2024 in California’s Bay Area: ‘Year of the Man?’

Inside the Golden State political arena
Dec 14, 2023 View in browser
 
POLITICO California Playbook

By Dustin Gardiner and Lara Korte

Senator Barbara Boxer (L) celebrates with Senator Dianne Feinstein (R) after winning a fourth term, in the Democratic Party headquarters at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood on November 2, 2010. The nation's mood was dark as Democrats rallied desperately to defend President Barack Obama and angry Republicans hoped to deliver a crippling rebuke. There was little of the festive atmosphere that swept the country two years   ago when Obama was elected the nation's first black US president. The mid-term elections see the lower house of Congress, plus over a third of the Senate and most governors' mansions up for grabs. But many consider the vote is a referendum on Obama himself.               AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON (Photo by MARK RALSTON / AFP) (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)

Senator Barbara Boxer (L) celebrates with Senator Dianne Feinstein (R) after winning a fourth term, in the Democratic Party headquarters at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood on November 2, 2010 | AFP via Getty Images

THE BUZZ: END OF AN ERA — There was a time when the Bay Area’s congressional delegation was the embodiment of female power on Capitol Hill. The curtain is falling on that era.

That generation of powerful California women in Washington — a group led by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein — has been leaving office. And many of those leaders are, or could be, replaced by men.

Barbara Boxer’s former Senate seat is now held by Sen. Alex Padilla, whom Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed in 2021 after Kamala Harris resigned from the chamber to become vice president. When San Mateo Rep. Jackie Speier retired from Congress at the start of this year, Rep. Kevin Mullin took over the gig. And Sam Liccardo, Evan Low and Joe Simitian are already positioning themselves to run for Silicon Valley Rep. Anna Eshoo’s seat after she announced she’s stepping down after next year.

There’s also a good chance that Rep. Adam Schiff could be elected to Feinstein’s former Senate seat, though he faces a spirited challenge from Rep. Katie Porter, both in terms of fundraising and recent polling. (Sen. Laphonza Butler, who’s serving the rest of Feinstein’s term, isn't running to keep the seat.)

"The year of the woman was more than 30 years ago — and I'm a little disheartened that we don't have a deeper bench by now of women to fill this giant vacuum of powerhouse women who were there really from the beginning,” said Robin Swanson, a veteran California Democratic consultant based in Sacramento.

Boxer, who’s retired and living in Palm Springs, noted that the number of women in Congress has dramatically increased in recent decades. There are 25 women in the Senate today, compared with just six when she and Feinstein were elected in 1992, which was famously dubbed the “Year of the Woman.”

She and Feinstein would laugh about that label, she said, because there were so few women on Capitol Hill in the early 1990s that they felt it was “such an overstatement.”

Capitol insiders have been speculating for months about when Pelosi and San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren could follow their peers into retirement. Pelosi isn’t retiring this year (much to the chagrin of some ambitious SF Democrats) but her decision to step back from the demanding speaker role signifies her iconic generation’s fade from the limelight.

Palo Alto City Council member Julie Lythcott-Haims, the only woman vying for Eshoo’s seat against at least five Democratic men, is emphasizing that fact out of the gate, saying that having women in Congress is crucial in the post-Roe era.

“We’ve had women helming the Bay Area congressional delegation for decades. It’s been something many people take for granted,” she said.

Advocacy groups are focused on keeping women in office in the Bay and California as a new generation emerges. EMILYs List, one of the nation’s largest recruiter of female candidates, is backing BART board member Lateefah Simon for Rep. Barbara Lee’s Oakland seat.

“EMILYs List is proud to work with women leaders in the Bay Area region and throughout California to fill the big shoes our trailblazers leave behind and bring dynamic representation to Congress,” said Danni Wang, deputy director of campaign communications.

San Franciscans can’t stop talking about who might replace Pelosi, even though she’s sticking around for at least one more cycle. State Sen. Scott Wiener has built a campaign-in-waiting and support among female leaders. Christine Pelosi, an attorney and Pelosi's daughter, is another potential contender.

Boxer said she wasn’t too concerned about the loss of a generation of Bay Area women leaders. After all, Pelosi is still in town.

“The reason I’m not alarmed about it is because: A) Nancy is there and she’s going to make it her business to not only fight for California every minute… but also take these new women under her wing.”

GOOD MORNING. Happy Thursday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook.

PLAYBOOK TIP LINE — What seats are you watching in 2024 ? Give us a ring or drop us a line.

Now you can text us at ‪916-562-0685‬‪ — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts now. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on Twitter —@DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte

WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.

FRESH INK

This combination of photos shows California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

This combination of photos shows California Gov. Gavin Newsom (left) speaking in Sacramento, California, on June 24, 2022, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking in Sioux Center, Iowa, May 13, 2023. | AP

SPIN IT FORWARD — Newsom took another swing at his arch nemesis Ron DeSantis in a conversation with “Late Night” host Seth Meyers Wednesday, stopping just short of calling the Florida Republican governor racist.

“It’s not anti-woke,” he said of DeSantis conservative policies. “What he really means is anti-Black.”

A spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Seth Meyers appearance follows last month’s face-off with DeSantis, moderated by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, where Newsom struggled to land direct jabs at the Florida governor in a messy, 90-minute debate. The Newsom camp came away from the debate sour about the whole ordeal.

Speaking in more friendly territory to Meyers, the Democratic governor had free rein to castigate DeSantis — including his floundering presidential campaign.

“I’m not running for president,” Newsom said. “Ron DeSantis, apparently, still is.”

