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    Dianne Feinstein: oldest serving senator says she ‘hasn’t been gone’ despite absence

    A bizarre exchange with reporters has raised new questions about the return of Dianne Feinstein, California’s senior senator who has been absent from Washington for months due to shingles.Jim Newell, a reporter for Slate, ran into Feinstein shortly after the 89-year-old lawmaker voted on the Senate floor on Tuesday. When he and another journalist asked Feinstein how she has been received by her colleagues since returning to Washington, Feinstein appeared to insist that she had never left.“I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working,” Feinstein told Newell and another reporter, according to a Slate article published Tuesday. She was asked if she meant she had been working remotely, to which Feinstein responded: “No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting. Please. You either know or don’t know.”The exchange comes as Feinstein faces pressure to resign amid questions about her health.Now the oldest serving senator, Feinstein led the effort to pass a landmark 1994 assault weapons ban and fought for a full investigation of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. But in recent years, media and Feinstein’s colleagues have increasingly questioned her fitness to serve as one of two senators representing the most populous US state.Her three-month absence from the Senate judiciary committee this year threatened to derail the confirmation of Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, at a time when 9% of district and appellate court seats remain vacant. And while Feinstein has managed to fulfil her committee duties since returning to Washington, questions remain about whether she can effectively govern. A San Francisco Chronicle report last year described Feinstein suffering memory losses and relying heavily on her staff to fulfil job duties.The senator has said that doctors have asked her to maintain a lighter work schedule as she continues to recover, but has provided no details on what that means. She has continually dismissed reporters’ questions about her health and workload.Some fellow Democrats, including the California representative Ro Khanna, have called on her to resign. “Three months is a long time to be absent without any clarity,” he told Politico.Feinstein has said she wouldn’t seek re-election in 2024. Three California representatives – Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee – have already declared their candidacy. If Feinstein does decide to retire early, it would fall to Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, to appoint a temporary replacement.Still, because Feinstein holds seniority after 30 years of service in the Senate, if she did step down, her replacement would not automatically wield the same authority she does on the judiciary committee and the powerful appropriations committee. The situation has rankled Californians who had called for Feinstein to step down earlier, before this term. More

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    AOC says Feinstein’s refusal to retire is ‘causing great harm’ to US courts

    The New York progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Monday that the California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein should retire, amid a long absence from Congress due to ill health which has affected their party’s efforts to stock federal courts with liberal judges.Feinstein, 89, “should retire”, Ocasio-Cortez – 33 and commonly known as AOC – wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.She added: “I think criticisms of that stance as ‘anti-feminist’ are a farce.”Prominent Democrats including the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand have labeled calls for Feinstein to quit sexist, because men in similar positions would not face such pressure.Others have pushed back.Feinstein was the first woman to be mayor of San Francisco and is now the longest-serving female US senator. But before her current absence began, over a case of shingles, she faced questions about her mental fitness for the job.She has said she intends to return soon but as a member of the Senate judiciary committee, her absence has affected the pace of confirmation of judges – a key aim of any administration but a priority for Democrats and Joe Biden after Republicans forced the pace of conservative confirmations under Donald Trump.Having removed the Democrats’ majority on the judiciary committee, Feinstein’s absence would also hobble any attempt to force John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, or any other justice to testify regarding ethics rules and scandals concerning Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, members of the conservative majority.Republicans blocked Democratic attempts to appoint a temporary replacement.Ocasio-Cortez previously said Feinstein should consider retirement. She has now added a powerful voice to calls for the senator to quit.“Her refusal to either retire or show up is causing great harm to the judiciary – precisely where repro[ductive] rights are getting stripped,” the New Yorker said.A recent Texas ruling which threatened access to mifepristone, a common abortion pill, came from a hard-right judge installed under Trump. The supreme court removed the right to abortion last year.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionFeinstein’s failure to retire, Ocasio-Cortez added, “means now in this precious window Dem[ocrat]s can only pass GOP-approved nominees”.However, Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, Virginia, recently told the Guardian that Feinstein’s absence had “not stopped the Senate from confirming Biden’s judicial nominees, but it has made confirming them somewhat more difficult.“For nominees who lack [bipartisan] support and receive tie votes, Democrats can discharge them from the committee with majority votes on the floor, which consumes valuable floor time,” he said.Bluesky is a relatively new platform, backed by the Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, which operates by invitation. An Ocasio-Cortez spokesperson confirmed her words to CNN, which first reported the post.The spokesperson also confirmed that Ocasio-Cortez does not intend to challenge Gillibrand for her Senate seat in 2024, the subject of recent speculation. More

