Porters

SACRAMENTO — Sen. Alex Padilla apparently dreams of becoming California’s next governor. He’s thinking hard about entering the race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom. And Katie Porter may have just opened the starting gate for him.

Porter has been regarded as the early front-runner. But she tripped and stumbled badly during a contentious, unprofessional and rude performance in a recent routine TV interview that went viral.

We don’t know the extent of her injury. But it was certainly enough to make Padilla’s decision a lot easier. If he really deep down covets the job of governor, the time seems ripe to apply for it.

Padilla wouldn’t need to vacate the Senate merely to run. He’d have what’s called a “free ride”: He doesn’t face reelection next year because his Senate term runs through 2028.

But a Senate seat is gold plated. No term limits — a job often for life. It offers prestige and power, with sway over a global array of issues.

Why would Padilla trade that to become the governor whose state is plagued by homelessness, wildfires and unaffordable living for millions?

For starters, it’s not much fun these days to be in the toothless Senate minority as a Democrat.

The California governor has immense power over spending and taxes, the appointment of positions ranging from local fair board members to state Supreme Court justices and the fate of hundreds of bills passed each year by the Legislature.

You lead the most populous state and the world’s fourth-largest economy.

The office provides an automatic launching pad for anyone with presidential aspirations, such as the termed-out present occupant.

Anyway, Padilla, 52, is a proud native Californian, raised in the San Fernando Valley with strong ties to the state.

And he’s immensely qualified to be governor, having served well in local, state and federal branches of government: Los Angeles City Council, state Senate, California secretary of State and the U.S. Senate.

There has been speculation for weeks about his entering the gubernatorial race. And in a recent New York Times interview, he acknowledged: “I am weighing it.”

“Look, California is home,” he said. “I love California. I miss California when I’m in Washington. And there’s a lot of important work to do there. … I’m just trying to think through: Where can I be most impactful.”

How long will he think? “The race is not until next year,” he said. “So that decision will come.”

It should come much sooner than next year in order to be elected governor in this far-flung state with its vast socio-economic and geographic diversity.

Former Democratic Rep. Porter from Orange County has been beating him and every announced candidate in the polls — although not by enough to loudly boast about.

In a September poll by Emerson College, 36% of surveyed voters said they were undecided about whom to support. Of the rest, 16% favored Porter and just 7% Padilla.

In an August survey by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, 38% were undecided. Porter led with 17%. The nearest Democrat at 9% was Xavier Becerra, former secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services, state attorney general and 12-term congressman. Padilla wasn’t listed.

Why Porter? She gained renown during congressional hearings while grilling corporate executives and using a white board. But mainly, I suspect, voters got to know her when she ran statewide for the U.S. Senate last year. She didn’t survive the primary, but her name familiarity did.

By contrast, Padilla has never had a tough top-of-the-ticket statewide race. He was appointed by Newsom to the Senate in 2021 to fill the vacancy created by Kamala Harris’ election as vice president.

Democratic strategist Garry South says it would be “risky” for Padilla to announce his candidacy unless he immediately became the front-runner. That’s because he’d need that status to attract the hefty campaign donations required to introduce himself to voters.

“Unlike the governor, a California senator is not really that well known,” the strategist says. “And he hasn’t been a senator that long. I don’t think voters have a sense of him. In order to improve his [poll] numbers, he’s going to have to spend a lot of money. If he were an instant frontrunner, the money would flow. But if he jumps in with only half the votes [of

the frontrunner], there’s no reason for money to flow.

“And the longer he waits, the less time he has to raise the money.”

Porter may have eased the way for Padilla.

The UC Irvine law professor came unglued when CBS Sacramento reporter Julie Watts asked what she’d tell California’s 6 million Donald Trump voters in order to win their needed support for governor. Porter reacted like a normal irritated person rather than a seasoned politician.

She tersely dismissed the question’s premise and replied that the GOP votes wouldn’t be needed.

When the interviewer persisted, Porter lost her cool. “I don’t want to keep doing this. I’m going to call it,” she said, threatening to walk out. But she didn’t.

It was raw meat for her campaign opponents and they immediately pounced.

Former state Controller Betty Yee called on Porter to “leave this race” because she’s “a weak, self-destructive candidate unfit to lead California.”

Veteran Democratic consultant Gale Kaufman, who’s not involved in the contest, says the TV flub “hurts her a lot because it goes to likability.”

If Padilla really longs for the job, he can stop dreaming and take advantage of a golden opportunity.

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Until next week,
George Skelton

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A melee broke out at Rep. Katie Porter’s district town hall meeting Sunday, with her backers scuffling with supporters of former President Trump who were loudly interrupting the congresswoman as she spoke.

Porter, a Democrat from Irvine, said the acts of the protesters were premeditated and that all attendees had been given the opportunity to ask questions.

