He can talk baseball, but where does candidate Steve Garvey stand on the issues? | Opinion
It took a while, but Los Angeles Dodgers legend Steve Garvey appears to be waking up and reaching out to ask rank-and-file voters to support his wild-card campaign for the U.S. Senate.
Here’s my evidence: He sent me a text message. He even used my name.
“Hi Stephanie, It’s Steve Garvey.”
“I’m currently in a dead heat in the California jungle primary with Democrat extremists Katie Porter, Barbara Lee, and Adam Schiff,” the message continued. “Will you rush a contribution in the next 30 minutes to give me the boost I need?”
Sure, that’s just another one of those faux-friendly mass messages ubiquitous in 21st century politics, but it’s more than we have been getting out of Garvey since he announced his run for the Senate in early October.
Aside from a few low-key appearances, the former World Series champ has not been been hitting the campaign trail much, prompting this Dec. 4 headline in POLITICO: “Will Steve Garvey ever leave the dugout?”
A Garvey campaign spokesperson, Matt Shupe, told POLITICO that fundraising has been the major focus so far, “and that next year we’ll see more action on the trail.”
Well, next year has arrived. And while a barrage of text messages may count as campaigning, the net effect is underwhelming.
What the polls say
It would be easy to write off the campaign as yet another GOP lost cause, but Garvey has been “climbing in the polls,” as his supporters like to say
The former All-Star first baseman finished second in a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released Dec. 21, behind Rep. Adam Schiff (28%). Garvey followed with 19%, narrowly ahead of Rep. Katie Porter (17%) and Rep. Barbara Lee (14%).
But there is a caveat: Those results included “leaners” who declined to choose a candidate when initially asked, and picked one only when prompted to do so. On the original question, 19% of respondents declared themselves undecided.
Still, it wasn’t the only strong finish for Garvey. He also came in second, behind Adam Schiff, in a Survey USA poll released Dec. 11. Porter and Lee were tied.
In all other polls, though — including some early ones that did not include Garvey — Schiff and Porter were mostly neck-and-neck, so much so that it seemed almost certain that the two Democrats would make it to the November runoff.
Boiler-plate platitudes
It now appears Garvey could act as a spoiler by allowing only one Democrat to survive the top-two primary.
If he pulls it off, it will be a feat for a candidate who has never held political office, has done minimal campaigning and has a platform on his website consisting entirely of boiler-plate platitudes.
Here he is on education: “We must provide parents with more choices, reward great teachers, and bring back important trade skills to our education system. We must work together to make sure our schools are the best they can possibly be.”
On homelessness: “We must get real about addressing the underlying causes of homelessness, including health and drug addiction. We can solve this problem with accountability and compassion.”
On national security: “We must invest in modernizing our military and achieve peace through strength. It’s important that we work close with our allies and be prepared for the threats of tomorrow while actively positioning ourselves to counter the expansion of hostile foreign powers.”
His role model? Pope Paul VI
A self-described moderate, Garvey has leaned heavily on his career in baseball and has managed to avoid policy questions in the handful of televised interviews he’s given so far.
(For the record, Garvey declined to meet with McClatchy California opinion boards.)
When Elex Michaelson of “The Issue Is” asked whether he supports Donald Trump, Garvey answered, “When I get a ballot for the general election..., I’ll look at who’s on the ballot and I’ll choose the person I think is best suited for the job.” (Garvey did say that he voted for Trump in the last two elections.)
Here’s what he had to say on abortion rights: “The people of California have spoken and the most important thing for a senator to do is pledge to uphold the voice of the people.”
Garvey did express “unilateral support” for Israel and said we should “continue our obligation to Ukraine” when Michaelson interviewed him in October.
And while he declined to say anything about his opponents in the Senate race or to name a single senator he admires, he did name his role model: Pope Paul (presumably a reference to Paul VI, who was pope from 1963 to 1978) .... “because of his honesty, because of his leadership, because of his straightforwardness ... never wavering in his beliefs and his faith.”
How will Garvey do on the debate stage?
Could Garvey’s feel-good, non-committal campaign — together with his stellar baseball career — result in a top-two finish in the primary?
The Katie Porter campaign doesn’t believe so, as campaign spokesperson Mila Myles made clear following the release of the latest poll results that had Garvey in second place:
“Our internal polling and the vast majority of the recent polls show a very different result — with Katie either ahead or making it into the top two comfortably,” Myles said in an email.
If Garvey were to advance to the general election, it’s unlikely that he could beat a Democrat in a deep-blue state. The last Republican to win a statewide office not named Arnold Schwarzenegger was Steve Poizner, who was elected Insurance Commissioner in 2006.
Yet Garvey’s candidacy could serve the purpose of steering California’s Republican Party in a new, more palatable direction by proving that a moderate candidate has a better chance of succeeding than the far-right conservatives the GOP has been foisting on voters.
For that to happen, though, Garvey has to champion moderate views on issues of concern to Californians, like immigration, climate change, health care, homelessness, gun violence, LGBTQ rights, abortion, foreign policy and many more.
He’ll have an opportunity to do exactly that in the first televised Senate debate scheduled for Jan. 22, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Hosted by POLITICO, Fox 11 Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, it will air live on FOX 11 in Los Angeles, KTVU FOX 2 in the Bay Area and it will be livestreamed on POLITICO. The top four candidates — Schiff, Garvey, Porter and Lee — are scheduled to participate.
With nearly 20% of voters undecided — and early voting in the March 5 primary just a few weeks away — it will be a critical night for all the candidates.
And for voters, it will be a rare opportunity to watch the legendary Steve Garvey compete once again — albeit on a very different field.
This story was originally published January 5, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "He can talk baseball, but where does candidate Steve Garvey stand on the issues? | Opinion."