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    Clinging to power does not make Dianne Feinstein a feminist hero | Arwa Mahdawi

    Feinstein’s feminist farceHere’s a controversial opinion: when you’re no longer capable of doing your extremely important job you should gracefully step away from your extremely important job. I know that may not sound controversial on the surface, but it appears to be quite the topic of debate in Washington DC. It certainly seems to be a contentious issue for Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, who recently hit back at calls for the 89-year-old Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein to resign over her health.Feinstein is the oldest sitting US senator (narrowly beating out spring chicken Chuck Grassley who is a few months younger) and there have been concerns about her cognitive health for a while now. Her physical health has also become an issue: Feinstein has been absent from the Senate since February, when she was diagnosed with shingles. She’s missed 60 of the Senate’s 82 votes so far this session. Her absence from the judiciary committee, on which the Democrats hold a one-seat majority, has stopped the Democrats from advancing federal judges for confirmation. Which is a big deal because these judges get lifetime appointments.On Wednesday, multiple Democrats, led by Representative Ro Khanna, called for Feinstein to resign, saying she could no longer fulfil her duties. Not everyone agrees. “I don’t know what political agendas are at work that are going after Senator Feinstein in that way,” Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday. “I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way.”Norma Torres, another California Democrat, also argued that calls for Feinstein to quit were sexist. “When women age or get sick, the men are quick to push them aside,” she tweeted. “When men age or get sick, they get a promotion.”Do female politicians face unfair double standards and increased scrutiny? Of course they do! But cynically weaponizing the very real sexism that women in politics face to defend Feinstein’s stubborn decision to cling to power is appalling. Feminism isn’t about individual women climbing up the corporate ladder, it’s about working for equal rights. Feinstein represents 40 million Americans and her decisions affect millions more: there is nothing remotely feminist about Feinstein putting her ego above the greater good, particularly at such a critical moment for women’s rights in the US. It’s just selfish.I can understand why Feinstein doesn’t want to resign, don’t get me wrong. Being in government seems to have been very lucrative for her. She’s worth at least $58m. How did she get so rich in public service? Well, Feinstein’s husband was an investment banker and the pair have been incredibly lucky in the stock market. It’s almost like they’ve got access to inside information. Feinstein, for example, sold off a huge amount of shares just before the stock market collapsed at the beginning of the pandemic. The pair faced scrutiny over their stock trades but have denied doing anything wrong. Pelosi and her husband have faced similar scrutiny.Feinstein, to be fair, has now responded to criticism about her long absence from work. On Wednesday, following calls for her resignation Feinstein said that she’d asked the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to allow another Democratic senator to take her place on the judiciary committee until she’s fit to return to work. That’s a good solution for now but Feinstein, who is due to step down in 2025, should think about resigning altogether: she can certainly afford retirement. Real leadership, as Jacinda Ardern has demonstrated, isn’t about staying in power as long as possible, but knowing when it’s time to step aside. It’s way past time for Feinstein to cede some space and make way for fresh leadership.Women are earning more money, but still doing the bulk of the houseworkMen still tend to be the primary breadwinner in heterosexual marriages, but the number of women who earn as much as or significantly more than their husband has roughly tripled over the past 50 years. In 29% of US marriages, spouses earn the same amount. And in 16% of heterosexual marriages women earn more. But despite growing equality in the workplace, women are still doing more of the housework and caregiving while men spend more time relaxing, a new report by Pew Research Center has found.Rupert Murdoch reportedly divorced Jerry Hall by emailHall, the billionaire’s fourth wife, was waiting to meet her husband at their home when she received a curt message saying: “we have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do.”Spanish woman emerges after spending 500 days living alone in caveShe has now broken the world record for the longest time a person has spent alone in a cave. Quite the achievement.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThere’s still a lot we don’t know about menstruationA review of scientific papers has found there are about 400 studies on menstrual effluent compared with more than 15,000 for semen or sperm. The New Yorker looks at two fascinating new books around menstruation and how “the stigma surrounding menstruation may have had severe consequences for research into reproductive health.”83% of US journalists who cover sport are menPew Research has some interesting (and depressing) statistics on the way in which US journalists’ beats vary according to demographics. Men are more likely to cover sports (83%), political news (60%) and news about science and technology (58%). Women are more likely to cover health, education and families. Meanwhile 76% of all reporting journalists surveyed said that they are white, while 8% are Hispanic, 6% are Black and 3% are Asian. Just 5% of US journalists who cover politics are Black.The week in pawtriarchyShe’s reportedly a “bit of a diva” and “small like a ball”: meet Pearl, the world’s shortest chihuahua. She’s just a bit bigger than a dollar bill and has earned a spot in the Guinness World Records after a vet used a special dog-measuring wicket to verify her size. What a gem.
    This article was amended on 15 April 2023. An earlier version wrote about Feinstein’s husband in the present tense. He died in 2022. More

