Tuesday’s news that term-limited State Senate president Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg will be stepping down after this year’s session leaves me with mixed feelings.
To be clear — his legislative leadership has been a disaster for the State of California. He has championed more and bigger government — higher taxes and more regulation while the state’s liabilities have skyrocketed. Steinberg has worked hard to drag the Senate even further to the left than it would have been on the natural.
So why do I have mixed feeling? Well, to be frank, Steinberg’s political leadership has had a Keystone Coppish feeling to it. But for the vast amount of money spent by his buddies in the CTA, SEIU et.al., there is no way he would have seen Democrats take a super-majority.
In 2010, in his first real test at the head of the Senate’s political team, Steinberg emptied the Democratic coffers to try to pick off the coastal Senate seat vacated by Abel Maldonado. It was no secret that this seat was an uphill battle for Republicans to begin with. But even after Democratic candidate John Laird lost to Republican Sam Blakeslee by seven points in the first round, Steinberg poured millions of labor money down the drain in the runoff.
Also that year, Steinberg stepped in it when he intervened in the safe Democratic seat in the 40th District. Two Assembly Democrats, Mary Salas and Juan Vargas., squared off in a primary. Instead of allowing them to duke it out, Steinberg tried to muscle into the race, funneling his campaign resources into the effort of the more liberal Salas. She lost.
Last year, Steinberg was faced with winning another crucial special election in the Central Valley. Once again, he put all he had into saving the seat of retiring Sen. Michael Rubio for the Democrats. And again, Steinberg was embarrassed. Republican Andy Vidak nearly won a clean victory in the primary and thumped Steinberg’s annointed candidate Leticia Perez in the runoff.
Although it is early in 2014, Steinberg’s political skills continue to fail him. Trying to clear the field in Senate District 2 for Chris Lehman, a former Democratic Senate staffer and Steinberg’s political bagman, Steinberg was once again unsuccessful. Local Democrats were not intimidated by Steinberg’s efforts, and Lehman was unable to muster neither the money nor the local support for his race. He dropped out of the race Monday.
Looking further down the pike in 2014, Steinberg’s ineptitude also gives Republicans reasons to cheer. No strong candidates have surfaced to challenge Senator Vidak nor Senator Anthony Cannella in two swing districts. That gives Republicans the opportunity to take another Democratic seat away from Steinberg in Orange County, where termed out Senator Lou Correa is giving up his seat.
Yesterday Steinberg announced that Kevin DeLeon had put together the votes to succeed him as the top Democrat in the Senate. To be honest, it’s hard to believe that DeLeon could do a worse job than Steinberg on the political side. But I will keep my fingers crossed!