Dianne Feinstein Can Not Run Again

It has been a rough few months for Sen. Dianne Feinstein. But unless she loses the backing of California's Democratic establishment, the stalwart of state politics for half a century isn't going anywhere.

Dissatisfaction with Feinstein amongst progressives nationally and at home coalesced in the fall over what they saw as her weak handling of the case against Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Commission, which culminated in an cease-of-hearing shout-out and hug for Republican Chair Sen. Lindsey Graham. Final calendar month, Feinstein gave up the leadership task.

Whispers about Feinstein'southward mental acuity grew louder last calendar week when a New Yorker article said the 87-yr-old senator is "seriously struggling" with retention loss. One seeming case took identify in public: a Senate hearing where Feinstein asked the same question of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey twice, discussion for word. The piece reported other instances that were not public, among them that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer had to tell Feinstein more than than once that she needed to give up the Judiciary Committee leadership mail service, because she didn't remember he had already told her.

Quoting unnamed sources, award-winning announcer Jane Mayer wrote that "her brusk-term memory has grown and so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of declining to practice so just after they have."

Feinstein has shown no intention of leaving the Senate before her term ends in 2024, when she will be 91. Until so, the only person who tin accept Feinstein out of office is Feinstein.

"If it changes, I'll permit you know," Feinstein told CNN on Friday. A spokesman for the senator told The Chronicle that "her comment speaks for itself."

Thad Kousser, a professor of political scientific discipline at UC San Diego, said that "this is going to exist her internal call. This is someone who has demonstrated such a commitment to her state that a lot of people will trust her to step aside when she thinks it is time."

California voters had their chance to retire Feinstein when she ran for re-election in 2018. Instead, she defeated state Sen. Kevin de León, a Los Angeles Democrat whose name recognition was in the single digits at the start of the entrada and who could raise only a small fraction of the money pulled in by Feinstein, one of the wealthiest members of Congress.

Mayer wrote that "some who have watched the situation unfold fault Schumer, and the Democratic establishment in California, for not having intervened before Feinstein ran for re-election in 2018."

That line pricked up a lot of ears in California, particularly among progressives — who, in fact, wanted Feinstein gone in 2018. Some of the same whispers dogging Feinstein now nationally were heard then among the political class in California.

Withal only every bit is the case now, no acme Democrat questioned Feinstein'due south faculties on the record for fear of appearing ageist, sexist or disrespectful, or just getting it wrong. Most important: No member of the state's Autonomous institution turned on her.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., faces challenges from progressives but maintain the back up of the state's political establishment.

Stefani Reynolds / Getty Images

Kousser doesn't expect that to change.

"Nobody has the incentive to ask her to step bated," he said. "People are nonetheless pissed that Kevin de León had the temerity to challenge her in an open election. If it was considered disloyal to run against her in that state of affairs, imagine how disloyal it would exist to publicly ask her to do that now."

In 2018, de León said California was "looking for new leadership" and that it was "time for a new generation." Others said Feinstein's style of bipartisan outreach was rooted in a bygone era, and that she needed to speak "loudly and clearly" against President Trump in a new, more partisan time.

The executive lath of the California Autonomous Political party endorsed de León, even after Feinstein drubbed him in the principal that year. The land's powerful California Labor Federation, with 2.1 million members, backed him as well.

The grouping's executive secretarial assistant-treasurer, Fine art Pulaski, said de León was more than closely centrolineal with organized labor "on proficient jobs, climate change, $fifteen minimum wage, protecting immigrant workers and supporting the correct to stand together in a union." In 2012, the labor organization had endorsed Feinstein.

Grassroots activists said de León, now 54, represented the future of the Autonomous Party. Raised in near poverty past a single female parent in San Diego, he clawed his way up the political ladder to be state Senate president pro tem. He was instrumental in passing climate change legislation and the state's sanctuary constabulary. He was a Latino candidate in a land where xl% of residents are Latino.

