Steve Garvey is a lousy debater. But don’t count him out of the U.S. Senate race | Opinion
In his rookie debut as a political candidate, former Dodger Steve Garvey struck out at Monday night’s U.S. Senate debate — but don’t count him out of the race just yet.
Garvey could still play spoiler by coming in second in the March 5 primary.
Up until now, the Republican front-runner has done an admirable job of making himself scarce on the campaign trail. But there he was on Monday night, up on stage with three Democratic heavy-hitters: Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Katie Porter and Rep. Adam Schiff.
If you were hoping Garvey would finally break through with substantive policies on issues like homelessness, healthcare and housing, you were disappointed.
During the 90-minute debate moderated by Fox LA anchor Elex Michaelson and Politico reporter Melanie Mason, he made maybe three or four definitive statements:
Here’s Garvey on the war in Gaza: “I stand with Israel yesterday, today and tomorrow, for whatever their needs are.”
On health care: “Medicare for All will be a strain on our economy. I don’t believe in government getting involved.” (Though he did concede that the Affordable Care Act “works for some people.”)
On energy: “Let’s get to the point where we start to open up the pipes of gas and oil and start to cut our energy costs.”
Beyond that, Garvey focused more on platitudes than policy.
He did manage to keep relatively calm and collected throughout the night — often coming across like a bemused observer who is above the fray — though he did call Schiff a “liar” for claiming that Trump colluded with Russia during his 2016 campaign.
Does he support Trump?
Roughly eight minutes were devoted to a fruitless effort to pin Garvey down on whether or not he will again vote for Donald Trump.
That gave the former all-star an opening for one of the many baseball analogies of the night: “You’re banging on that trash can just like the Astros did a few years ago.”
Garvey never did give a yes-or-no answer. But come now, of course he will vote for Trump. He voted for him in the past two general elections and this time will be no different.
He gave himself away with statements like this one: “I don’t believe Joe Biden has been good for this country… We were safer, more, under (Trump) than we are under Biden.”
He also accused Biden of “staying in the basement” and venturing out only in “controlled environments.”“I wouldn’t have voted for President Reagan if he stayed in the basement.”
That’s a bit ironic, given that Garvey has yet to make a major campaign appearance and has turned down requests to meet with journalists.
Winner and losers
In the world of baseball, Garvey’s lackluster Monday night performance might have gotten him benched — or even traded.
But this is politics, and it’s highly doubtful that he lost the support of any of the MAGA faithful, who don’t seem to care whether or not a candidate is qualified for office. Garvey may even have picked up some admirers among independent voters with his “I’m my own man” spiel.
Some polls have put Garvey in second place, behind Schiff and ahead of Porter and Lee, who has consistently come in fourth.
In other words, Porter has the most to lose from a Garvey ascendancy.
The Orange County Democrat performed quite well at Monday’s debate, though it’s doubful she tipped the scales.
Porter did an admirable job of positioning herself as young candidate ready to take on the establishment, including the insurance industry, the oil industry and a moribund Congress that fails to get things done.
In opposing earmarks and highlighting her refusal to accept donations from corporate PACs, she also separated herself from Schiff and Lee.
Schiff, however, arguably had the best night, especially when it came to tearing down Donald Trump.
“If Donald Trump is elected president then we are … it rhymes with crude,” he said. “His election would be the gravest threat in our country’s history.”
Can anyone catch Schiff? Probably not.
But stay tuned. The race for second place ain’t over yet.
This story was originally published January 23, 2024 at 11:15 AM.
