During the final debate before Super Tuesday, four leading candidates for the U.S. Senate in California clashed, with Rep. Katie Porter, a Democratic congresswoman from Irvine, openly criticizing her House colleague, Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank.
During her first remarks in response to the question about the minimum wage and rising cost of living in California, Porter included her criticism against Schiff’s legislation records.
“My colleague Rep. Schiff says, for example, he wants to bring down the cost of childcare. But he isn’t on either of two major Democratic bills that would do that. He’s not on a bill to provide rental assistance for people although they were all part of plans. That’s the gap between congressman Schiff and candidate Schiff.”
But the Burbank congressman brushed the criticism off.
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“There’s nothing easier than putting your name on a bill,” Schiff shot back. “When you see the real legislators, they write their own legislation. I’ve been on numerous bills to bring down the cost of child care.”
But the most fiery attack on Schiff came when Porter tried to compare her records on efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“Look, I'm different than Representative Schiff,” Porter said. “He's taken corporate PAC checks from BP, from Sempra, from SoCalGas. And these are household names. They are polluters, so people can count on me to do Washington differently and deliver the climate change that we have been waiting for for so long.”
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In response, Schiff took a step further than maintaining his defensive mode against Porter by suggesting the Irvine congresswoman herself has taken campaign donations from energy companies.
“I don't think Rep. Porter has been fully clear about her record of taking thousands of dollars from people in the oil industry, thousands from Wall Street bankers, thousands from people in pharma industry,” Schiff fired back. “The problem with purity tests, as Rep. Porter would like to establish, is invariably the people establishing them don't meet them.”
Photos: 2024 California Senate Debate on NBC4 and Telemundo 52
As the two candidates continued to demonstrate not all Democrats are created equal even when it comes to tackling a federal budget deficit, Schiff suggested he would levy heavier taxes on large corporations, adding "wealthy corporates are not paying their fair share." Porter suggested reducing "wasteful military spending" may be key to reducing the national deficit.
The latest poll by USC, CSU Long Beach and Cal Poly Pomona showed Schiff of Burbank maintained a lead, gaining support from 25% of likely voters while Porter of Irvine was in second place at 15%, tied with the Republican candidate Steve Garvey.
