Katie Porter discusses crisis that shook her gubernatorial bid

SAN FRANCISCO — The fact that Katie Porter is still standing is saying something.

The last time any significant number of people watched California’s low-frequency gubernatorial race was in October, when Porter’s political obituary appeared in boldface.

Hot on the heels of a rapid-fire and off-putting TV interview, Porter appeared in an old video disrespectfully berating a member of staff in the name of humanity! – He enters the video frame during his meeting with a Biden Cabinet member.

Not a good look for a candidate already facing questions about his temperament and emotional regulation. (Wait, dear reader, we’ll get into this sexist double standard issue in a moment.)

The former Orange County congressman played against the worst stereotypes and that was it. HE The campaign was supposedly shut down.

But, lo and behold, a few months later, Porter is exactly where he was before, one of a handful of top contenders in a race that remains stubbornly unformed and wide open.

Has he ever considered withdrawing from the competition, as some have encouraged and others clearly hope to see? (It was clearly no coincidence that that mean-spirited 2021 video emerged with its one-two punch of timing and intentionality.)

No, he said, not for a moment.

“Anyone who thinks you can just push Katie Porter aside has never tried to do that,” he said.

Porter apologized and expressed regret for his cantankerous behavior. He promised to do better.

“You definitely learn from your mistakes,” the Democrat said over a cup of tea in San Francisco’s Financial District this week. “I really do, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how do I show Californians who I am and that I really care about the people who work for me? I need to earn back their trust, and that’s exactly what the campaigns are about.”

He offers no excuses for being curmudgeonly and didn’t bite when asked about this double standard — but he did allow Democratic leader John Burton, who died shortly before people were busy digging Porter’s grave, to be celebrated with his gruff demeanor and liberal detonation of f-bombs.

“It was a reminder,” he said, turning to the governor’s race, “that there were other politicians who took the heat, acted strongly, fought for what was right and virtuous, and California embraced them.”

He said voters “want someone who’s not going to back down.”

Porter warmed to the subject.

“If you never hurt anyone’s feelings, never [JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive] Jamie Dimon will be fired because he doesn’t consider how his employees can’t make ends meet. If you want everyone to love you, you would never tell a big pharma CEO, ‘You don’t make this cancer drug anymore.’ You’ve become richer, haven’t you?’ “This is a feisty thing I’m proud of.”

At the same time, Porter suggested he wanted to show that there was more to his persona than the whiteboard-wielding vigilante that turned him into a viral sensation. He said his inquisition stance was his role as a congressional overseer tasked with holding people accountable. Being a governor is different. More collaborative. Less confrontational.

His campaign approach was to “call everyone, go everywhere”—even places where Porter might not be welcome—to listen and learn, build relationships, and demonstrate “my ability to compromise, my ability to learn and change my mind.”

“It’s really hard to convey all of that in whiteboard moments,” he said.

The narrative that this year’s crop of gubernatorial candidates is a collective bore is as if the lack of A-list sizzle and inability to throw sparks were some kind of mortal sin.

Porter isn’t buying it.

“I think when we say boring, what we’re really saying is: ‘I’m not 100% sure how this is all going to turn out.’ People are waiting for some thing It will be the coronation of our next governor. We won’t have that.”

He noted that Gavin Newsom is a high-profile former mayor of San Francisco and spent eight years as lieutenant governor before winning the state’s top job. Its predecessor was dynasty Jerry Brown.

None of the candidates running this time have that political pedigree or the Sacramento background of Newsom or Brown; According to Porter, this is not a bad thing.

“I actually think this race has the potential to be really exciting for California,” he said. “… I think everyone who enters this race comes with some fresh energy, and I think that’s really good and healthy.”

Donald Trump, the sun around whom today’s entire political universe revolves, inevitably entered the conversation.

Of course, Porter said he would stand up to the president as governor. His administration’s actions in Minneapolis were egregious. It’s strange that he’s hesitating on disaster aid to California.

But he said Trump did not cause last year’s firestorm. It hasn’t made housing in California obscenely expensive in recent years.

“When my kids say, ‘I don’t know if I want to go to college in California because we don’t have enough dorms,’ Trump has made a lot of terrible attacks on higher education,” Porter said. “But this is a local problem that we need to solve.”

In fact, he is “very wary of anyone who doesn’t acknowledge that we had problems and policy challenges long before Donald Trump raised his orange head on the political horizon.”

Although California needs “someone to do it” [buffer] “You can’t make that an excuse for why you’re not tackling the policy changes that need to happen,” Porter said.

He hadn’t finished his tea, but it was time to go. Porter packed his things.

He had just spoken at an Urban League forum in San Francisco and was heading to the Bay Bridge to address union workers in Oakland.

There’s still some time until the primary election on June 2. But Porter remains in the fight.