
Garvey has a Trump problem
Garvey voted twice for Trump. But he refuses to say whether he will do so a third time.
On Monday, he also refused to answer whether he would accept an endorsement from the former Republican president, who was twice-impeached, found liable for sexual assault, found by a congressional committee to have fomented insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and who faces a plethora of felony indictments.
“I believe the greatest single currency we have as Americans is the right to vote,” Garvey said when asked whether he would accept the endorsement.
Garvey did say that he has not spoken with Trump, but when pressed on the endorsement issue, he said, “These are personal choices.”
Israel-Hamas is the only issue really dividing Democrats
The three Democrats in the U.S. Senate race all largely agreed on the questions put to them Monday evening. They argued over specifics, but in general broad strokes they were on the same page.
Except for the Israel-Hamas war.
Only Lee, who stood out as the lone member of Congress to vote against the authorization to go to war with Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said she would unequivocally support a permanent ceasefire.
She said that while what Hamas did on Oct. 7 was a terrorist attack — approximately 1,200 Israelis were killed, and hundreds were kidnapped — Israel has killed between 25,000 and 30,000 Palestinian civilians in its retaliatory attack on Hamas.
Schiff reiterated that Israel has a right to defend itself, and he said he didn’t necessarily agree with Biden when the president said that Israel’s attacks were “over the top,” though the congressman did say he believes Israel should take steps to safeguard Palestinian civilians.
Porter said that peace will only come with the return of hostages and a change of leadership in Gaza.
Garvey called a two-state solution — where Israel and Palestine coexist as separate nations — a naive idea, though he refused to answer moderators when asked whether he would support a permanent Israeli occupation of Gaza.
