The mini-flap over Loretta Sanchez’s botched U.S. Senate candidacy announcement could be written off as an inconsequential glitch. That was my take – unless she continued making unforced errors that contribute to the narrative her detractors would like to construct that she is not ready for prime time.
Less than a week later, Sanchez obliged with the now infamous “Indian war cry” gaffe which California Democratic Party delegate Uduak-Joe Ntuk caught on his camera phone:
It was dumb thing to say, especially for a veteran elected official at the statewide convention of a political party that is saturated with racial and gender identity politics. Pro forma condemnations from other Democrats aside, the blowback has been remarkably mild (over at TheLiberalOC.com, Dan Chmielewski posted background on the anecdote Sanchez was recounting). Sanchez apologized the next day and while Kamala Harris partisans and Republicans will continue to talk about it, there’ll be no sanction. If she were a Republican, Democratic partisans and liberal activists would have picketing her office and denouncing her as a racist.
The episode does highlight how the transition from congresswoman to U.S. Senate candidate can be a rough one. Sanchez’s interaction with the press has largely been on her terms since her election to the House in 1996, and the coverage has been overwhelmingly positive. To the extent her “colorful, free-wheeling persona” (as Martin Wisckol described it in a worth-reading analysis piece today) makes the news, it tends to be given an indulgent, “Oh that Loretta…what a kook!” treatment.
When elevated to the less-forgiving level of a statewide campaign, it doesn’t work so well. A little goofiness can make a candidate seem more human and accessible to voters, but those episodes should punctuate a campaign rather than define the candidate. It diminishes Sanchez when paired against Attorney General Kamala Harris, whose demeanor is more elegant. serious and…senatorial.
It is wildly premature to write an obituary for her U.S. Senate campaign. Not because the “train has left the station” and she’s stuck; Sanchez can drop out anytime she wants and run for re-election to the House and there’s little any of the actual and potential candidates for CD46 could do about it. She has a year to make other news that is actually helpful to her campaign and make the past week look like nothing more than a wobbly start. She is the underdog vis-a-vis Harris, but the current incumbent was also the underdog in 1992 against a statewide constitutional officer, Lt. Governor Leo McCarthy; well-funded Los Angeles Congressman Me Levine was also running. In October 1991, Boxer trailed McCarthy by 25 points. When the House Bank scandal broke just three months before the June primary, it came out that Boxer had bounced 143 checks over three years totaling $41,417, while Levine didn’t bounce any. The conventional wisdom was Boxer’s candidacy was mortally wounded.
Three months later, Boxer won the primary, then went on to edge out the awesome GOP nominee Bruce Herschensohn in the general election by dint of a late minute campaign smear.
Still, Sanchez should take stock and re-calibrate her approach to campaigning. If she wants the voters to elect her to the U.S. Senate, it would be be prudent to act more senatorial. Literally running away from reporters isn’t part of that.
[Paranthetical: the LA Times reports that Ntuk is an active Harris supporter, contrary to his claim of neutrality in the Harris-Sanchez race:
The video was shot by Uduak-Joe Ntuk, a delegate from Long Beach. Ntuk told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday night that he had not taken sides in the Senate race and happened to be at the Indian American event to see a friend.
By Sunday morning, however, a Facebook post had surfaced showing that Ntuk helped raise money for Harris’ campaign earlier this year.
In February, Ntuk wrote: “Thank you to everyone who came out tonight in support of Kamala Harris for US Senate!!! Great turnout and we exceeded our fundraising goal!!!” The post featured a photo of Ntuk and Harris posing together.
Reached by telephone Sunday, Ntuk acknowledged that as the president of the Long Beach Democratic Club he had helped raise money for Harris’ campaigns for both Senate and attorney general.
Glad to see you think referring to Native Americans in a derogatory way is just a “mini flap.” That is very telling.
I can see why your name isn’t “Reading Roddy”: I didn’t refer to her war whoop gesture as a “mini flap.” That was how I characterized her confused announcement roll-out.
Feeble, Roddy. Really feeble.
Oh, okay I mixed up “mini flap” with “gaffe” and “crack” two other terms used to deliberately trivialize an ethnic slur.
And that is how you and this blog operate with potentially useful people who are not on the hit list.
And that’s feeble, really feeble.
This is actually Ryan Cantor, right? No one else tries to muddy the waters and misdirect like this but him.
No. But thanks.
I wasn’t “deliberately trivializing” anything. And I don’t think Sanchez was trying to be derogatory toward Native Americans. You’re just throwing mud and hoping you hit something.