Bye-Bye DiFi? California Democratic Party Refuses to Endorse Feinstein Re-Election Bid

Now this is stunning. I saw this article on my smartphone news feed. US Senator Dianne Feinstein not only could not achieve a full endorsement in her re-election bid for office, but her challenger Kevin de Leon defeated her by nearly 20 points, even though neither candidate reached the necessary threshold of 60% of party delegates.

National Public Radio reports:

Before U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein could finish her speech at the California Democratic Party convention Saturday, the music began playing to indicate she had used her allotted time.

The convention delegates, grassroots left-wing activists can't wait to get rid of her. She is too "Republican" for their taste, which is hard for me to believe, since she is a full-on baby killer, family destroyed, gun grabber, and corporate Swamp Creature.

She kept talking. The music got louder. "I guess my time is up," Feinstein conceded as what sounded like a 1940s movie score continued playing.

Without missing a beat, supporters of her opponent, state Sen. Kevin de León echoed her statement in a chant: "Your time is up! Your time is up!" — a not-so-subtle reference to Feinstein's 25 years in the U.S. Senate.

Ouch! How about that? Grandma DiFi is getting heckled by the younger generation. They want her gone. She is too nice, in their estimation.

It was a sign of things to come. The grass-roots Democratic activists gathered at the party's annual convention in San Diego this weekend implicitly rebuked the state's senior U.S. senator by denying her the party's endorsement for her re-election bid.

Feinstein finished far behind de León, the top Democrat in the state Senate. De León received 54 percent of delegates' votes to just 37 percent for Feinstein. It takes 60 percent to receive an endorsement.

That is staggering. Sneaky Dianne Feinstein is finding herself forced more and more to the left, and even then she is still not with it. Such is the result of one election after another into higher office.

While the lack of an endorsement certainly won't keep Feinstein off the ballot, it's a sign that grass-roots Democrats are eager to supplant leaders who are seen as too moderate and willing to compromise.

Democrats are delusional. They are pushing a leftwing agenda that is so out of touch with reality, that registered Democrats in California as well as all over the country actually lined up to support Donald Trump. They want jobs back. They want the borders secure. They want to know that the United States will remain a viable country for their children and their children's children. The progressive lunacy of the current party, combined with their long record of corruption and graft, has turned off so many left-wing Democrats that they have abandoned the party altogether.

Democratic Party activists have never really been Feinstein's people. In 1990, when she was running for governor, she came to the party convention and expressed her support for the death penalty, eliciting boos from the liberal crowd. She lost the party endorsement to John Van de Kamp but got the nomination anyway, ultimately losing the November election to Pete Wilson.

30 years ago, the political divides among Democrats was effective enough to guarantee Republicans a seat at the general election table and into statewide office. Now one has to wonder if there will be enough division among the two ravening factions of the California Democratic Party to allow any kind of opportunity for a Republican to get into the Top Two for statewide office!

Feinstein has always been a little to the right of where the party's activists are. Now, at age 84 and in her final campaign, Feinstein is once again at odds with progressives, despite her efforts to move left by more strongly opposing President Trump's agenda.

She said the Senate Appropriations Committee, which she sits on, would never approve $25 billion for Trump's wall along the Mexico boarder. But minutes later, de León's team sent texts noting that Feinstein had just voted for exactly that as part of the "Common Sense Coalition" immigration plan that failed to get through the Senate.

Wow! What a stunner! DiFi did vote to fund the wall. Kamala Harris and the two US Senators from New Mexico rejected the Schumer-Rounds legislation because of the wall funding, which really wasn't funding because of the byzantine regulatory burdens imposed on yearly border appropriations.

The bill would not only have provided a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers, people in the U.S. illegally who were brought here as children, but it also included $25 billion for the wall.

Feinstein also reminded the crowd of her longstanding leadership on gun control, including her success against long odds at getting an assault weapons ban signed into law in 1994.

She is a has-been to the Democratic Party. She has not authored any substantive legislation since her 1992 election. Not only that, but the assault weapons ban is now considered too conservative for Democrats. They want an all out gun ban, and they want the full repeal of the Second Amendment.

The Democratic Party has no real sentiment for constitutional government anymore.

In his speech to the convention, de León reminded the crowd that his opponent hasn't always been a reliable liberal. "Democrats, you'll never have to guess where I stand," de León said before noting that he has championed issues such as raising the minimum wage, single-payer health care and the environment.

Dianne Feinstein opposes single-payer healthcare, and she has expressed deep skepticism for Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All proposals.

"DiFi, just DIE already!"

She also opposed Kevin de Leon's sanctuary state legislation, although she has also voted against blocking grants to sanctuary cities.

State Senator Kevin De Leon has repeatedly hammered Feinstein over her ongoing support for Middle Eastern Wars, including Bush's War in Iraq. She also supported President Trump's limited action Syria early last year, and that upset regressive leftists, too.

"Moral clarity is always doing the right thing when no one is watching," he said. "And it should never take a primary challenge to stand up for California values."

California values, indeed. You mean, like the values which led to the murder of Kate Steinle?

As leader of the state Senate, De León has had his own problems of late, most notably criticism of his slow response to the sexual harassment scandal in Sacramento. And while an endorsement from the Democratic Party would have provided a boost, his campaign is also overshadowed by Feinstein's huge advantages in name recognition and campaign cash. A recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California had her leading de León by 46 percent to 17 percent.

DiFi has big money and a big name. Will Republican support in the general election help push her over the top? Will it moderate her voting record if she gets re-elected?

Despite the boost for De León, the vote is in some ways a loss for him. Democratic campaign strategist Katie Merrill says he needed the endorsement much more than Feinstein.

Such is the power of incumbency.

"He was such a narrow path to the Senate, and he had to have this Democratic Party endorsement," she said. "This was the one strategic thing he need to accomplish here and he did not accomplish it."

Reflection

What a dilemma for Republicans in the state of California. There is a plethora of US Senate candidates of all backgrounds running for US Senate. I know of at least four Republicans, none of whom really have a chance. These campaigns are novelty bids at their worst. Elizabeth Emken was the only Republican on the ballot in 2012, and the Los Angeles Times hated Feinstein enough that they featured an extended interview/report on her.

Emken still didn't have a chance. Her campaign supporters had to sell her law signs to make up for the loss. Pretty dispiriting. That was in 2012, and since then Republicans have fled this state in record numbers, while illegal aliens, welfare queens, and public sector unions gather massive strength and power.

What we are looking at going into 2018 is another battle between two Democrats. There is not one single Republican US Senate candidate who stands out. Not one. What are we to do?