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    After Dianne Feinstein: as a political giant steps down, California weighs its future

    When Dianne Feinstein arrived in Washington in 1992, her home state of California was solidly purple and Republican Pete Wilson occupied the governor’s office.More than 30 years later, as the oldest member of Congress and California’s longest serving senator prepares to retire, her state is arguably the most reliably blue in the US.Feinstein’s protracted career as a senator also charts the rise of California as a political power player on Capitol Hill, whose 55 electoral votes – the largest block by far, with Texas and Florida as distant seconds – have helped guarantee a Democrat in the White House for six out of the last eight terms.Yet despite Feinstein’s early history as a transformative feminist from San Francisco, her perch in the top rungs of Senate leadership has outlasted its welcome among her increasingly liberal base. Grumblings about her willingness to work with Republicans, as well as concerns about her physical and mental competence, has left many clamouring for a changing of the guard, meaning the race to replace her in November 2024 is destined to become among the most hotly contested and consequential races in Democratic party politics.So far, three candidates have surfaced. Two of them, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee, are veteran liberal legislators, having been in office since 2001 and 1998, respectively, while Katie Porter, a progressive congresswoman from traditionally conservative Orange county, is a rising star who first took office in 2019. Apparently not one for following party protocols, Porter stunned some observers by announcing her candidacy a full month before Feinstein made her retirement official early this February.Of the three, Schiff, who helped steer two successive impeachments against Donald Trump, has the most experience and name recognition. He also has the backing of the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, whereas Porter counts Elizabeth Warren among her supporters. Both have more cash on hand than Lee, who also polls lower, despite impeccable liberal credentials that include being the only member of Congress to vote against giving President Bush unlimited war powers after 9/11.One thing that’s clear: that whoever voters choose, it will be someone to the left of Feinstein. Gustavo Arellano, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, describes the changing of the guard as a completion of California’s political arc.In the early 1970s, more than half of Californians voted to reelect Richard Nixon and even San Francisco had a Republican mayor. Fast forward to now, and Democratic state lawmakers in Sacramento outnumber Republicans by a ridiculous margin: 62 Democrats versus 18 Republicans in the assembly, and a senate composed of 32 Democrats and only eight Republicans. California hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office since 2007, when Arnold Schwarzenegger left the governor’s mansion, and its voters are increasingly the most liberal and diverse in the nation.“Dianne Feinstein leaving office marks the end of an era where California politics were more moderate,” said Arellano, who credits the California Republican party’s racially divisive position on immigration with laying the groundwork for the Democrats’ seemingly permanent lock on state politics. “California has always been a bellweather in so many things,” he said.