“It is disappointing that a small but vocal group of attendees, who advertised a ‘confrontation rally,’ created unsafe conditions at a planned family-friendly event,” Porter said in a statement. “While I absolutely respect their right to disagree, their disturbance disrespected all the families who attended and were ready to engage in a thoughtful, civil and safe way.

“My team and I are evaluating next steps, but my promise to Orange County families is that I will continue to hold town halls and to be in conversation with them.”

Porter was referring to an Instagram post by Nick Taurus, who is running against her in the midterm election. On Thursday, he invited supporters to join him at the town hall to “CONFRONT KATIE PORTER!”

“Katie Porter is a far-left ideologue supported by Bay Area academics, the billionaire class and foreign lobbies!” he wrote in the post. “Her America Last policies are awful for the 45th district and we intend to voice our displeasure.”

Taurus, who identifies as an “American nationalist” on his campaign website, was among the people involved in the scuffle; he declined to comment to The Times.

The fracas occurred shortly after Porter began speaking to a crowd of a few hundred people at Mike Ward Community Park in Irvine. It was her first in-person town hall since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A brief scuffle breaks out at Rep. Katie Porter’s Sunday town hall.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“I am so excited to be here with you all today. Thank you everyone for coming out to express your opinion,” she said. “This is an outdoor activity; we have a lot of wind. So I’m going to ask that everyone, regardless of your views, try to keep your voices down and be quiet so we can have a conversation.”

She added that, as a mother of three, she had often worried about finding child care so she could attend such events, so she had directed her team to make the event family-friendly. Her staff handed out popcorn, snow cones and pocket copies of the Constitution to children.

“I’m really excited to have kids here with us today,” Porter said, “and I want this to be a very family-friendly environment, even as we talk about the hard issues.”

As she spoke, a handful of protesters shouted “Carpetbagger Katie!” and “Corrupt Katie Porter.” They continued to interrupt her as she spoke about climate change, COVID-19 vaccinations and other topics.

Porter supporters, who made up the bulk of the crowd, tried to drown out the protesters by chanting, “Katie! Katie! Katie!” or screaming, “Shut up!” A few confronted protesters, resulting in punches being thrown and men falling to the ground. Porter rushed to the scuffle, wrapping her arms around an older woman near the scrum.

Officers from the Irvine Police Department intervened and separated the factions. Sgt. Karie Davies said one Porter supporter was arrested but released on a citation, and officers took a report of assault and battery. Injuries “sounded minor,” she said.

Police restrain vocal opponents of Rep. Katie Porter at the Irvine event Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Porter’s congressional district is expected to be hotly contested in next year’s midterm election as Republicans try to regain control of Congress. The affluent district includes Irvine, Tustin, Villa Park, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest and Rancho Santa Margarita, as well as parts of Anaheim, Orange, Laguna Woods, Mission Viejo and Trabuco Canyon.

Porter, a 47-year-old attorney, flipped this onetime Republican stronghold in 2018, becoming the first Democrat to represent the district, then won reelection last year by seven points. Still, her election performance trailed that of President Biden, which is partly why she is among the Democratic House incumbents being targeted by national Republicans in next year’s midterms.

GOP officials argue that Porter, a darling of progressives, is too liberal for her swing district.

“Katie Porter and Democrats’ socialist agenda has caused everyday goods to cost more, created a border crisis and led to a rise in violent crime,” said Torunn Sinclair, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “It will cost her reelection.”

On his campaign website, Taurus has called for a 25-year moratorium on immigration, a prohibition on vaccine passports, a ban on teaching critical race theory and LGBT issues in schools, the pardoning of everyone involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection in the nation’s capital, and other controversial views.

Taurus’ social media profiles show that he associates with people such as Nicholas J. Fuentes, a far-right activist who espouses white supremacist rhetoric, including lamenting that America is losing its “white demographic core” and likening the Holocaust to baking cookies — a metaphor to cast doubt on millions of deaths.

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Taurus and anyone else who challenges Porter would likely face a tough fight. Porter, a protégé of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), is a prodigious fundraiser and has drawn national attention because of her sharp questioning of corporate leaders and government officials and her use of whiteboards to explain complex policy.

After the rally ended, Taurus led a chant of “America first! America first!” and asked members of the audience if they were from America.

Kathleen Ripley, 35, winced as she watched. The Irvine resident supports Porter, though she is critical of the congresswoman, saying she wished she would talk about college debt. Ripley left the town hall distressed by the spectacles she had witnessed that afternoon.

“It’s upsetting,” she said. “But there is no point in talking to them. They literally had a chance to put in questions just like all the rest of us … but instead they decided to be disrespectful and shout over the congresswoman and everybody else here.”