Diane Feinstein announcement

[Hortensis]

172. +1000, NBachers. From the LA Times "...and I'm no rabble rouser."

... She also has allies, including prominent figures on the party’s left. Sen. Kamala Harris, who is far more popular than Feinstein among liberals, swiftly endorsed her after the announcement Monday, as did Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, who has emerged as one of Trump’s main antagonists in Congress.

“We are better off with her leadership,” Harris wrote.

While opponents see Feinstein’s style and longevity as a negative, her backers see it otherwise.

Her longtime campaign strategist, Bill Carrick, ticked off a string of issues — guns, abortion rights, desert protection, environmental issues, torture, LGBT rights — on which Feinstein’s record is closely aligned with the most liberal elements of the party.

“She’s in good shape, and the Democratic base is her strength,” he said. “Anybody who thinks they’re going to run to the left of her with Democrats, good luck.”

Ultimately, the race may center on what Californians expect of their politicians. Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor, is a believer in the school of compromise, of both sides working together to achieve an end that fully satisfies neither but moves the issue along.

“I can work across the aisle. I can work with other people. I know how to make judgments that can make bills passable,” she said in a brief interview after her announcement.

That is a style that has gone broadly out of fashion in recent years. If a challenger with enough money and manpower arrives, the Senate race could foretell whether California voters still want it — or prefer a more antagonistic tone. Feinstein is betting that’s not the case.

“I’m not a rabble-rouser; it’s not what I intend to do,” she said after a frequently testy town hall in mid-April at Los Angeles’ First African Methodist Episcopal Church. “I want to try to dim the cry and to fashion it into something constructive.… I think people want me to be constructive.”

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-feinstein-analysis-20171009-story.html

+10,000, Sen. Feinstein! Those who imagine trying to rebuild the critical working center means Feinstein isn't left enough should swonder why the extremely diverse California electorate keeps reelecting her. Before they helped elect her to national office, San Francisco voters elected her mayor for 10 years and to the San Francisco board of supervisors for 8 years before that. She's among a handful of the most powerful and experienced, strong liberals we have, and those hopeful opportunists who claim otherwise are lying.