Progressive power was surging in the state party after the 2016 presidential run of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who narrowly lost the California primary to eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Feinstein had lost many progressives when she told a San Francisco audience in 2017 that she hoped Trump "has the ability to learn and to change. And if he does, he tin can be a good president. And that's my hope."

When de León challenged her, Feinstein altered her positions on a couple of issues, such equally dropping her support for the expiry penalization. Merely on a broader level, she didn't alter class.

"I'm not a name-caller. I don't call people names," she told The Chronicle's editorial board. "My task is to get legislation passed or get problems solved or discover money to assist solve those bug."

Feinstein'south lowest moment of the entrada came when she addressed the country political party convention in February 2018. Music began playing as she exceeded her allotted time on stage. Feinstein kept talking, proverb, "I guess my time is upward."

De León supporters, who dominated the convention floor, chanted, "Your time is up! Your time is upward!" In a vote, 54% of the convention delegates supported endorsing de León. It was short of the sixty% needed for the full party to endorse, but information technology was embarrassing for Feinstein.

Just the Democratic establishment did non abandon Feinstein — the establishment and the country party are 2 dissimilar things. The state's superlative leaders, including then-Gov. Jerry Brown then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Kamala Harris, all backed her.

So did most every California House Democrat, with Rep. Ro Khanna of Fremont ane of the notable exceptions. Democratic state Sen. Toni Atkins of San Diego, who would succeed de León as Senate leader, was one of the few prominent state political party leaders to back the challenger.

"Elected officials are risk-averse," said Amar Shergill, chair of the progressive conclave of the California Autonomous Party, who supported de León. "Kevin de León was a dandy candidate, but there simply was non enough money to intermission through the institution'southward favored candidate."

Feinstein locked upward the country'south top donors. She raised virtually $24 million, including $8 million she loaned herself from her estimated net worth of $88 million. DeLeon raised less than $2 one thousand thousand. Feinstein'southward top strategist, Bill Carrick, said at the fourth dimension that DeLeón "owns his own fundraising problems."

However even San Francisco environmentalist Tom Steyer, a billionaire who worked with de León on climate legislation, chipped in a mere $16,200 for his friend to go along with his endorsement.

Some political operatives who were lined up to help de León's entrada backed out at the terminal minute as major national Democratic organizations threatened to withhold business if they worked against Feinstein.

Feinstein promised to argue de León — she had not done that with a challenger since 2000 — but ultimately agreed only to a "chat" moderated by a not-journalist that was alive-streamed at noon on a Wed, with no TV coverage.

On ballot day, Feinstein won with 54% of the vote to de León's 46%.

Feinstein is likely to survive this latest claiming to her Senate seat as well, equally long as the voices raising doubts nigh her remain anonymous. Her longtime friend Joe Biden — for whom she hosted fundraisers during the simply-concluded entrada — is the president-elect. Harris, her fellow California senator, is the vice president-elect.

And there is still a deep well of respect for her in the state and across. She was the start woman to exist mayor of San Francisco, and guided the city after the dual 1978 traumas of the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, and the mass murder-suicide at Jonestown. In the Senate, she authored the 1994 assault weapons ban that stood for a decade, and oversaw a landmark six-twelvemonth investigation into the CIA's post-9/11 torture program.

"Sen. Feinstein works as difficult today as she always has and continues to get bills passed even as the Senate's legislative piece of work has slowed to a crawl," Feinstein spokesman Tom Mentzer said. "She gets more than washed for California than anyone, especially now as the state faces so many major challenges. That will remain her focus."

And then unless some prominent members of the California political establishment convince Feinstein that her time is up, she will be the ane who determines when it is. Progressives may be influential in land politics, but they don't run it.

So far, the establishment is silent.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle'southward senior political author. E-mail: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli

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Source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Dianne-Feinstein-isn-t-going-anywhere-as-long-15797605.php