No Clear Winner in California’s Third And Final U.S. Senate Debate

Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA), Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and former Major League Baseball Star Steve Garvey (R) met on the stage for a debate for the third time in the U.S. Senate race on Tuesday, at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

Only hours before the debate, the latest poll results came in showing Schiff with a large 28% lead, Garvey coming in second with 22%, Porter trailing by six points with 16%, and Lee at the back of the pack with 9%. This coupled with both Schiff and Garvey respectively having largely been seen as winning the first and second debates respectively, and Porter accusing the Schiff campaign as “boosting” Garvey in recent ads, led many pundits to point out each candidates distinct battle plan for the night. For Schiff, it would be his plan from the last two debates: maintain his lead. Garvey, meanwhile, had to keep building on his improving debate and campaign rhetoric. For Lee, it was to just stay alive until March 5th with a showing around 10%. It was most dire for Porter however, who needed to engage both Garvey and Schiff and show that she should make it until November.

So how did they do?

The Border Bill

One of the biggest questions of the night was over immigration reform and the latest failed border deal in Washington. All four opposed it, albeit over different aspects of it.

Schiff: “It’s not surprising the package turned out so lopsided. [Senator Alex] Padilla (D-CA) [and others] were not involved in negotiations. I would support a package that had a comprehensive immigration reform. This was not that.”

Porter: “The bill demonized immigrants by trying to ignore the fact they come here seeking a better life. If we’re going to have a strong economy in the future, we should be focusing on the real problems like fentanyl, human trafficking and gun trafficking.”

Garvey: “I would have opposed the bill, as it had too many things packed in there.”

Schiff, Porter, and Lee also dug into fellow Democrats in Washington for not passing immigration reform in recent years, with Schiff going as far as to say “We’re going to have to do it ourselves, without GOP support. Which means we’re going to have to get rid of the filibuster and pass a truly comprehensive immigration reform.”

Diablo Canyon

One of the more unexpected questions of the night was over the status of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, which recently got an extension to remain operational for the next several years to help the state bridge the power gap as California transitions from fossil fuels to all renewable energy.

Porter said she didn’t like the five year extension and has issues with it. Schiff says that while nuclear has a major role to play in energy, he thinks that the plant should shut down. Garvey said that the people of California should decide whether it stays open or not, with Lee then not giving an answer besides saying that she wouldn’t support Garvey’s  view.

Military

Every candidate had to answer a question about the U.S. being prepared for military conflict, including the funding surrounding it.

Porter, Garvey and Schiff all responded positively. Porter said funding was necessary to ensure safety, with Schiff going one step further and saying that service members weren’t being paid enough. Garvey similarly noted that the military needed to be funded in full at all times, saying that “As your Senator, I will do everything to maintain your security. I’m not concerned with any one being. I’m concerned with 38 million Californians and 330 million Americans. Freedom has no cost to it. It’s whatever it takes.”

Lee, however, went a different route. In her response she said that the Pentagon’s budget should be slashed by $100 billion, with more money instead put into troops and keeping the country ready. While her response turned heads, Lee’s push to cut Pentagon funding by the tens of billions has been a constant pet issue for years.

PAC Money

The most talked about part of the debate on Wednesday was over the question of PAC money. Throughout the night, Porter kept trying to engage Schiff and failing to get him into a one-on-one debate. However, near the end of the debate, Porter finally  got Schiff to spar with her after she said that he used earmarks in Congress and took money from big oil.

“For too many decades, Washington gave sweetheart deals to certain defense contractors through earmarks. And there is a candidate on this stage who has done that again and again, getting earmarks for his private corporate donors who are big defense contractors,” said Porter.

Schiff fired back directly back at her, accusing her of not only taking money from oil companies, but also from pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street firms. While Schiff’s accusations have been found to be mostly not true, he said it anyway.

“We have a strong disagreement over whether senators should bring back resources for their state,” retorted Schiff. “I believe that they should. Rep. Porter doesn’t believe they should. She prefers a political talking point. But look, I want to bring back billions, just as Feinstein did. I don’t think Rep. Porter has been fully clear about her own record of taking thousands of dollars from people in the oil industry, thousands from Wall Street bankers, thousands from people in the pharma industry.

“The problem with purity tests as Representative Porter likes to establish is invariably the people establishing them don’t meet them.”

Porter quickly pointed out the fact checking against those accusations as a response.

Trump

Trump didn’t come up too often on Tuesday, but after Garvey’s answer to a question over Trump’s foreign policy, Porter took the time to point out Garvey’s unwillingness to say if he would vote for Trump this year and mentioned another GOP candidate for Senator, lawyer Eric Early (R), in an attempt to split the vote.

Overall, the third debate came down to Katie Porter trying to gain some sort of momentum. She used every trick in the book to try and gain an edge. She brought up Eric Early in an attempt to split up support for Garvey. She had to have seen the Emerson poll before the debate where Garvey had 22%, she had 16% and the next closest GOP candidate, Early, only had 2%. It was a desperate attempt.

Porter also kept trying to engage Schiff. It happened constantly. Porter has been very angry about the narrative going from her and Schiff going at it in November, to it being a Schiff-Garvey election. She gave up her House seat for this, and she really doesn’t want a Republican former all-star baseball player to take it away from her. Even in a split Democratic election, losing to a Republican in the primary would be an embarrassment. So that’s why she kept goading Schiff. He finally let his guard down and she pounced.

It all sort of worked, but at the same time, you saw her playbook. Mention Early to try and split the GOP vote. Get Schiff to talk about earmarks of PACs and use that fact-checking knowledge to hit him if he used it. Both Schiff and Garvey mostly maintained an “ignore what Porter says” attitude during the night, besides a few comments addressing her by name. You could tell that she resorted to more and more different tactics to engage.

Surprisingly, Garvey had the best defense against this. By not getting bogged down in the specifics of his plans, Porter couldn’t use her fact-checking tactics against him. It worked for her in previous campaigns and is a regular tool of hers in Congress, using specific facts or calling out people with fact checking. With Garvey, you could tell that she wanted to engage him, like on the military question, because she looked like she had a response ready to go. But his answers, combined with him having no previous voting record for her to go after, was visibly frustrating to her.

Lee sniped after Garvey, just as she has throughout all three debates. But with Lee is a distant 4th, and still mentions her childhood in El Paso every other answer. Nothing seemed to help her. She also didn’t get a viral moment on Tuesday, not like the second debate where her “$50 minimum wage” made the rounds on national news and social media.

Unlike the first two debates, there was no clear winner on Tuesday. Polling afterwards by NBC affiliates found a mixed bag, with many saying that Schiff, Garvey, and Porter respectively won. While many said that Garvey did good enough to help secure the second spot last night, Porter did give it her all. The question now is if it will be enough by March 5th.

With mail-in ballots out already, the third debate may not have as much of an impact. But then again, the latest poll still had 17% of voters still undecided – a big enough margin where Porter could still come back. The third debate clearly showed that it will be a Garvey-Porter showdown for second place, with Schiff all but certain to come in first during the primary and Lee effectively out.

New polls are to come out soon and are likely to be the last ones before the primary on March 5th.