By Steven T. Jones
Mark Leno lost the debate, but won the vote, showing that Carole Migden has some work to do if she’s going to keep her Senate seat. The takeaway here is that charm and gravitas are not good substitutes for the attentiveness to constituents and diligent relationship building that have been Leno’s strong suits, particularly in the last couple years. The two candidates squared off in front of the San Francisco Young Democrats for their first debate last night, and Leno initially appeared tentative, apologetic, and inarticulate, almost as if he was scared of Migden. He started off trying to explain why he was taking on a fellow Democrat in a primary challenge and could only mumble some vague appeal to challenging the status quo. Then Migden introduced herself, “Hello, my name is Carole Migden and I’m the status quo,” before going on to sound as strong, clear, and charming as I’ve ever seen her, describing herself as “a woman with a lot of gumption and a lot of tenacity.” Her approach seemed to put Leno back on his heels even more, as he offered a bad joke that fell flat and descended into wonky details before finding his form late in the debate. But it didn’t seem to matter. Despite Migden’s efforts to call in the votes — during which she likely learned the lesson that she can’t count on as much support as she assumed she had — Leno had this endorsement won before either of them started talking.