The sparks started flying between U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff and former L.A. Dodgers star Steve Garvey minutes into their only one-on-one debate, as both accused each other of failing Californians.
In an hour-long televised forum Tuesday evening for the U.S. Senate seat — held by Dianne Feinstein until her death last year — the two traded verbal jabs and clashed over a range of issues, including reproductive rights, gun control and immigration.
Garvey, a Palm Desert Republican, portrayed Schiff as a “career politician” who has done little to serve California residents during his tenure. “This man hasn’t done anything over the last 24 years on any of these things that have given us any consistency in life,” Garvey said.
Schiff, a Burbank Democrat who has served in Congress since 2001, in turn depicted Garvey as a supporter of former President Donald Trump who has experience in professional sports, not politics. “While Mr. Garvey was signing baseballs for the last 37 days, I was seeing presidents of both parties and governors of both parties sign my bills into law,” Schiff said.
The heated exchanges contrasted with the dynamic of the race, which has largely been quiet and static after the March primary, in which Schiff spent millions boosting Garvey to elbow out his Democratic opponents, U.S. Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. Schiff has consistently dominated Garvey in statewide polls in deep-blue California and has raised more money than his GOP opponent overall — enough to fund other Democrats in toss-up races across the country.
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Garvey, on the other hand, has run a much more low-key campaign and stayed close to home — except for a summer trip to Israel. He fundraised for his own campaign while skipping out on the California Republican Party convention and the Republican National Convention. He’s also conducted interviews with local TV stations and appeared at local festivals.
Here’s more on some of the key issues during the debate hosted by ABC7 in Los Angeles and the League of Women Voters of California:
Abortion
Garvey, noting that he is Catholic, said he pledged to support the will of Californians on reproductive rights. In November 2022, California voters enshrined the right to abortion and contraception into the state constitution, which Garvey acknowledged.
Garvey has said he believes reproductive freedom is a state-by-state issue. In January, Garvey said he opposed a nationwide abortion ban. And in July, he said he supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which ended decades of federal protection for abortion and relegated the decision making power to the states.
Schiff said he supports making the right to abortion a federal law and hammered Garvey for supporting the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
“If my colleague was listening to the voices of Californians as he claims, he would hear their voices loud and clear: Californians want a national right to reproductive freedom and they don’t want the government in the business of making that decision for women,” Schiff said. “I’m for reproductive freedom, Mr. Garvey. You are not.”
‘Court packing’
Schiff has blamed the decision overturning Roe on the high court’s conservative majority and supported expanding the court from nine justices to 13.
“What I care about is that a small number of conservative justices, who lied about their plans to the Senate, intend to deprive millions of women of reproductive care,” he said.
In response, Garvey repeatedly accused Schiff of supporting court packing — a partisan ploy to change the number of justices to achieve a desired outcome. It can be done in theory, but past efforts have failed amid steep opposition, ABC News reported.
Garvey argued that Schiff’s support for nationwide abortion rights, gun control measures and abolishing the filibuster — which in effect requires 60 votes to pass legislation in the U.S. Senate — show that Schiff wants to pack the court and “deconstruct” the Constitution.
In response, Schiff said U.S. Supreme Court justices should be “rebalanced” and term limited, held by a stronger set of ethics code.
“As for packing the court, Mr. Garvey, in case you weren’t paying attention, it’s already been packed,” Schiff said, referring to the conservative majority.
Guns
Garvey, who told CalMatters last year he supported an assault weapons ban, did not say whether he changed his position tonight. Instead, he focused solely on pre-sale background checks.
“I think that the most important thing is a stringent background check that goes much deeper than it is today in order to preserve the integrity of the Second Amendment and to be able to provide for people to defend themselves,” he said.
Schiff said he supports a universal background check law, as well as a ban on assault weapons and extended ammunition clips. He would also “strip away the (National Rifle Association)’s immunity from liability,” he said.
Donald Trump
Schiff — who led the first impeachment against Donald Trump — has continued to slam the former president as an unfit leader. In his own race, he has attempted to tie Garvey — who has voted for Trump twice and who plans to vote for him again — to Trump, accusing Garvey tonight of being a “MAGA Mini-Me in a baseball uniform.”
Garvey, on the other hand, said Schiff’s focus on his impeachment effort against Trump prohibits him from addressing the needs of Californians, arguing that it would be the “most toxic” Senate if Schiff got elected.
“I can’t imagine, Mr. Schiff, how you can get up every morning and have one mission, and that’s to go after Donald Trump,” Garvey said. “How can you think about one man every day and focus on that when you’ve got millions of people in California to take care of?”
But Schiff wore his outspokenness against Trump as a badge of honor, arguing he “stood up to a corrupt president” and witnessed as Trump “incited” a mob storming the Capitol building.
Immigration
Tonight, Garvey described the border as “an existential crisis” created by President Joe Biden. While border crossings spiked under Biden, he has pushed for tougher border restrictions, including expanded executive authority to shut down the border and restrict asylum seekers.
But Garvey penned an op-ed in La Opinión against mass deportation of illegal immigrants, which Trump has pledged to do if he returns to the White House. Instead, Garvey argued the federal government should increase funding to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, strengthen border security and expedite family-based green card applications. He advocated for shutting down the border “temporarily.”
Additionally, Garvey said he supports reinstating the Trump-era policy keeping asylum seekers in Mexico while their applications are pending. He opposed “catch and release,” which, instead of detaining a migrant, allows them to return to the community while they wait for an immigration court hearing.
Schiff said tonight the government needs to “get control of the border,” advocating for more personnel and technology to help with border patrol while also ensuring humane treatment of migrants.
“We can have both a strong border but also treat people as human beings,” he said.
Schiff has criticized policies detaining migrants, calling the conditions at some detention centers “incredibly disturbing.” He has supported increased funding to add more judges and interpreters at immigration courts, more resources to enhance border inspections and expanded humanitarian support for asylum seekers.
He also supports the U.S. Citizenship Act, which would create a pathway to citizenship for some Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and undocumented immigrants if they pass the background checks and have worked in the country for at least five years.
Schiff and Garvey are vying for the support of Latino voters, who are the least likely to vote despite comprising the largest racial and ethnic group statewide. As part of an “all-in Latino community strategy,” on Oct. 4, Garvey’s campaign aired its first statewide TV ads — only in Spanish — as part of a $5 million ad buy.
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