The first step for the candidates running in next year’s California Senate race is to quietly try to spook newly appointed Sen. Laphonza Butler into not running at all.
Advisers to the campaigns of Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff all say that they are giving Butler time and space to decide. They each issued statements praising her – albeit gradually. Schiff was in the Senate gallery for Butler’s official swearing-in on Tuesday, and Lee attended a ceremonial Congressional Black Caucus swearing-in shortly after on the other side of the US Capitol. (Porter texted with Butler earlier in the day to express regrets about a meeting she couldn’t move, and Butler texted back to say she understood, according to an aide.)
But while they briefly paused public politicking until after the Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s funeral on Thursday – with Lee and Schiff flying there on Air Force 2 – they spent even this past week preparing to ramp up new endorsements and outreach that they hope will convince Butler there is not enough time to mount a credible campaign, and that she could risk being known now for her historic appointment to serve the remainder of the late senator’s term through January 2025 to being known for coming in third, fourth or even fifth in a race that has its first round on March 5. (The top two candidates, regardless of party, move on to a November election, and the race is set to get another wrinkle next week, when former Dodgers and Padres first baseman Steve Garvey is expected to launch his campaign as a Republican.)
Butler had a meeting with a small group of advisers the day after being sworn in to do a preliminary review of polling data as part of what people familiar say is a push to make a decision by next week.
Every day that goes by, many people in California political circles agree, is a day that Butler is even further behind…
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