Congressman Adam Schiff won’t be running for California’s open Senate seat in 2016. But the Los Angeles-area Democrat says someone from his part of the state should offer a challenge to Kamala Harris, the attorney general from the Bay Area and the perceived leading candidate in the race to replace retiring Democrat Barbara Boxer.
“I do think there is a real opportunity for a candidate from Southern California,” said Schiff at a breakfast Tuesday morning sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “There has been a desire for some time to have representation from the south, and I do think that there’s also a strong desire within the Latino community to have a senator.” One such candidate currently in the race is Schiff’s House colleague Loretta Sanchez, whom Schiff said could make the race “very competitive.”
“At the same time, Kamala Harris is a very strong candidate,” Schiff added. “She has consolidated support in the north, and is off to a very strong start in her campaign.”
California’s Democratic party has succeeded in the last two decades in large part because of its strong hold on the massive (and growing) Latino vote, which is based in the southern half of the state. The party’s elites, however, largely hail from Northern California. Both Boxer and her fellow Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein have their political roots in the San Francisco Bay area, although Boxer now lives in Southern California. Governor Jerry Brown is also a San Franciscan. Before her election to the attorney general post in 2010, Harris was the district attorney for San Francisco. Harris has powerful fans nationally, too. Barack Obama once called her America’s “best-looking attorney general.”
At Tuesday’s breakfast, Schiff suggested another Democrat besides Sanchez—who has already run into controversy in the first few days of her campaign—might also get in. Xavier Becerra, another Southern California Latino Democrat, is openly considering a bid. “It certainly could be Xavier, but I also think if it’s not Xavier, you could very well have a self-funding candidate get in the race,” said Schiff.
California has a jungle primary system, meaning every candidate will run in an open primary, and the top two vote-getters (regardless of party) proceed to a general election. Schiff noted the entry of other Democrats to run alongside Harris will depend on the strength of any Republican candidates who may run.
“I don’t think that any of the GOP candidates are viable, but that doesn’t mean that one of them won’t make the runoff,” he said. “It’s entirely possible, notwithstanding the weakness of the Republican candidates, you get another Democrat in the race that it ends up being a Democrat and a Republican in the general.” Schiff said that unless the GOP runs a “substantial, nationally-known” candidate like Condoleezza Rice, the party would have a difficult time winning the general election.
