The endorsement seemed inevitable for Harris, who won with 78 percent of the vote at the California Democratic convention. And it’s a major blow for Sanchez, who spent the entire weekend trying to muster support from the different caucuses. The only problem was that for all of the warm reception Sanchez received, Harris’ receptions were warmer.

Sanchez generally is polling a step behind Harris. A Field Poll in January showed Sanchez trailing Harris 27 percent to 15 percent among likely voters, behind with nearly every demographic except for among Latinos.

Sanchez has a respectable $2.1 million in her campaign account, while Harris has $4 million. There were many people at the convention in Sanchez for Senate gear, but Harris had many more.

“Congresswoman Sanchez thanks the delegates that supported her with their vote,” said Sanchez spokesman said Luis Vizcaino. “But make no mistake, today’s vote was not the primary. Congresswoman Sanchez is on track to be one of two candidates in the general election where the electoral dynamics change in her favor.”

Slight differences

Neither candidates’ campaign has been flawless. Harris’s has endured bad press over excessive spending and staff turnover while Sanchez’s has been marred by a series of missteps, first with Native Americans, then with Muslims.

While there’s not a lot of room between the two candidates on issues, Sanchez is trying to draw on her lengthy experience as a legislator, having been elected to Congress in 1996. Several times over the weekend she pointed to making Congressional Quarterly’s recent list identifying Sanchez as one of the 25 most influential women in Washington, for being a “debate shaper and swing votes.”

Sanchez points to her voting record and it’s consistency, receiving consistently high marks on Democratic issues. She also highlighted her decisiveness, arguing that voters know exactly what’ll they’ll get with her, as opposed to the unproven Harris.

For example, Sanchez came out quickly on the side of Apple in the tech company’s battle with the federal government over privacy issues, and it’s refusal to help the FBI unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

“I fully support Apple’s decision to fight the court order through the judicial process and I believe Congress must address the broader policy issues raised by this case,” Sanchez said in a statement. Meanwhile, Harris has yet to take a position.

Experience matters

One of Sanchez’s proudest legislative victories was changing how sexual assaults in the military are reported and tracked, thereby increasing accountability. Knowing she had little chance of getting the bill passed as a standalone, she was able to add the measure as an amendment to a must-pass defense authorization bill.

She’s also consistently helped secure federal funding for Orange County’s groundwater replenishment system which provides water to millions of residents.

Sanchez, one of the few remaining members of the once-powerful moderate Blue Dog Democrats, has accrued seniority on the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees over two decades.

And she’s made relationships in a place where relationships are the only thing that matters, noting that she’d be able to make an immediate impact in the Senate, with a firm grasp on policy and how to legislate — and it helps that many senators she served with in the House.

“It’s the duty of a senator to make policy through legislation,” Sanchez told thousands of Democrats on Saturday. “Legislation is a complex and contentious process. Success requires consensus building and institutional knowledge. While other candidates talk about boldly changing Washington, I have done it for 20 years.”

Path to victory

Sanchez on Friday told CalWatchdog that she’s been favored head-to-head polls against Harris. Sanchez’s plan has been to advance through the primary and hope to draw enough support largely from Latinos, moderates and even some Republicans.

She’ll need a strong Southern California turnout, a strong showing from Latinos, and a few good issues mixed with a Harris misstep, said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at CSU Los Angeles.

“With the top two primary, her first goal has to be to finish second in the primary. so far, that looks doable with no major Republican running,” said Sonenshein. “Then anything can happen.”

“A 2014 initiative advanced by Jones, a Sacramento Democrat, and Consumer Watchdog would give the insurance commissioner the authority to deny health insurance rate increases his department deems excessive. …

“‘The health insurers and HMOs will do everything in their power to crush this, including attacking me and attacking the initiative,’ he said. ‘This is the last thing in the world they want to see happen.’

“Others say the health overhaul should be given an opportunity to work before imposing what they see as potentially costly new regulations that could undermine it. They say it would create more bureaucracy that would reduce access to care and drive up rates. Kim Stone, president of the Civil Justice Association of California, said the measure would be a bonanza for organizations that intervene in rate cases and increase costs.

“’This initiative isn’t about improving health care for millions of Californians,’ said Tom Scott, executive director at California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. ‘It’s really about putting money in the pockets of trial lawyers who could file costly legal challenges that will end up ultimately costing patients and consumers more money.”

Another way to look at the initiative is yet another expansion of government power over the private sector. In a state with the highest effective poverty rate in the nation, why would we want to make the status quo even harder on a big segment of the private economy?

Trial lawyers, Latino Dems should be like oil and water

Cadelago’s excellent analysis has lots of interesting details on Jones’ background, including plenty of evidence that not just Republicans but fellow Dems in Sacramento see him as a publicity-seeking stunt man.

But there’s one point about Jones’ key political ally — California’s trial lawyers — that can never be brought up enough. Just as it’s absurd for Latino Democrats to see the California Teachers Association — enforcers of the anti-Latino education status quo — as an ally, it’s absurd for Latino Democrats to see trial lawyers as an ally. Indeed, it’s absurd for any Democrat who actually believes in “social justice” and doesn’t just use the term as camouflage.

Why? The Trevor law firm scandal of a decade ago. Here’s my account from earlier this year:

“Consider what happened in 2003.  Early that year, a series of sickening media reports detailed how several L.A. area law firms, especially the Trevor Law Group, filed thousands of frivolous suits against small businesses such as restaurants, dry cleaners and car repair shops, many run by immigrants or minorities with a poor grasp of English and a lack of awareness of their legal rights. The suits, which were allowed under the state’s Unfair Competition Law, would allege minor technical infractions of various state codes and demand payments from $6,000 to $26,000 to drop the suits.

“Attorney General Bill Lockyer probed the scam, corroborated the media reports and denounced the suits as a despicable extortion scheme. L.A.-area Latino Democrats, especially Lou Correa of central Orange County, pushed hard for reforms.

“But the trial lawyers pushed back. And fearful of offending a key source of Democrats’ campaign funds, Democrats didn’t just cave and block reform measures. They actually offered a bill that would have exposed the small businesses being sued to even bigger court judgments — in other words, giving the extortionist law firms an even bigger club to threaten business owners.

“The Unfair Competition Law only ended up being fixed by a 2004 initiative.”

Preying on immigrants not social justice

The trial lawyers wanted the right to prey on poor English speakers. Oh, yeah, they’re natural allies for Latino Democrats.

I understand why people say Republicans are an uneasy and unnatural coalition. Social conservatives and libertarians have little to agree on nowadays besides the idea that big government is scary.

But the California Democratic Party is every bit as odd a coalition. Its richest backers — teachers unions and trial lawyers — have agendas that are inimical to the interests of its biggest voting bloc.

But among Latino Democrats, only former state Sen. Gloria Romero ever bothers to point this out.