Diane Feinstein has been treading the path worn by Joe Lieberman and others who have used the support of Democrats and then stabbed us in the back, repeatedly supporting Republicans. It’s certainly within the realm of possibility that she will go the whole route and jump parties in order to forestall a challenge to her re-election by a popular Republican. With her record she isn’t shoring up her support from Democratic activists.
Any Democrat in California who is reading this and who gets the chance should get her on record saying she will honor the choice of the Democratic voters of her state, should they decide that she doesn’t represent them again. She should have to say, in absolute terms, that she will not run against a Democrat who wins the nomination, that she will not support the candidate of any other party or who runs as an independent against the Democratic nominee and that she will not leave the Democratic Party if she is elected as the nominee of the Democrats of her state.
All politicians who have won election as Democrats or who ask for the nomination of the Democrats in their state should have to make this promise. If they won’t then Democrats will know what their plans are and they should vote accordingly. Any member of the Democratic Party has the right to press the issue, they do not need the permission of anyone in the hierarchy of the party. The nomination doesn’t belong to anyone, it belongs to the Democratic voters, not the office holders.
Just think what might have happened if Joe Lieberman had been forced to make that declaration before Ned Lamont won the nomination of Democrats in Connecticut. Connecticut might not have a Republican senator today.