“The fact that the two leading candidates to replace Feinstein are progressive Democrats is a victory for the left. But it’s also a warning for Republicans: this will be your fate if you don’t get your act together.”A ‘miserable’ beginningFeinstein’s journey from San Francisco’s city hall to Washington began in 1969 when she first joined the city’s board of supervisors. It was a tumultuous era marked by anti-Vietnam war protests and, particularly in San Francisco, rising demands for equality by women and gay people. For Feinstein, the late ’60s and early ’70s provided ample opportunity to challenge sexist stereotypes in American politics.It’s difficult to overstate Feinstein’s role as a political pioneer, said Jerry Roberts, a former managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, who wrote a 1994 biography of Feinstein that focused on her role in city politics. “She was a trailblazer who knocked down doors for women,” he continued. “Her legacy is Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Kamala Harris, and all the women who came after her.”Feinstein lost two successive races for San Francisco mayor in the 1970s. “It was largely because voters and women in particular still didn’t feel comfortable with women in office,” Roberts said. Feinstein eventually assumed the role by dint of tragedy, when George Moscone, the city’s Democratic mayor, was assassinated by a disgruntled city official in 1978. The same shooter also murdered Harvey Milk, a city supervisor and the first openly gay man to hold public office in the nation.“She got into office the most miserable way,” said Roberts.Feinstein quickly developed a bipartisan reputation as a hard-nosed workaholic who early on recognized the danger of Aids, crusading against gay bathhouses while defending the dignity of the disease’s victims. She was legendary for responding to the concerns of her constituents, and to the amusement of local journalists would often respond to building blazes dressed in a yellow coat to show solidarity for the city’s firefighters.“She was very hands on, so people hated working for her, which they still do, but the voters liked that,” explained Roberts. “When she left office nine years later, she had a 70% approval rating. It was pretty remarkable.”After losing a gubernatorial race to Pete Wilson in 1990, Feinstein positioned herself to statewide voters as a moderate centrist. Two years later, she won a special election to his vacant senate seat. Her senate victory joined those of fellow Californian Barbara Boxer and Maryland’s Barbara Mikulski to make 1992 the “Year of the Woman”.Feinstein was re-elected two years later and authored the nation’s first federal assault weapons ban. Her hard work on Capitol Hill helped make her the first female chairperson of both the Senate rules and intelligence committees. But as her influence in Washington grew, she also cemented a reputation as a policy hawk who typically voted with Republicans on defense appropriations.After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Feinstein became a key supporter of the US invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq. She later changed her position on Iraq, saying she was misled by George Bush, and became an outspoken critic of the CIA’s use of torture in the war on terror. Her investigation into which infamously led the agency to allegedly illegally spy on her office.Outlasting her welcomeHer achievements as senator notwithstanding, the tide began to turn against her in recent years, and as the specter of her retirement loomed, so did questions of who should represent the next chapter of California politics.When Feinstein last ran for her seat in 2018, the California Democratic party, in a display of long-simmering dissatisfaction with her moderate politics, backed her more liberal opponent from the state senate, Kevin De Leon. It’s a shift that makes sense to Mark Baldassare, a survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California and a longtime political observer. “The state’s electorate is more racially and ethnically diverse now, especially among Democrats, a quarter of whom are Latino.”After nearly six full terms in office, Feinstein seemed unfocused and out of touch to both staffers and colleagues. In October 2020, following the confirmation of Donald Trump’s supreme court pick Amy Coney Barrett, Feinstein drew ire if not outright bewilderment among Democrats for hugging Republican Lindsey Graham, who was instrumental in securing the conservative domination of the court, and praising the volatile proceedings as “one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in”.The Coney Barrett fiasco led to calls for Feinstein’s ouster from Senate leadership appointments as well as concerns about her mental state. In retrospect, it marked the beginning of the end of her career in Washington. More recent headlines have focused on her physical frailty, particularly after a dose of shingles last month sent her to the hospital.