THE BUZZ: For Republican Senate candidate Steve Garvey, last night’s debate was the political equivalent of taking a line drive to the face. What was supposed to be a chance for the beloved baseball legend to pitch his vision for civility and common sense quickly turned into a 90-minute feeding frenzy with Democrats taking full advantage of his inexperience and audience members jeering at his unpolished responses. Reps. Barbara Lee, Adam Schiff and Katie Porter keyed in on his achilles heel early in the night, browbeating him for playing coy about whether he’d support former President Donald Trump in 2024. Garvey repeatedly refused to answer, saying he would decide before Election Day. “At that time, I will make my choice.” Porter retorted with a zinger: “What they say is true: Once a Dodger, always a Dodger,” she said as the audience howled. “This is not the minor leagues. Who will you vote for?” Another brutal moment came as Garvey responded to a question about his plan to address the state’s worsening homelessness crisis. Garvey, a first-time candidate, described how he approached homeless people and "touched them and listened to them.” He suggested he was the only candidate to approach the issue that way because his opponents are “career politicians” who’ve done nothing to solve the crisis. Lee, who experienced homelessness decades ago after she left an abusive relationship as a young single mother, called Garvey’s comment about meeting and touching homeless people patronizing. "I’ve just got to say, as someone who’s been unsheltered, I cannot believe how he described his walk and touching," she said. The audience burst into laughter. But it wasn’t just the Democrats ganging up on Garvey. The Republican struggled at times to make a clear point, offering puzzling answers to basic questions like why he’s running. “I knew I needed to explore California. I needed to talk to the people,” Garvey said. “Policy for me is a position. I’ve taken strong positions.” We didn’t get a chance to ask Garvey what he thought of his performance, because he didn’t show up to the spin room after the debate — nor did any of his campaign staff. Democrats, for their part, were a bit kinder backstage. "He's Mr. Garvey, and he has his own style," Lee said when asked about Garvey’s performance.. "He's a former baseball player, and that's all I have to say about him." Read more on the key moments of the night from Lara and Jeremy B. White. And check out Christopher Cadelago’s takeaways. GOOD MORNING. Happy Tuesday. 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 WHERE’S GAVIN? Heading out of state to stump for President Joe Biden. He will return on Friday. QUOTE OF THE DAY — ”You're either going to mate with him or he's going to devour you.” — Newsom comparing Trump to a t-rex while chatting on Pod Save America. ON THE ISSUES — We asked you to send us suggested questions for last night’s Senate race debate, and you all did not disappoint. We received more than 200 submissions on everything from housing affordability and climate policy to health care, immigration and the challenge of bipartisanship. Many of you wanted to know how the candidates plan to approach the housing crisis. Here’s what they said: Lee: "It's so important that we prevent evictions. I think we need to have a national eviction policy. Also, we have to have more affordable housing built." Porter: "I support fully funded Section 8 vouchers. I support low-cost programs to prevent eviction. And I think the bottom line is we must build more affordable housing." Garvey: "The first thing I'll do is an audit [of homeless spending]... just look at the Alpha Project in San Diego and the Dream Center right here [in Los Angeles]. These are examples of what can be done when you spend your money wisely." Schiff: "This is predominantly a problem of not enough housing. It's a supply problem. And we need to build hundreds of thousands of units of housing. We could do that if we incentivize the tax credits for building affordable housing. Otherwise we're never going to solve this problem.”
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