More people wonder if conservative Democrat Dianne Feinstein— who is in very bad mental decline and will be 91 if she runs again— will get to the end of the hallway than if she will run again in 2024. Only the media drama queens wonder if she’s going to run again. Everyone else knows if’s far more likely that she won’t finish her current term than start a new one in 2025.
This morning, Jeremy White acknowledged that the race to succeed her is on. Adam Schiff as much as announced he’s running and both Maebe A. Girl and Laura Friedman are lining up backers— as are Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo and state Senator Anthony Portantino. I’ve heard talk that former City Councilman David Ryu might run and I’m sure that there are plenty of former mayors of Glendale and Burbank who see themselves in Congress as well. And I know for sure that there are some people trying to draft Alyssa Milano.
But Schiff, one of the House’s top fundraisers— I think only Pelosi raised more than him this cycle— won’t have a cakewalk into the Senate, despite the $21 million he has left over from 2022. More people are considering running for the Senate seat than there are considering running to replace him in the House. White named 3 progressive superstars: Ro Khanna, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.
Unmentioned by White: other congressmembers who see themselves moving across the Capitol— Eric Swalwell, Raul Ruiz, Jared Huffman, Jimmy Panetta, Scott Peters, Sarah Jacobs…
Then, a bit outside of Politico’s ken, we have loads of non-federal possibilities from statewide officeholders like Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, Controller Betty Yee, Treasurer Fiona Ma, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and state Supt. of Instruction Tony Thurman to a slew of big city mayors, current and former, like Eric Garcetti (L.A.), Antonio Villaraigosa (L.A.), London Breed (San Francisco), Libby Schaaf (Oakland), Todd Gloria (San Diego) and Darrell Steinberg (Sacramento). And no doubt Xavier Becerra would love to get out of the Department of Health and Human Services.
And… let’s not leave out declared Republican candidate Barack Obama Mandela. Oh… I forgot, the general is likely to be between the two top scoring Democrats, maybe Adam Schiff and either Katie Porter, Ro Khanna or Xavier Beccera. But there's a lot of time between now and then, including the possibility that Governor Neo-Liberal gets to appoint some other shit candidate the way he saddled up with Bonta and Padilla.