Fact checking the final California Senate debate: Who was right about the economy, oil and ads?

Senate candidates brawled Tuesday night over energy, the economy, corporate ties and almost anything else Californians care about.

But who was right and who was wrong as they traded charges and facts?

With two weeks to go before the state’s March 5 primary, candidates are battling for a shrinking slice of the electorate. An Emerson College Poll taken last week, after the Feb. 12 debate, found 17% of voters undecided, down significantly from last month.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, was up to 28%, followed by Republican Steve Garvey, at 22%, Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, 16% and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, at 9%.

The top two finishers go on to compete in November’s general election. They’ll be replacing Sen. Laphonza Butler, a Democrat appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October to fill the seat of the late Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Butler is not seeking another term.

What’s emerged is a bruising contest between a field of contenders that boasts strong bases of support. Schiff, 63, is particularly solid with voters in their 60s and older. Garvey, 75, the former all-star first baseman, does well with voters over 70. Porter, 50, is popular with younger voters, and Lee, 77, has a strong following among progressives.

Tuesday was their third, and final, debate this year. The poll found one-third of those who watched last week’s debate saw Schiff as the winner. Nineteen percent cited Porter as the winner and 18% picked Garvey.

‘Career Politicians’ and Inflation

Porter maintained “career politicians haven’t focused on our challenges” regarding prices. Garvey also mentioned “career politicians” as villains triggering inflation, saying “the overspending in Washington” causes prices to go up.

Economists have debated for years whether the Covid relief measures in 2020 and 2021—bills signed by both President Donald Trump and later Joe Biden–were the primary reason for the highest rate of inflation in more than 40 years.

But the bigger influence on prices is largely believed to be the Federal Reserve Board, chaired by Jerome Powell. He was originally appointed by Trump and re-appointed by Biden. The Fed uses interest rates as a way to control economic growth. High rates should slow it down; lower rates stoke growth.

Interest rates were near zero for years, a strategy designed to spur growth as Covid devastated the economy. As inflation hit a high of an annualized 9.1% in June 2022, the Fed raised rates, helping slow the rate of inflation. It’s raised its key interest rate 11 times since March 2022.

Garvey said inflation has not gone down, but last month’s annualized inflation rate was 3.1%.

California and earmarks

Porter renewed her charge that California is treated unfairly in the earmark process, funds lawmakers can designate for local projects.

Earmarks have been controversial for years, and were barred by Congress in 2011. Ten years later, they were resurrected as “community project funding.” Members seeking funds must publicly explain why the project is important.

Porter said California is being shortchanged by the system, since its 39 million people get 2% of the earmarks—a percentage point for each senator. But House members also get to designate earmarks, and California has 52 House members.

Not all seek earmarks. Porter does not, nor does Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove. And they are not always distributed equally. The party in power usually does better.

In 2022, a Roll Call study found that about 43% of the House earmark money that year was targeted to five big states. California topped the list at $1.2 billion, followed by Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois. Feinstein, who died last year, was at the time a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which writes that chamber’s spending bills.

Turned off gas and oil?

In response to separate questions about inflation and climate policy, Garvey asserted that US “gas and oil lines were turned off.” But it was unclear just what he was talking about, since oil production boomed last year.

Shortly after taking office in 2021, Biden directed his administration to stop issuing new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters, but many lease transactions later resumed. The U.S. produced about 13.3 million barrels daily last month, and is supposed to produce at an even faster pace this year. When Biden took office in January 2021, it was producing about 11 million barrels daily..

So far production has continued at the 13.3 million barrel a day pace, the federal Energy Information Administration says.

And despite a spike in recent weeks in gasoline prices, they averaged $3.27 for a gallon of regular gasoline Tuesday, down 17 cents from a year ago, according to AAA.

Porter and corporate money

Porter and Schiff again battled over who’s taking corporate money. Neither is taking funds from corporate political action committees in this race, though Schiff has in his past campaign.

But an ad from crypto-sponsored PAC Fairshake charges that she “takes her campaign cash directly from Big Pharma, Big Oil and the Big Bank executives. More than $100,000.” The PAC’s donors include AH Capital Management, Coinbase, Ripple and Jump Crypto, has raised more than $85 million this election cycle, according to the website OpenSecrets.

Porter blasted the ad again Tuesday, and cited the Bee’s Feb. 14 fact check, which found the ad mostly false.

As Andrew Sheeler reported the ad “lists Spectrum Pharmaceuticals as part of ‘Big Pharma,’ Wood Oil Company as part of “Big Oil” and Royal Business Bank as a ‘Big Bank.’ Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, owned by Assertio Holdings, is a Boston-based pharmaceutical company. However, neither Spectrum nor Assertio belong to the industry trade group PhRMA, which lobbies on behalf of the industry’s biggest drug makers. Wood Oil Company is an oil supplier based out of Gardena. It does not belong to the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies on behalf of the industry. Royal Business Bank is a Community Development Financial Institution based in Los Angeles that specializes in providing financial services to Chinese-American, Korean-American and other Asian-American markets.”

Sacramento Bee reporter Andrew Sheeler contributed to this story