California’s nail-biting primary in the race to replace Dianne Feinstein is poised to be one of the most exciting and consequential of Super Tuesday.
The showdown ahead of the general election could become a traditional Democratic-Republican matchup if Senate hopeful Rep. Adam Schiff has his way.
Schiff was ahead in the four-way race, which pits the former leader of the House Intelligence Committee against Democrats, Reps. Barbara Lee and Katie Porter, and Republican Steve Garvey, a former major league baseball star who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers .
But polls ahead of Tuesday’s primary showed Garvey nearly tied with Schiff and at times even overtaking the nationally known Democrat, who was a foil to former President Donald Trump during his time in office.
That’s because Schiff took out ads across the state talking about Garvey’s support for Trump and blasting him as “too conservative for California,” boosting the Republican’s profile and serving as catnip for Republican voters.
The Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff is the front-runner in California’s four-way Senate race. He appeared in Burbank, California during a campaign stop on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries
Schiff paid for ads in the state to boost the candidacy of Republican Steve Garvey, a retired professional baseball player and supporter of former President Donald Trump
“The ads going against Steve Garvey, I watched them and I started laughing a little bit because I thought these are the exact reasons why I want to vote for him,” 32-year-old Michael Mesbah told DailyMail.com in his polling place in downtown Huntington Beach.
Mesbah, who works in advertising, went to the polls on Monday with his wife Allyssa, 29, a dancer, where they both cast votes for Trump and Garvey.
He wasn’t surprised when he learned those ads were paid for by Schiff.
“That would make sense because they are flattering ads if you look at them from that perspective,” Mesbah said.
California has a so-called jungle primary for congressional races — meaning the top two voters from either party will appear on the general election ballot this fall.
In such a heavily Democratic state, Schiff, the clear frontrunner, will have a much easier time against Garvey than Porter, a progressive who also has a national profile and who is in second place among the trio of Democrats in the race.
Voters interviewed by DailyMail.com didn’t know much about Garvey, although 34-year-old Nick Mao, a general contractor in Huntington Beach, said he wasn’t happy with the ex-baseball player’s wife problems.
‘I mean he doesn’t have full respect for the way he treats women. “I think if we can get a Republican in there, I think that’s better than what we’ve had,” Mao said. an independent, who reluctantly voted for the baseball great.
Garvey played for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1969 to 1982 and has now entered politics as a Republican in deep blue California.
Steve and his wife Candace Garvey previously posed for a photo in Beverly Hills in 2017
Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, another U.S. Senate hopeful, is photographed voting in Irvine, California, on Saturday
Rep. Barbara Lee was in last place ahead of California’s jungle-style primary
Long before his political career, in the mid-1980s, Garvey was involved in a wave of scandals and lawsuits and found himself in staggering debt.
Before divorcing his wife Cynthia Truhan, he became romantically involved with his secretary Judy Ross.
While dating Ross, Garvey began seeing CNN assignment Rebecka Mendenhall, without telling the women about each other.
While this was going on, he impregnated medical products representative, Cheryl Ann Moulton.
He eventually proposed and had a child with Mendenhall, although he broke off the engagement.
Through it all, he was involved in child support and custody lawsuits.
Garvey Sports Illustrated said at the time: ‘Some people have a midlife crisis. I’ve had a midlife disaster.’
More recent stories from the Los Angeles Times questions raised about his behavior as a father.
“These experiences have equipped me to better understand the adversities others face in their lives and to serve the public with empathy and integrity that was lacking in Washington, DC,” the candidate said in a statement to The Times when he was told was asked to respond to claims of child abandonment.