California Democratic Party declines to endorse Dianne Feinstein in re-election bid – By Casey Tolan (mercurynews.com) / Feb 25 2018
SAN DIEGO — The California Democratic Party declined to make an endorsement in this year’s U.S. Senate race early Sunday morning, snubbing Sen. Dianne Feinstein in her bid for a fifth full term.
Her main challenger, State Senate leader Kevin de León, won the support of 54 percent of the delegates at the state party convention here this weekend, short of the 60 percent needed to secure the party endorsement. Feinstein received only 37 percent of the votes.
The rebuke of Feinstein by the party delegates comes even though the 25-year incumbent has led polls by wide margins and has received broad support from state party luminaries like Sen. Kamala Harris and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The results were a sign of discomfort among many liberals who believe Feinstein should do more to challenge President Trump — and of de León’s strong connections to the party’s activist left flank. The endorsement contest was a “test of the establishment’s authority and power,” de León chief of staff Dan Reeves said before the vote.
Most California voters say they don’t know enough about de León to have an opinion about him. But he had a much more active presence than Feinstein at the convention, working the crowds and hustling between caucus meetings in white sneakers on Friday night.
Feinstein’s campaign still has a huge financial upper hand over de León, as well as the built-in advantages of incumbency. Before the vote, Feinstein’s chief strategist Bill Carrick played down expectations, noting that “it’s very hard to get to 60 percent for anybody.”
“Everybody would like to have it, but it’s just another element in the overall campaign,” he said.
No endorsement was also made in the governor’s race, the other big statewide contest this year, which has a more crowded field of Democrats. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom led with 39 percent of the delegates, compared to 30 percent for State Treasurer John Chiang, 20 percent for former state schools chief Delaine Eastin, and just 9 percent for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
And delegates didn’t settle on a candidate in the races for lieutenant governor and state attorney general either.
Losing the party endorsement doesn’t always mean much. When Feinstein ran for governor in 1990, she dramatically declared her support for capital punishment at the state convention, over loud boos from the hall. The party’s delegates endorsed her more liberal rival, Attorney General John Van de Kamp. But Democratic voters as a whole agreed with Feinstein on the issue, and she won the primary that year.
“The people who are motivated to give up a weekend to show up at a party convention are further off the middle of the political spectrum,” said Darry Sragow, a political analyst and Feinstein’s 1990 campaign manager, who is not involved with this year’s Senate race.
The endorsements were announced around 1:45 a.m. on Sunday after a prolonged vote-counting process, with delegates getting kicked out of the San Diego convention center as they waited for the results.
In his speech to the convention hall on Saturday afternoon, de León drew a series of contrasts with Feinstein without mentioning her name, saying he would have voted against the Iraq War and domestic wiretapping and he would never be “fooled into believing Donald Trump can be a good president” — a reference to a Feinstein comment that raised the ire of the left last year. He also highlighted his upbringing as the son of an immigrant housekeeper a few miles away from the convention center.
Feinstein focused her address on gun control, calling an assault weapons ban “my mission” and “my quest” in the aftermath of the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla. this month. But she ran out of time for her speech, and was played off the stage by music. “I guess my time is up,” Feinstein said, and de León supporters shouted back, “time’s up!”
A third candidate, lawyer Pat Harris, got the support of five percent of delegates, while three percent voted for no endorsement.
In the state’s competitive Republican-held congressional races, candidates Hans Keirstead, Dave Min and Jessica Morse won the Democratic endorsements in their respective districts — although those decisions may have to go to a vote before the full convention tomorrow if their opponents collect enough delegate signatures.
No candidates secured enough support to lock down the party endorsement in two open seats represented by retiring Republican Reps. Darrell Issa and Ed Royce, in a blow to party leaders’ efforts to winnow those districts’ broad fields of candidates.
The party also voted to oppose an endorsement for State Sen. Tony Mendoza, who resigned this week amid sexual misconduct allegations and attempts to expel him but is running for re-election. No endorsement was made in his Los Angeles-area district.
Mendoza declined to speak at the nominating caucus for his district, but he told reporters he was not deterred. “It’s like every other election,” he said, “you talk to the voters and you let them know what your message is about and what you’ve done.”
An investigation by the Senate found that it was “more likely than not” that Mendoza, who is married, had subjected six women to unwanted sexual advances.
PB/TK – Oh I can hear it now, the talking heads mocking the DEMs for always supporting the woman cause yet not endorsing the crusader Feinstein. I’m not a Party member and I wouldn’t endorse her either, does that make me sexist?
