Thread: California Today: A Snooze of a Senate Race

California Today: A Snooze of a Senate Race
[Mike McPhate]

Mike McPhate
CALIFORNIA TODAY SEPT. 29, 2016

Good morning.

Welcome to California Today, a morning update on the stories that matter to Californians (and anyone else interested in the state).

Let’s turn it over to Adam Nagourney, our Los Angeles bureau chief.

The race to succeed Senator Barbara L. Boxer of California was supposed to be one of the marquee contests of the year. It is a contest to fill the first open Senate seat in the nation’s largest state since 1992. It offers a window into the ethnic kaleidoscope that is California: Pitting a Latino, Representative Loretta Sanchez, against an African-American, Kamala Harris, the state attorney general.

It also is the beginning of the changing of the guard in a Democratic political leadership that is decidedly on the old side. (Ms. Boxer is 75, her fellow-senator, Dianne Feinstein, is 83, and Gov. Jerry Brown just turned 78.)

Instead, the race has turned into something of a snooze. For one thing, it has been almost completely overshadowed by the presidential contest. For another, the electoral system in place — where the top two winners of a primary face each other in a general, regardless of party — means that both candidates are Democrats.

As a result, in a year when Democrats are hoping to take over the Senate, California is not going to make a difference. And the fact that both candidates are of the same party means that Ms. Sanchez and Ms. Harris don’t have a lot to argue about — and that Democratic donors don’t have much reason to write them checks.

“This is the first open Senate race in the nation’s largest state in almost a quarter of a century and nobody cares,” said Dan Schnur, the director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. “Democrats don’t see the stakes as very high and Republicans don’t see their interests being represented.”

Ms. Sanchez does not have the money to finance the large-scale television campaign needed in a state as vast as California. Her campaign has been marred by missteps, such as when she appeared to disparage American Indians by making a whooping noise.

Polls shows Ms. Harris with a significant lead over Ms. Sanchez. That has only encouraged the tendency of the attorney general to play it safe. ‘She’s deliberately tried to make sure there wasn’t any interest in the race,” said Bill Carrick, who is the chief campaign consultant for Ms. Sanchez.

Nathan Click, the communications director for Ms. Harris, disputed that suggestion. “We’re not taking anything for granted,” he said. “We are competing for every vote.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/us...chez.html?_r=0

For another, the electoral system in place — where the top two winners of a primary face each other in a general, regardless of party — means that both candidates are Democrats.

Really??!! I've never heard of anything like that before. Well, you learn something new every day. That totally sucks. That means minority parties have no voice at all in a general election. That is so totally bizarre.