Will the Kavanaugh Hearing Drama Impact California Senate Race?
Half of California’s Republican voters were undecided before Feinstein upended the Kavanaugh nomination process
Legal Insurrection readers may recall my recent post on California’s November ballot and the poll that indicated Senator Dianne Feinstein has only an 8-point advantage over progressive challenger, state senator Kevin de León. For the incumbent, this should be a troubling number, particularly when her challenger is leading among Republican voters.
For Feinstein, one worry is support among the Republicans, who have no candidate of the Senate race. De León, despite positioning himself as a more progressive candidate than Feinstein, has 5-point lead among Republicans. Still, nearly half of Republicans in the poll said they are undecided.
These results were published a few days before Feinstein decided to upend the nomination process of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court by releasing news of the letter by leftist professor Christine Blasey Ford accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault over three decades ago. I suspect that Feinstein was partly motivated to gain some progressive street cred by scuttling Kavanaugh’s nomination, thereby winning re-election easily.
So how is that working out for Feinstein? That remains to be seen.
Feinstein’s challenger added fuel to the fire, albeit from a leftist perspective.
. . . Feinstein’s failure to publicize the contents, or to share them confidentially with her fellow lawmakers, has proved controversial, leading to criticism from both the left and the right. De León’s campaign has been quick to jump on the news, putting out a press release about Feinstein’s “failure of leadership” and asking why Feinstein waited months to “hand this disqualifying document over to the federal authorities” while she “politely pantomimed her way through last week’s hearing without a single question about the content of Kavanaugh’s character.”
Unfortunately for de Leon, using this issue against his rival has opened himself up to attacks.
Kevin de León, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s November opponent, accused her last week of “gross misconduct” for waiting months to flag a sexual assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh — seizing on the Supreme Court firestorm to jump-start his long-shot campaign.
Now de León is facing a backlash for his own handling of sexual harassment on his watch in the California Legislature, which has been rocked by allegations of pervasive sexual misconduct.
Allies of Feinstein in California’s Democratic establishment have rallied behind the state’s senior senator, repudiating de León’s critiques as acts of political opportunism from a trailing candidate looking to build his profile.
However, there is another approach de Leon could take: Pursue the allegations that a Chinese spy was on Feinstein’s staff, the news of which has been smothered by a disinterested media.
From the start, this was a story the media had no interest in covering. Now it is apparent that our political class has no interest in probing it.
The reporting on Feinstein was limited to a few outlets — ignored by large newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and major networks, excluding Fox News, which provided scant details as to what transpired and downplayed the potentially dire ramifications of the alleged breach.
The press took at face value boilerplate statements from Feinstein’s office seeking to dispel any suggestion that the Chinese had penetrated her office, with nary a question directed at the senator herself as she enjoyed her tranquil August recess.
Instead of parroting #Resistance nonsense, de Leon should take a page from President Trump’s playbook and hammer home the power-based privilege Feinstein has enjoyed at the expense of California. He might be able to peel off even more Republicans and find a way to win.
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Comments
It would be fitting for Feinstein to lose because she was cravenly trying to appeal to nutty leftists, and turned off everybody else.
Hillarity, part II.
I would have voted for her over the much kookier Kevin de Leon until this as she seemed to be the only adult in the Democrat party. Between this and the commie spy that she had working for her for over 20 years, I won’t vote for her and I expect she will lose.
We need a “None of the Above” option badly.
A lot of us have been pushing for that option for years. It is looking better and better as the Dems work feverishly to trash the Constitution and turn the USA into a Third World country.
i say we all need to vote for De Leon because he would have zero seniority in the Senate, and thus be pretty much just be another Kamala Toe: running his mouth, but doing nothing.
Fineswine, OTOH, as you can see, is in a position to cause trouble.
Two votes in our Republican home that would have been for Feinstein will instead go to De Leon.
De Leon is a left wing fascist. Please reconsider.
Unless we can get a serious write-in campaign going for a real Conservative, our two votes will sit out the US Senate Race. We will vote – against Gavin the Lush.
I agree with your description of De Leon, but he will not have any influence for the foreseeable future, whereas we see what Feinstein can do. The country will already be dead if De Leon ever gains influence in the senate.
they are BOTH fascist scumbags, but, as my learned colleague points out, and as i said, De Leon is a kitten, Fineswine is an aging, but still dangerous, predator.
advantage De Leon.
you can’t vote the ballot you want, just the one we have.
Vote the evil, corrupt, deceptive, lying witch out of office.
by any means necessary, including De Leon.
You cannot write anyone in for the November elections in California; that’s one of the many bad results of Prop 14, that created our top two system. It’s the lesser of two evils.
This is the very intent of Feinstein’s 11’th hour Hail-Mary.
This.
It’s CA and they’re both Dumocrats … there will be no impact no matter who wins.
and you would be wrong.
better a powerless freshman Senator with a foot in his mouth than the bruja.
Our family will hold our noses and vote for De Leon……Can you imagine the possibility of DiFi in charge of Judiciary if the Dems win the senate?
The only way I would not vote for De Leon if he is caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy. (Tip of the hat to Edwin Edwards)
How can any Kalifornia voter vote for a self admitted ILLEGAL ALIEN whose grandparents ILLEGALLY crossed the border from our enemy to the south, stole some LEGAL US citizens SS ids, and began ILLEGALLY living in Kalifornia. Leon, btw his real name,is an anti US Constitution, anti Bill of Rights progressive/socialist communist. He will just give another vote to the traitors already in our elected congress.
Feinstein is also anti US Constitution, anti Bill of Rights progressive/socialist communist. But at least she is A LEGAL CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES. The best thing about Leons running for US congress is the he resigned from the Ca. senate.
this will make me vote against DiFi in Cali senatorial race. i think what she has done re Kavanaugh is despicable. DeLeon will get my vote. love the idea that R’s may flip this race – in a state where we have little influence.
/This Republican voter has already emailed Difi to let her know all Republicans I know are mobilizing to vote her out. She is a shame to her office and the country. I hate DeLeon but Difi MUST get her aging old butt kicked out. Shame on her!