Here are three key takeaways from last night’s California Senate candidate debate

For the first time, the four top candidates to fill the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s U.S. Senate seat took the stage together.

Barbs and quips flew, as Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, 63, Katie Porter, 50 and Barbara Lee, 77, and Republican retired baseball star Steve Garvey, 75, sought to stand out on the stage.

Here are some key takeaways from the event.

Garvey was a Democratic punching bag

Perhaps the biggest takeaway of the evening was that Republican Garvey took shot after shot from his Democratic rivals.

There’s good reason for this — polls show Garvey a close third place and vying for second behind Schiff. Given that California’s jungle primary means that the top two candidates will be selected regardless of party, Garvey doesn’t have to win the primary to make it to the November ballot, he just has to lose by the least amount.

Given Garvey’s former career — as both a player for both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres — it was inevitable that baseball-themed cracks would be made, and Porter did not disappoint.

When Garvey refused to say how he would vote in the 2024 election — having twice voted for former President Donald Trump — Porter shot back, “Once a Dodger, always a dodger.”

And when Garvey discussed a recent visit to a homeless shelter, where he inexplicably talked about touching homeless people, Lee voiced her complete disgust with him, while Schiff said that Garvey “whiffed” that one.

Schiff avoided a catastrophic loss

Throughout the debate, Schiff, who holds a narrow but consistent lead in the polls, handled himself like an experienced debater and he avoided making any serious mistakes.

But that didn’t stop the other candidates, particularly Porter, from going after the Democratic congressman from Burbank.

Toward the end of the debate, Porter, who has repeatedly touted her refusal to accept money from corporate political action committees, blasted Schiff for accepting money from the oil industry.

“Rep Schiff may have prosecuted big oil companies before he came to Congress, but when he got to Congress he cashed checks from companies like BP, from fossil fuel companies,” she said.

Schiff shot back, saying, ““Well first of all, I gave that money to you, Katie Porter.”

That was a reference to Schiff’s raising of more than $200,000 in contributions for Porter since she launched her first bid for Congress in 2018.

Garvey was Reaganesque...and noncommittal

If you watched the debate Monday night, you might have done a doubletake when you first saw Garvey speak. Everything about him seemed calculated to channel the late California Republican President Ronald Reagan, from his hair and demeanor to his soft-spoken voice.

He even fired off a “There you go again!” quip at one point during the debate.

It remains to be seen whether Garvey’s channeling of Reagan will pay off with Republican voters, but his refusal to commit either way on how he will vote this November might be a liability.

The moderators tried gamely to pin Garvey down on whether he still supports Trump, who faces multiple felony indictments and is subject of a criminal investigation into his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol.

Garvey simply said that Trump was a better choice than either 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton nor 2020 Democratic nominee (and eventual election winner) Joe Biden, but that his vote is a personal thing and he wouldn’t be sharing it.

This story was originally published January 23, 2024 at 8:33 AM with the headline "Here are three key takeaways from last night’s California Senate candidate debate."