Burbank Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff is running for Senate. He joins an increasingly crowded field for Senator Dianne Feinstein’s seat, though she has not announced whether she will run again, and she’ll be 90 years old this June. A few weeks ago, Orange County’s Katie Porter officially declared her run. Oakland’s Barbara Lee is also expected to announce.
It’s no surprise that Schiff and Porter didn’t wait for Feinstein to officially announce, says Steven Maviglio, democratic strategist and founder and president of Forza Communications.
“It costs a lot of money to run for any office, but particularly the United States Senate and the state of California. Both of them are some of the best fundraisers we have in the nation. … You need that headstart, unfortunately. There was a lot of criticism of Katie Porter for announcing it … when California was under siege by mother nature with storms. And Schiff seems to be a little more deferential to Feinstein. But again, he wanted to get out there early and started lining up endorsements and raising that money he's going to need.”
Maviglio adds, “It'll be a high-profile race because both Katie Porter and Adam Schiff and even Barbara Lee have … national profiles. … You can see them on CNN and MSNBC and NPR all the time because they're very active members of Congress.”