Newsom accused him of censoring facts, rewriting history and going after marginalized groups.

“I’ve developed a lot of animus toward him because of his animus toward all of you,” he said to the studio audience in New York City. “This guy is scapegoating vulnerable communities. He’s attacking minorities, attacking women, and I don’t like it. And I wanted to push back against it.”

Newsom also reiterated his complaints that Democrats nationally are not doing enough to counter Republican narratives around the culture wars. He said the party needs to be the ones hitting the GOP first on things like gun control.

“On all of these issues we’re on the right side but we just need to get on the other side of our anxieties and doubts and go on the offensive,” he said.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: LATE NIGHT COMIC — Newsom, in New York City to appear on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, huddled in a midtown Manhattan office Wednesday morning with political fixtures to pitch his Campaign for Democracy super PAC, tout President Joe Biden as a 2024 surrogate and get a little facetime of his own. Attendees included P.R. exec. Ken Sunshine, major Democratic donor Dennis Mehiel, former New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Peter Ragone, the longtime Newsom confidant and former Bill de Blasio adviser who has made a career on both coasts.

— Christopher Cadelago 

2024 WATCH


CENTRAL VALLEY CATTLE CALL — The field of hopefuls to replace Kevin McCarthy is set — sorta. While Assembly member Vince Fong’s bid faces legal wrangling, Wednesday’s filing deadline brought out a new crop of candidates for the seat. They include Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, former fighter pilot Matt Stoll and Kyle Kirkland, president of Club One Casino in Fresno.

Boudreaux has the benefit of running with sheriff as his ballot designation and quickly got the backing of Assemblymember Devon Mathis. But he has a short amount of time to introduce himself to voters outside of Tulare County. Kirkland, the casino magnate who has an animal welfare charity, is a political novice but the ability to self-fund in a race where most contenders have scant name ID.

David Giglio, a far-right contender who was already in the race before McCarthy dropped out, extended a less-than-warm welcome to his new competition. He slammed Boudreaux on social media for not being hardline enough on immigration enforcement. He also threatened legal action against Fong for jumping into the congressional race after already qualifying to run for reelection in the Assembly. With McCarthy putting his political muscle behind Fong, the real contours of this race won’t be set until Fong’s fate is settled.

–Melanie Mason

SILICON VALLEYLAND

ROBO-RECALL — Electric car giant Tesla is voluntarily pulling more than 2 million of its vehicles off the road after a national investigation identified safety issues with the steering feature used in its “Autopilot” technology.

Tesla’s self-driving technology has long been the subject of federal and state scrutiny. As our colleagues Tanya Snyder and Oriana Pawlyk report, the recall comes on the heels of a years-long probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which recently concluded that the Autosteer feature, which can steer and brake the car on its own, could increase the risk of a crash.

California officials in recent years have taken issue with how Tesla markets its technology, which it calls “Full Self-Driving,” capability despite the fact that it is technically a driver assistance program and at times requires human intervention.

Because it is semi-autonomous, Tesla’s Autopilot program isn’t subject to the same DMV rules and regulations as fully autonomous vehicles like the ones deployed by Cruise and Waymo.

Self-driving technology was the focus of a bill signed by Newsom last year that prohibits misleading marketing of semi-autonomous driving features, like the ones deployed by Tesla. The California DOJ has also launched an investigation into Tesla over its autopilot safety and advertising.

AROUND CALIFORNIA

TOUCHDOWN — There’s nothing quite like landing a major sporting event to show your city is on the upswing.

Los Angeles officials on Wednesday announced the 2027 Super Bowl LXI will be hosted at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, marking another high-profile event coming to the area Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. The news comes shortly after Bass delivered remarks on her first year in office, where she touted efforts to address the homelessness crisis, improve public safety and support businesses.

“The Los Angeles region continues to attract world-renowned events and we look forward to yet again hosting the Super Bowl,” Bass said in a statement.

The Super Bowl joins a slate of other high-profile sporting events scheduled in Los Angeles for the upcoming years, including the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games.

Top Talkers

DAY TRADER: California Republican Rep. Mike Garcia swatted away allegations of insider trading Wednesday following a Daily Beast story that he sold up to $50,000 of Boeing stock just weeks before a committee he sits on produced a report on the company’s role in the 737 Max crashes.

He filed this financial disclosure two months after the 45-day reporting window, and 20 days after he won his general election by a razor-thin margin of 333 votes. The representative said he hadn't been aware there was a 45-day reporting requirement.

“It was a few weeks late and I owned up to the mistake, but definitely not what the accusations are making,” Garcia told POLITICO’s Sejal Govindarao.

He dismissed the accusation as a political maneuver, saying that the House Ethics Committee would have looked into the matter if there were legitimate concerns.

COASTAL OUTLIER: The Huntington Beach City Council’s new conservative majority has become a lightning rod for controversy — banning rainbow flags at City Hall, creating a panel to screen children’s library books and opposing mask and vaccine rules. (Los Angeles Times)

BLOWBACK: San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is facing backlash after she said homeless people should be made “uncomfortable.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

BEDSIDE MAYOR: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a physician’s assistant, administered first aid to a photographer who collapsed during a press conference this week. (KABC)

PLAYBOOKERS

TRANSITIONS —Marlene Garcia, the California Student Aid Commission’s Executive Director, announced Wednesday that she will be retiring at the end of June 2024. Garcia has served as the Executive Director of the Commission since May 2019.

BIRTHDAYS — Jordan Dennison of the California Republican Party … Norbert Funke (was Wednesday): John Rosove ... Bette Billet ... Lewis Wolff 

CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this subscriber-only service offers, click here.

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