With the battle to become the next U.S. senator from California heating up, a clear frontrunner has a grip on the race, according to recent polling.
The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, which was co-sponsored and published by the Los Angeles Times, showed that U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) holds majority support among likely voters in November’s election.
The poll found that 53% of likely voters preferred Schiff, compared to 33% for Republican Steve Garvey.
A November pre-primary poll from the same pollsters also had Schiff at 53% but Garvey at 38%, meaning the former Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres star had lost 5% in support since February.
That 5% drop led to a 5% increase in undecided voters, from 9% to 14%, according to the poll.
The latest polls showing a massive Schiff lead shouldn’t come as a surprise to Californians. There are nearly 5 million more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state.
The poll bodes well for Schiff, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2001. His opponent, Garvey, has never held public office and is best known for his baseball career in which he won the National League MVP Award in 1974.
During the Senate race, Garvey has claimed that California wants a change from Democratic leadership, which has dominated the state throughout the 21st Century.
“I think California is doing a lot of change,” Schiff told KTLA’s Frank Buckley on “Inside California Politics” on Wednesday. “They want more affordable housing, they want more affordable and accessible child care, they want to make sure they can access quality health care … The problem with Steve Garvey is, he doesn’t plan for any of that.”
The two candidates are seeking the Senate seat vacated by the late Dianne Feinstein, who died last September at the age of 90. Sen. LaPhonza Butler was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to hold the seat temporarily while the state chooses the next senator.
Schiff on the Issues
In an interview with Inside California Politics, Schiff discussed some of the issues most pressing for California residents.
On housing and homelessness, the representative from Burbank said he ultimately believes more in building up the housing supply but that Newsom’s enforcement orders are also a part of the association.
“I think there has to be a balance here…” Schiff said. “I don’t believe that the way to address it is to try to make criminals of people who can’t afford a home. And so where a city does provide shelter, where it offers shelter, where it has available shelter and it offers it to people in encampments and they turn it down I think the city has the right to enforce its laws.”
“What I would say vis a vie the governor, the county and the city at the end of the day, the problem is supply,” Schiff said. “There’s not enough housing and people can’t afford it. And the only way we’re going to get ahead of this is if we’re building hundreds of thousands of units of housing in California every year. That is my focus nothing else is really going to solve this problem because you can clear encampments and move people into housing and you’re just going to have more people becoming unhoused because they can’t afford a place to live.”
On immigration, Schiff says more resources need to be dedicated to immigration but that also changes need to be made current system.
“The reality is we need to surge resources to the border,” Schiff said. “We need more judges, we need more interpreters. We need to process asylum claims more quickly, more efficiently. It does no one any good to force people to wait five, ten years to determine if they qualify for asylum… That’s a huge burden on cities and communities. That’s a huge burden on migrants not to know for a decade can they stay or do they have to go back. The system is broken.”
“We also have to address the system as it affects 11 million that are here and undocumented—our dreamers, our temporary protective status holders. We need something comprehensive.”
Schiff also explained his support for a higher minimum wage.
“I don’t think the answer to the economic challenges we have is we should pay people less, we should pay people poverty wages; the people who serve us at restaurants or build our homes or protect us from fire, our police officers, law enforcement, that we should pay them less,” Schiff said. “I don’t buy that. I think we’re a prosperous enough country to pay people a livable wage… I think we do need a higher minimum wage. I think also what we’ve seen during the pandemic and since the pandemic is a lot of Americans deciding ‘I’m not going to work for poverty wages’ and they shouldn’t have to.”
