Feinstein won't say it yet, but she's all washed up in CA

Tara: Peter, I want to start off by asking you about the political state of play in your home state of California. Can you lay out the landscape for me and what we should expect?

Peter: Sure, I’ll start with Feinstein, who is 89 and—as you noted—facing serious questions about her physical and mental decline. She hasn’t said if she will run again, but no one in California politics believes she will. If she did, she’d almost certainly lose a Democratic primary in a state that has drifted leftward and away from Feinstein’s institutionalist politics. Feinstein is a complete non-factor in California politics right now. Her political capital is almost non-existent. …

In a state so heavily Democratic, the primary will be a race to the left. Unless a particularly compelling anti-Newsom MAGA Republican jumps in and somehow cobbles together a plurality of the vote in a super-crowded race, the top-two finishers in next year’s primary year will likely both be Democrats. I’m curious to see who can build the strongest coalition in a state that’s diverse but also segregated—culturally, racially and economically. Porter and Schiff are sort of in the same white liberal lane. They’re both well-funded, nationally-known Resistance darlings who will be competing for college-educated white people who watch MSNBC. Khanna and Lee will have some strength among progressives, labor unions, and policy activists. I can see both of them making a play for young people, too. But looking at the field, it’s hard to see who has strength with working class people of color or Latinos, who make up about a quarter of the statewide vote in California. I don’t see those groups voting Republican, but I also don’t see them getting fired up for any of the above Democrats.

Now that I think about it, it does seem like there might be room for some conservative Democrat to run to the middle on homelessness and public safety while the rest of the candidates try to out-liberal each other.