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In general, I’m of the mind that it’s not really “wasting” money to spend a lot in one place when the money is better spent elsewhere. If Dems are burning money on a hopeless race in Kentucky just because they despise Mitch McConnell it doesn’t mean that money was really on offer for a sleeper race in another part of the country. I also think campaign dollars are fairly elastic. That person who’s given candidate A $100 probably has another $100 they can give to candidate B if that other candidate catches their fancy. But TPM Reader HS makes a decent point about a possible bonfire of Dem campaign dollars about to be spent in California.
I don’t think it’s too soon to warn TPM readers away from picking a candidate for the Feinstein seat. Democratic Party activists are about to waste tens of millions of dollars (hundreds of millions?) on the Porter/Lee/Schiff race that really doesn’t matter, they all would be more than adequate.
Whichever of these three wins in 2024 and joins the Senate in 2025, they are going to be mighty unhappy if the Republicans win a Senate majority, which seems more likely than not! The Democratic Party is going to have to defend some very difficult seats to keep in 2024, and try some uphill campaigns to win some Republican seats (I would try Florida though it seems close to impossible). It’s going to take a ton of money and I hate to see how much will be wasted in California.
I love Katie Porter but I held back after she announced her campaign, figuring this would happen. Glad I did!
