THE BUZZ: SENATE STAGE — Rep. Katie Porter made one of her final pleas to voters last night — going hard after fellow Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff in the last debate before Californians finish casting their primary ballots on March 5. Porter, who is fighting for one of two spots on the November general election ballot, came out swinging early in the evening, jabbing Schiff for not signing on to recent childcare affordability and rental-assistance bills despite campaigning for Senate on such issues. The Orange County congressmember has spent much of the campaign trying to distinguish herself from Schiff, the frontrunner, and last night leaned hard on his record of securing earmarks for defense industry donors and taking donations from corporate PACs. She returned to those issues in answer after answer, including one on fighting climate change. "Look, I'm different from Representative Schiff,” Porter said. “He's taken corporate PAC checks from BP, from Sempra, from SoCal Gas — these are household names. They're polluters. So people can count on me to do Washington differently." Schiff seemed to have no problem firing back. "I don't think Representative Porter has been fully clear about her own record of taking thousands of dollars from people in the oil industry. Thousands from Wall Street bankers. Thousands from people in the pharma industry," he said. "The problem with purity tests, as Representative Porter would like to establish, is that invariably, the people establishing them don't meet them." Fellow Rep. Barbara Lee stayed away from the fray — instead trying to emphasize her foreign policy chops and amplify the fact that she was the first candidate to call for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. All three Democrats — and Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey — said they would have voted against the border control package that recently failed in the Senate. Schiff — who did not take a public position on the proposal until Tuesday night — noted its lack of “comprehensive immigration reform” and Porter, who also weighed in Tuesday for the first time, said she would have voted against it, saying it “demonized immigrants.” Our colleague Melanie Mason has more on the biggest takeaways from the night, but there’s one moment we’ll have burned in our brains forever. Garvey, a week after declaring that Californians were the “wind beneath my wings,” ended the night with a late Valentine’s message to voters: "Tonight was a night where I'm putting my heart and soul into your mind and body because I want to represent you for six years.” GOOD MORNING. Happy Wednesday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. Now you can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts now. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte. MEET OUR NEW COLLEAGUE — Mia McCarthy is joining the POLITICO’s States team as its new delegation reporter on Capitol Hill, covering California, Florida, New York and New Jersey. Get in touch with her at mmccarthy@politico.com (and say hi if you see her up on the Hill!). WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.
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