{"id":25416,"date":"2023-03-07T10:30:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T18:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=25416"},"modified":"2023-03-07T10:30:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T18:30:41","slug":"whats-behind-barbara-lees-long-shot-bid-for-feinsteins-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/03\/07\/whats-behind-barbara-lees-long-shot-bid-for-feinsteins-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s behind Barbara Lee&#8217;s long-shot bid for Feinstein&#8217;s seat?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Marc%20Sandalow\">By Marc Sandalow | Examiner columnist<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Mar 6, 2023\u00a0<em>Updated\u00a0<\/em>20 hrs ago  (SFExaminer.com)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/8\/cd\/8cd4f1da-b3a7-11ed-b39b-33320637be2b\/63f7b0617a8e2.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267\" alt=\"Barbara Lee speaks at San Francisco Women's March Rally\"\/><figcaption><em>Barbara Lee holds what is perhaps the safest seat in Congress, representing a district that includes Oakland, Piedmont, Berkeley, Emeryville, Alameda and San Leandro. She has won 14 consecutive elections.<\/em><em>Kevin N. Hume\/The Examiner<\/em><em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What the hell is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/lee.house.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Barbara Lee<\/a>&nbsp;thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even Capitol Hill veterans are asking that question after the 76-year-old East Bay congresswoman announced she is running to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lee holds what is perhaps the safest seat in Congress, representing a district that includes Oakland and Berkeley, Piedmont, Emeryville, Alameda and San Leandro. She has won 14 consecutive elections, typically with more than 80 percent of the vote, and never faced an opponent who came within 50 percentage points of unseating her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She is giving that up for a longshot bid to replace Feinstein, who at 89 has faced questions about her advanced age. If successful, Lee would be 84 in the final year of her Senate term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get there she needs to outpace at least two Democratic colleagues who have already announced their candidacies&nbsp;\u2014 Rep.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/schiff.house.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Adam Schiff<\/a>&nbsp;of Los Angeles, who gained nationwide attention leading the first Trump impeachment committee, and Rep.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/porter.house.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Katie Porter<\/a>, whose interrogation of Trump administration officials earned her adulation from the left, and face time on cable TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At last count, Schiff had $52 million in his campaign coffers, Porter had $7 million, and Lee had $52,000. A&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/igs.berkeley.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Berkeley Institute of Government Studies<\/a>&nbsp;poll last week showed Lee trailing Schiff and Porter in every region and demographic, with support from just 6 percent of Californians,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lee acknowledged the low expectations as she announced her candidacy last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNo one is rolling out the welcome mat, especially for someone like me,\u2019\u2019 Lee said in the opening lines of the video announcing her candidacy. The video chronicles other challenges she has overcome, from segregation, a violent marriage, raising two kids as a single mom, and the hostility she incurred after being the only member of Congress not to grant President George W. Bush wide-ranging authority to wage war shortly after the September 11 attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So why would she abandon her seat \u2014 and her seniority \u2014 in the House?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For starters, Lee\u2019s Congressional power&nbsp;\u2014 just like that of each of her 211 Democratic colleagues&nbsp;\u2014 was all but obliterated when Republicans took control of the chamber in January. Senators retain the right to hold up legislation, filibuster and speak at will, even in the minority; in the House, the minority has virtually no rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year, as the chair of an Appropriations Subcommittee&nbsp;\u2014 a position reverentially referred to in the House as a \u201cCardinal\u2019\u2019&nbsp;\u2014 Lee was able to write legislation allocating money for U.S. foreign aid, including humanitarian efforts and programs to combat AIDS in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That committee is now chaired by Kay Granger, a conservative Texan. Lee can voice her dissent, but the committee is stacked to make certain Republicans prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless Democrats surge in polls prior to the next election, it would not be surprising if multiple Democrats decided it was time to retire. There are two dozen House members older than Lee, including Bay Area Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lee\u2019s greatest motivation to run for Senate may be her determination to have someone in the field who understands what it feels like to be excluded for being poor, Black or a woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Few know Lee\u2019s story. In high school, she was denied a chance to tryout as a cheerleader because she didn\u2019t have blond hair, blue eyes and most importantly, white skin. So, she enlisted the NAACP\u2019s help and pressured the school into letting students vote for cheerleaders, which earned her a spot on the squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lee escaped a violent marriage and raised two children as a single mother, relying on food stamps and other assistance as she earned an undergraduate degree from Mills College and a masters in social work from UC Berkeley. It was while attending Berkeley she interned for then-Rep. Ron Dellums, eventually becoming his chief of staff before taking over his seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No one in the Senate has a similar story. Of the 2001 Americans who have served in the Senate, only two have been African American women. And of the 59 Senators who have represented California, all but three have been white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lee talks frequently about training, encouraging and inspiring the next generation of leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was drawn to politics herself by another woman who, as a member of the House, faced seemingly impossible odds in a quixotic campaign for president. Lee met New York Rep. Shirley Chisolm as she was campaigning in Oakland during the 1972 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though Lee wasn\u2019t registered to vote, she joined the campaign and Chisolm&nbsp;\u2014 the first Black woman elected to Congress&nbsp;\u2014 became her inspiration and mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though Chisolm didn\u2019t come close to winning the Democratic nomination, Lee often quotes a line Chisolm used when trying to inspire others who feel their voice isn\u2019t being heard, a phrase that could well serve as her Senate campaign slogan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf they don\u2019t give you a seat at the table, pull up a folding chair.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Marc Sandalow is associate director of the University of California\u2019s Washington Center. He has been writing about California politics from Washington, D.C., for nearly 30 years.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Marc Sandalow | Examiner columnist Mar 6, 2023\u00a0Updated\u00a020 hrs ago (SFExaminer.com) What the hell is&nbsp;Barbara Lee&nbsp;thinking? Even Capitol Hill veterans are asking that question after the 76-year-old East Bay congresswoman announced she is running to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Lee holds what is perhaps the safest seat in Congress,&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/03\/07\/whats-behind-barbara-lees-long-shot-bid-for-feinsteins-seat\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[210],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25417,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25416\/revisions\/25417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}