“Progressives have always despised Feinstein going back to her days in San Francisco,” remarked the Times’ Arellano. “Even now, everybody is giving respect to her for retiring but nobody is shedding any tears.”A typical perspective among progressives is that of Marc Cooper, a former Nation magazine writer and journalism professor at the University of Southern California who now publishes an online political newsletter. To him, Feinstein’s legacy in California is the Democratic leadership’s abandonment of grassroots, anti-war politics in favor of large donor-dominated neoliberal elitism.“You can pick apart Feinstein and say there are times she’s acted like a Republican, but it’s a waste of time,” Cooper said. “We have never had a point in my lifetime when the political world is more distant from most people’s lives than it is now. The Democratic party in California used to be quite vibrant and that’s all been replaced by money.”Not everyone is quite so harsh, with others describing Feinstein a venerable figure who simply outlasted her welcome. “Feinstein is a great woman,” argued noted California journalist and author Anne Louise Bardach. “She’s been tremendous, but she overstayed her time.” Bardach believes the longtime illness and eventual death last year of Feinstein’s second husband, Richard Blum, took an immense emotional toll.” I think it was probably a huge burden for her,” Bardach said. “If he had been alive, she would have likely stepped down much earlier.”The Guardian reached out to Feinstein for an interview, but did not hear back.California’s next political chapterCalifornia voters will get their first chance to weigh in on Feinstein’s successor in the March 2024 Democratic primary race. That’s a good eight months before the general election, meaning that the public can expect a long ride of campaigning and political jockeying, including expensive television ads, and the possibility of public debates and even personal attacks.All of that, however, assumes that Feinstein does not retire early or leave office for medical reasons. If that happens, California’s governor Gavin Newsom has the responsibility to choose her immediate replacement, and has already pledged that person will be a Black woman.Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Fullerton College in southern California, believes that Newsom is unlikely to appoint Lee, however, as that would unfairly tip the race in her favor. “I’m sure he’s hoping not to have to make that decision,” Balma said of Newsom. One name that came up among those close to Newsom is Willie Brown, the longtime Democratic kingmaker and retired San Francisco mayor, according to Balma. “To be a caretaker senator would be the crowning achievement of his political career.”Assuming that scenario doesn’t play out, polling has so far suggested that the deep-pocketed Schiff has the lead, with Porter closely behind and Lee a distant third. Making the race more complicated is the fact that California’s primary laws allow the top two candidates from each political party’s March primary race to run for the general election in November.According to Balma, the consensus in Sacramento is that the last thing the party wants is two Democrats splitting a November vote, thus allowing room for a Republican challenger to win. “The Democrats don’t want two candidates fighting between March and November with negative attacks and commercials telling the voters how bad they are.”Regardless, the nation will be watching closely.“It’s a long way to the primary, but this race is attracting national attention because it’s indicative of the new leadership in California and what it means nationally for the future of the Democratic party,” said Baldassare. “There’s no question that there are some big shoes to fill.” More

