The ads argue that Republican Steve Garvey — a congenial former pro baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres who voted twice for Donald Trump but won’t say if he will do so again — is too conservative for California and highlight his recent surge, in an apparent effort to consolidate support for him on the right.
The seeming intent is to boost Garvey past Rep. Katie Porter, who Rep. Schiff and his backers would prefer to avoid facing come November in this left-leaning state. The strategy highlights how California’s unique system, in which the top two finishers advance regardless of party affiliation, can open the door to bank-shot strategies not typically seen in races with more traditional rules. In recent years, Democrats have also at times involved themselves in Republican primaries in other states, aiming to boost candidates seen as weak general opponents in a strategy some have deemed risky.
Porter has decried the spending to elevate Garvey as “cynical” and has chided Schiff for paying for ads on Fox News a year after he sent out a fundraising email arguing that companies should not patronize a network that had echoed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. But to hold down Garvey’s support, Porter has countered with similar tactics — running at least a half-million dollars ads raising the profile of another long-shot GOP Senate contender, Eric Early, according to data from AdImpact. In one of those spots aimed at catching the attention of Republican viewers, Early is described as the “100 percent pro-Trump candidate” who opposes abortion, “loves the Second Amendment” and is “way more dangerous than Steve Garvey.”
The unusual maneuvers have upended predictions for the Tuesday primary, where Porter — an Orange County law professor who made her own name in Washington grilling big bank and pharmaceutical executives during congressional hearings — had long been viewed as Schiff’s toughest likeliest general election opponent. Recent polls show that she is battling Garvey for second, even though Garvey is seen as having virtually no chance of beating Schiff in November in a state that has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1988.
In an interview, Porter called it “disingenuous” for Schiff to claim Garvey is “the MAGA threat” as she noted some of Garvey’s positions — such as his opposition to a nationwide abortion ban, his pledge to certify the election results if President Biden wins reelection.
“Steve Garvey is never going to be California’s next senator and everyone knows it,” Porter said. “Representative Schiff is giving the GOP a gift and Steve Garvey is the bow on top of the package.”
Schiff has made no apologies for elevating Garvey. When asked at a recent campaign event about Porter’s criticisms of what she called Schiff’s “brazenly cynical” campaign tactics — and her own subsequent efforts to raise the profile of another Republican rival in the race, albeit with far fewer dollars — he answered with a smile.
“She’s entitled to run any kind of campaign she wants,” Schiff said. “We’re running our campaign and I’m not advising other candidates on how to run theirs.”
As the three leading Democrats for U.S. Senate seat — which is held by Democrat Laphonza Butler, who was appointed and is not seeking a full term — campaigned vigorously across the state, Garvey — who was known to his fans as “Mr. Clean” because of the wholesome image he curated during his baseball heyday in the 1970s and 1980s — has scarcely campaigned at all. His spokesman declined to make him available for an interview or to provide details about where he was campaigning in the days leading up to the primary.
Garvey entered the race in October and held almost no public campaign events before a brief publicity tour in December that included a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border and a visit to the Salton Sea, where he heard about environmental concerns. In January, he toured several homeless encampments with cameras in tow and met with Jewish leaders in the Bay Area to express his support for Israel. But sightings of Garvey on the campaign trail have been few and far between.
As of mid-February, he had spent less than $1.4 million, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. That was a fraction of the nearly $39 million Schiff has spent over the course of the race and far less than the $23.1 million in spending by Porter.
Yet a California Public Policy Institute poll released on Friday showed Schiff leading the field with 24 percent of likely voters as Porter drew the support of 19 percent and Garvey was favored by 18 percent. Rep. Barbara Lee, a hero to many liberals for her antiwar activism after the Sept. 11 attacks, trailed in a distant fourth place.
Schiff is “trying to pick his opponent,” said former California Republican Party chairman Jim Brulte. He theorized that Porter, despite trying to run to Schiff’s left, could pick up GOP voters in a general election matchup against the congressman, due to anger on the right over his role managing Trump’s first impeachment.
In televised debates with his Democratic opponents, Garvey has offered only vague notions about his agenda in a campaign he says is about “compassion and consensus-building.” Though Schiff’s ads portray him as “too conservative” for California because of his votes for Trump in 2016 and 2020, Garvey has said he will not describe his political leanings in the presidential race, describing his vote as a “personal choice.”
Many of his answers in debates have been devoid of substance. When given the chance to critique Trump’s foreign policy record as president, he said he wasn’t concerned “with any one being” and wanted to promise Californians that he would “do everything to maintain your security.”
When asked during a debate what his impact would be in the U.S. Senate, he replied that he had built “championship teams” and brought “people together.”
When the perplexed moderator noted that he hadn’t answered the question about what his impact would be in the Senate, he noted that he had graduated from Michigan State with an education degree and said one of the most important things he could do in Washington was to “get back to reading, writing, arithmetic to make sure that the next generation of our children are the new leaders and capable.”
Garvey frequently uses invokes baseball, beginning with his promise last year that he would “get off the bench, suit up again and get back in the game.” In his closing statement a recent debate, he told Californians that he hoped to “go up to bat for your quality of life, for your future, for your children” as he described the state’s voters as “the wind beneath my wings.”
But his effort to buff up his image as a beloved, all-American ballplayer and family man in his Senate campaign has once again drawn scrutiny of his complicated personal life — including a contentious divorce and estranged adult children — aspects of which were splashed across the tabloids after the end of his baseball career in part because he had fashioned his persona as a clean-cut, “straight arrow” who didn’t smoke or drink and was endlessly available to his fans.
But Schiff’s ads have focused almost entirely on Garvey’s votes for Trump and the notion that his candidacy in November could put control of the Senate in play for the GOP, a far-fetched claim given that Republicans comprise less than a quarter of California’s electorate.