California Democrats favor incumbents over new challengers

from Maya S. MillerCalMatters

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California Democrats are betting that tried-and-true and standard-issue candidates offer their best shot at taking back the U.S. House of Representatives in November instead of fresh faces and more populist political plans.

The largest state Democratic party in the country approved a slate of aging incumbents in Congress at his convention in San Francisco after a weekend that illustrated the high stakes in this year’s midterms. In congressional districts without an incumbent, the party has endorsed a handful of incumbent state lawmakers who, while younger, are party men compared to the usual political outsiders running as Democrats in contested races.

Among the incumbents sailing for the endorsement were Congressman Mike Thompson of St. Helena, 74, who is running for his 15th term, and Congressman Brad Sherman of the San Fernando Valley, 71, who is seeking a 16th term.

In the open race to succeed the late Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfawho represented the state’s rural north for more than 13 years, state senator. Mike McGuire overwhelmingly won the approval of the party despite internal dispute with the party leadership which nearly required a vote by the entire Congress.

The result, while not surprising, disappointed several grassroots political outsiders who sought to give their party a lift and move beyond the anti-Trump rhetoric its leaders have relied on since President Donald Trump was first elected in 2016.

“This weekend just confirmed why we need to push the Democratic Party for new leadership. It also confirmed to me why people are leaving the Democratic Party,” said Mai Wang, a progressive member of the Sacramento City Council.

Wang is the first elected official to run against Congresswoman Doris Matsui in the 20 years since she took over her late husband’s Sacramento-area seat in the 7th Congressional District. Matsui, 81, eventually won the nod despite a challenge from Wang. She claims the endorsement panel unfairly allowed Pelosi, who is not a delegate from the 7th District, to give a speech in support of Matsui, who has served 10 terms.

Jake Levine, a former Biden White House aide who is running against Sherman, argued that Democrats cannot continue to beat the same drum against the GOP and Trump without also laying out a clear vision for addressing the concerns of young voters about issues such as high housing costs and a lack of good-paying jobs.

“Yes, we need to turn the House around, but we also need to put a new generation of leaders in the House when we take it over,” Levin said. “To sustain a party that can continue to win for many more years, we need a new message. And the people who got us to where we are today are still stuck in yesterday’s politics.”

The weekend also served as a swan song for Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosithe San Francisco political titan and first female speaker who announced last year that she would retire after her current term. Pelosi has been repeatedly praised for cultivating generations of elected officials, including Sen. Adam Schiff. His uncharacteristically fiery and expletive-laden speech at the convention spoke to the simmering anger and frustration with the Trump administration, which has turned even milder figures in the party into total militants.

Schiff roared from the stage that the grassroots turnout for Proposition 50which redrawn congressional districts in favor of Democrats, sent a resounding message to the Trump administration: “When you poke the bear, the bear takes your fucking head off!”

“We need people who know what they’re doing”

In their own defense, the time-tested incumbents say now is not the time to usher in a whole new class of lawmakers as House Democrats try to navigate Trump’s fraudulent second administration.

“This is not the time to disappear,” said Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, chairwoman of the California Congressional Democratic Caucus and a close friend and supporter of Matsui. “We need people who know what the hell they’re doing. And she does.”

Still, Levine and others have complained that lately the party has mostly paid lip service to raising the next generation of leaders rather than actually giving younger voters a voice in elected office. Failure to tailor the party’s message to younger voters and instead double down on the party’s historic respect for seniority, he argued, will continue to alienate voters.

One potential bright spot for progressives and the party’s anti-establishment wing was in the endorsement race for the 22nd Congressional District, a Central Valley seat that Democrats are hoping for a turnaround from moderate Republican Rep. David Valadao.

MP Jasmeet Bainsa physician and political moderate from Bakersfield, was named the Democratic front-runner and boasted the support of the powerful California Service Employees International Union, a labor group, and a group of state and federal elected officials. But she has yet to win the party’s endorsement after her Democratic challenger, Visalia educator and college professor Randy Villegas, built up massive support and also raised more than his last quarter. The party has not endorsed a candidate in the race.

Villegas said several delegates told his campaign they wanted to support him, but “there was intimidation, direct coercion” from Bain’s camp.

Baines, through a spokesman, denied that she or any of her supporters coerced or intimidated delegates into voting for her.

Juliet Williams contributed reporting.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.