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    Boy meets Congress: Ben Savage, star of 90s sitcom, to run for California seat

    Boy meets Congress: Ben Savage, star of 90s sitcom, to run for California seatActor is vying for Los Angeles district represented by Adam Schiff, who is competing for Dianne Feinstein’s US Senate postBen Savage, the star of the 1990s teen sitcom Boy Meets World, plans to run for the congressional seat in California currently held by Adam Schiff, who has joined the race to replace Dianne Feinstein.‘It is exhausting’: California town digs its way out after record-setting snowRead moreThe actor is running in the Los Angeles-area district represented by Schiff, a top Democrat and former House intelligence chair. Schiff announced in January that he would seek Feinstein’s Senate seat, joining a crowded field of candidates that includes congresswomen Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.Savage announced this week he would run for Congress in district 30, where he said he is a “longtime resident”.“I’m running for Congress because it’s time to restore faith in government by offering reasonable, innovative and compassionate solutions to our country’s most pressing issues,” Savage said in an Instagram post announcing his campaign.“And it’s time for new and passionate leaders who can help move the country forward,” he said. “Leaders who want to see the government operating at maximum capacity, unhindered by political divisions and special interests.”The 42-year-old actor has a political science degree from Stanford, and interned for US senator Arlen Specter in 2003 as part of his studies, Deadline reported. Last year, Savage ran unsuccessfully for the West Hollywood city council, receiving under 7% of the votes.The 30th district, which includes northern parts of Los Angeles, is solidly Democratic. Schiff won with 71% of the vote against a fellow Democrat in November’s midterm elections, due to California’s open primary system in which the top two candidates regardless of party affiliation advance to the general election.On his campaign website, Savage emphasizes his long history of union membership and said he believes in “ensuring equality and expanding opportunities for all”. If elected, his priorities would include improving public safety, affordable housing, addressing homelessness and protecting organized labor.TopicsCaliforniaLos AngelesDianne FeinsteinUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressUS SenatenewsReuse this content More

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    Democrat Barbara Lee announces bid to replace Dianne Feinstein in US Senate

    Democrat Barbara Lee announces bid to replace Dianne Feinstein in US SenateLee is the highest-ranking Black woman in House Democratic leadership and seeks to take seat in hotly-contested raceUnited States congresswoman Barbara Lee on Tuesday formally launched her campaign for the Senate seat held by the retiring Dianne Feinstein, joining two fellow House Democrats in the race in the nation’s most populous state.California senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, announces she will not seek re-electionRead moreIn a video posted on Twitter, Lee ran through a list of the personal and professional battles she has taken on in her life, including fighting to be her school’s first Black cheerleader, championing protections for survivors of domestic violence and being the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for the use of military force after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.“Today I am proud to announce my candidacy for US Senate. I’ve never backed down from doing what’s right. And I never will,” Lee said in the video. “Californians deserve a strong, progressive leader who has delivered real change.”Today I am proud to announce my candidacy for U.S. Senate. I’ve never backed down from doing what’s right. And I never will. Californians deserve a strong, progressive leader who has delivered real change.#BarbaraLeeSpeaksForMe pic.twitter.com/sEjmABg2BS— Barbara Lee (@BarbaraLeeForCA) February 21, 2023
    Lee, a former chair of the congressional Black caucus, filed federal paperwork last week to enter the campaign shortly after the 89-year-old Feinstein announced she would step down after her term ends next year. Feinstein, the oldest member of Congress, has held the seat since 1992.Democratic US congresswoman Katie Porter, who is known for her use of a whiteboard during congressional hearings, and Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor in then President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, announced their Senate campaigns last month.The three Democratic candidates occupy much of the same political terrain, so the race could be shaped by other factors that distinguish them.Lee’s district in the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most liberal in the country and includes Berkeley and Oakland. Porter represents a politically divided district in Orange county, south-east of Los Angeles, that was once a conservative stronghold. Schiff’s district runs north from Los Angeles and includes Hollywood and Burbank, where he lives.Lee is the highest-ranking Black woman appointed to House Democratic leadership, serving as co-chair of the Policy and Steering Committee. Schiff and Porter are white. Lee, at 76, is the oldest of the group. Porter is 49, and Schiff is 62.In a nod to her age, Lee said she was the same fighter she has always been.“For those who say my time has passed, well, when does making change go out of style?” she said in the video. “I don’t quit. I don’t give up.”There are no Black women in the Senate, and there have been only two in the chamber’s history: Vice-President Kamala Harris, who was California’s first Black senator, and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, who served one term.None of the candidates has run statewide before. They face the challenge of becoming more widely known, though they each have established political reputations.Lee and Porter have been leaders in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Schiff describes himself as a progressive champion but was once a member of the House’s centrist Blue Dog Coalition.Why are Americans paying $32m every hour for wars since 9/11? | Barbara LeeRead moreLee has long been on outspoken defender of abortion rights. In 2021, she was one of several members of Congress who shared personal testimony about their own abortions during a congressional hearing.She became pregnant at age 16 in the mid-1960s. Abortion in California was illegal at the time, so a family friend helped send her to a back-alley clinic in Mexico, she said at the time.She had no ill effects from the procedure, but she said many other women weren’t so lucky in that era.Democrats are expected to dominate the contest in the liberal state. A Republican hasn’t won a statewide race in California since 2006, and the past two US Senate elections had only Democrats on the November ballot.TopicsCaliforniaUS CongressUS politicsDemocratsDianne FeinsteinSan FrancisconewsReuse this content More

