On Super Tuesday, California advanced Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey to the 2024 general election to compete for the US Senate seat that was vacated after the passing of 90-year-old Dianne Feinstein while in office. California utilizes what is called a “jungle primary,” meaning all candidates from all parties are on the ballot for the primary voting, but only the top two vote-getters advance. In this case, both Schiff and Garvey, the former Dodgers first-baseman and 1974 National League MVP, advanced, each with over 30% of the vote. Rep. Katie Porter, a progressive congresswoman from CA’s 45th District, garnered about 10% of the vote.
On Wednesday, Porter took to X to thank her supporters for voting to “shake up the status quo in Washington,” stating:
“Because of you, we had the establishment running scared – withstanding 3 to 1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election.”
Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign and voted to shake up the status quo in Washington. Because of you, we had the establishment running scared — withstanding 3 to 1 in TV spending and an onslaught of billionaires spending millions to rig this election. (1/)
— Katie Porter (@katieporteroc) March 6, 2024
Oh boy! Comments began pouring in regarding the use of the term “rigged” by the triggered Democrats and the election fraud deniers (despite overwhelming evidence). Both sides of the political spectrum chimed in, however, with conservatives pointing out the hypocrisy.
The blowback must have been significant. Later that night, Porter released the following statement:
“Rigged” means manipulated by dishonest means. A few billionaires spent $10 million+ on attacks ads against me, including an ad rated “false” by an independent fact checker. That is dishonest means to manipulate an outcome. I said “rigged by billionaires” and our politics are – in fact- manipulated by big dark money. Defending democracy means calling that out. At no time have I ever undermined the vote count and election process in CA, which are beyond reproach.”
“Beyond reproach”. Reproach meaning “to express disapproval of, criticism of, or disappointment in.” It’s absurd to ever suggest that our elections are “beyond reproach,” as if questioning the process should ever be permitted. So much for shaking up the “status quo in Washington”!
But the context in which she used the term “rigged” is fascinating in that it is strikingly similar, yet wildly less “rigged” than what Trump supporters have been claiming (in part) since the 2020 Presidential Election.
More than two years ago, I wrote a piece titled “The Voter Rolls are Key.” In that piece, financial issues similar to what Porter is claiming were discussed. The claims from Porter, however, pale in comparison to what occurred in the 2020 Election. Porter’s claims relate to ad-buying and common campaign practices. What Zuckerberg and Chan did went far beyond that.
Rather than “billionaires spending millions to rig this election”, in 2020, one billionaire in particular, Mark Zuckerberg, did almost all of the heavy financial lifting. The Meta founder donated over $400 million to two entities: the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) received $350 million, while the lesser-known Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) received $69.5 million.
CTCL was founded by Obama Foundation Fellow Tiana Epps-Johnson and staffed with New Organizing Institute cronies, while the executive director of the CEIR was also the co-founder of ERIC. ERIC is the election registration system that was used in 29 states and DC and contained over 17 million voter records.
The CEIR disbursed their $69.5m disproportionately to the “swing states”, with Pennsylvania ($13.3M), Michigan ($11.9M), Georgia ($5.6M), and Arizona ($4.8M), as well as New Jersey ($6.2M) and New York ($5M). The remaining states received an average of $1.57M each.
Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22), co-chair of the Election Integrity Caucus, previously issued a press release that stated:
“…a liberal non-profit group flooded left-leaning counties in the states of Texas, Ohio, Nevada, Minnesota, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, and Pennsylvania with opaque private funding to increase voter turnout. After analyzing the Center for Tech and Civic Life’s (CTCL) IRS Form 990, Tenney’s office confirmed that of the $144.2 million spent by CTCL on these key states in the 2020 election, 90 percent went to Democrat-leaning counties won by Joe Biden, while only 10 percent went to right-leaning counties that voted for Donald Trump.“
“Rigged.”
It is promising that a Democrat like Porter is acknowledging the “rigging” of our elections through “dark money,” but unfortunately, it goes well beyond simply the financials and almost every one of our ‘elected’ officials has refused to investigate. In “The Voter Rolls are Key,” much more is disclosed about how specifically that $400 million was used to “rig” the election, however, there is also systematic fraud and inadequacies that should absolutely call for “reproach” of our election systems.
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