Candidates meet for first time since February
The first California U.S. Senate candidate forum was held at the Grand Central Air Terminal Museum in Glendale on Tuesday, with former baseball star Steve Garvey (R) facing off against Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) for the seat held by the late Senator Diane Feinstein for the first time one on one.
Click here to SUBSCRIBE to CA Political Review
Since Garvey and Schiff won the Primary back in March, Schiff has a significant lead in polls, with Garvey only polling around the mid-30s. However, with less than a month to go before the election, and with undecided voters still in double digit percentages, both candidates are still fighting for last minute surges, with Garvey hoping to be the first GOP Senate candidate to get above 40% in decades.
On Tuesday they met in Glendale where the two were fired questions by KABC Los Angeles anchor Marc Brown, KGO San Francisco anchor Kristen Sze, KFSN anchor Warren Armstrong, and Univision Los Angeles anchor Gabriella Teissier. The Globe was there as well during the hour long event, and the issues covered pretty much every hot button issue out there.
For the most part, both candidates didn’t make it a debate and simply kept to the forum question and answer format. But on a few issues, such as healthcare, they launched into each other, with Schiff repeatedly trying to tie in Garvey to Trump, and Garvey saying again and again how Schiff did nothing substantial while in Congress for 24 years. At one point early on, Schiff even said, “We have a dictator trying to become president,” only for Garvey to give a Reaganesque response of “There you go again.”
For the first question on Gun Control, the moderators pointed out how Feinstein was big on the issue and what their individual stances on it were.
Garvey said “I believe in the second amendment, I have sympathy for victims of the shootings.” But he also then said he would support more stringent background checks. Meanwhile, Schiff responded, attacking the NRA, supporting an assault weapons ban and more gun control.
Environmental and water issues were also highlighted. Schiff generally was more in support of environmental regulations and said that fighting climate change should take focus on these matters. He mentioned meeting Californians who couldn’t get house insurance because of the high fire risk, and that more renewable energy, and better technology to fight fires more effectively was needed. He even pointed out backing legislation in Congress to allow night time helicopter drops of water battling the U.S. Forest service to allow it. He also said more efficient ways to use and recycle water were needed.
Schiff and Garvey on the issues
In contrast, Garvey said that that water was critical, saying that “Water is the platinum, oil is the gold.” He pointed out that environmentalists needed to work with farmers and those in cities to create solution, something Schiff later also supported. Schiff was also a target for Garvey, with Garvey saying that Schiff hasn’t budged the issue since coming into office in Congress.
“Over these 24 years Schiff hasn’t been able to do anything about it. He can’t cure any of the problems.” responded Garvey.
Abortion proved more heated. While Garvey said he was Catholic and supported the right for abortions if it was the voice of Californians, Schiff went a step further and said he supported a national right for abortions, saying that Californians wanted a national right to reproductive freedoms. Garvey soon volleyed back saying “He believes democracy packing the court and deconstruction of the constitution. He is about doing away and downplaying the second amendment.” This caused Schiff to say over the interjecting moderator “Californians aren’t looking for some MAGA mini-me in a baseball uniform.”
Israel was also contentious. While both candidates supported Israel and called them an ally, Schiff went as far as to say that Americans overseas needed to be protected and that a two-state solution was the only way for peace. Garvey mentioned his recent Israel trip about he was to all the sites linked to the October 7th massacre and visited families of hostages. He then blamed the Obama and Biden administrations for giving money to Iran and stated “There will never be a two state solution, as one will try to decimate the other.”
Shiffty is now proven to be a crook and destroyer of documents.
Thank you for the Republican investigations and hard facts.
So what are you willing to do? You voted for them and they turned around and support anti antisemitism.
You have the power to tell the Sac Dictators No More.
Still voting Democrat? Are you really that stupid?