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    California senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, announces she will not seek re-election

    California senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, announces she will not seek re-electionFeinstein, who has sat in US Senate since 1992, sets off race among Democrats to succeed to vacant seat Dianne Feinstein , the 89-year-old senator from California who has served in the chamber for three decades, said she will not seek re-election in 2024.“I am announcing today I will not run for re-election in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends,” Feinstein said in a statement.Senate musical chairs: California prepares for political battle over Feinstein vacancyRead moreHer announcement has been long anticipated and comes after several fellow Democrats have already announced plans to run for her seat. The news also comes after years of speculation about the senator’s mental fitness and concerns that Feinstein, who would be 91 by election day, was experiencing memory problems.In a statement on Tuesday, Feinstein said she will spend the remainder of her term prioritizing legislation to mitigate the effects of severe wildfire and drought in the west, improve access to healthcare and combat gun violence.She will also focus on “promoting economic growth – especially to position California for what I believe will be the century of the Pacific”, she said. “And I will use my seniority on the appropriations committee to ensure California gets its fair share of funding.”Fellow California Democrats are already fighting over the rare Senate opening Feinstein’s retirement will create. Among the candidates are Katie Porter – the young, southern California representative known for wielding a whiteboard at House hearings – and Adam Schiff, a liberal darling who led the first impeachment of Donald Trump. Representative Barbara Lee has also reportedly told colleagues she is running.Still others are expected to launch their candidacy following Feinstein’s announcement. Schiff, who earned the endorsement of the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, made sure to note that he had first consulted with Feinstein. And Pelosi noted that Feinstein would have retained her support had she chosen to seek re-election.Feinstein has had a long career in politics, starting in 1960 as a member of the California women’s parole board. She was elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors in 1969 and became mayor in 1978 following the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk.She was the first woman in the city’s history to hold the position and faced sexism from colleagues and the media throughout her career. She became known for her moderate, centrist politics, winning her Senate seat in 1992.“Even with a divided Congress, we can still pass bills that will improve lives. Each of us was sent here to solve problems,” she said. “That’s what I’ve done for the last 30 years, and that’s what I plan to do for the next two years.”TopicsDianne FeinsteinDemocratsUS politicsUS SenateCalifornianewsReuse this content More

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    The 2024 senate race in California kicks off: Politics Weekly America podcast

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    Two weeks ago, the congresswoman Katie Porter announced she was running to be one of California’s two senators, despite the fact that the incumbent, Dianne Feinstein, has yet to say she is retiring. After the presidential primary, California is expected to be the most interesting race in 2024. Jonathan Freedland and Tal Kopan of the Boston Globe discuss which way the largely blue state could vote

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