What Is Feinstein Running Again for Shes 84

Ranking fellow member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., arrives for a Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Loma in December. Critics accept raised questions about her historic period as she runs for re-election. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hibernate caption

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Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Ranking fellow member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., arrives for a Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in December. Critics have raised questions nigh her age as she runs for re-election.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

It tin can exist a frail matter to bring upwards someone's age. But in California, Sen. Dianne Feinstein'southward age has get a openly discussed outcome in her campaign for a 5th full term. Feinstein — a Democrat — is 84, making her the oldest fellow member of the United States Senate.

Simply not by much. At that place are seven other senators who are too in their 80s, though none of them are running for re-election this year. Some political columnists take said that Feinstein shouldn't run again. Harold Meyerson, executive editor of the liberal magazine The American Prospect, made that argument in a column in the Los Angeles Times.

"This is a half-dozen-twelvemonth term," Meyerson says, "which is the longest term any elected officials in the United states of america can be elected to. So the issue isn't just what shape is Dianne Feinstein in at historic period 84, information technology's as well what shape will she — or anyone — be in at 91?"

There'south no way to predict that, says Jennifer Ailshire, a professor of Gerontology and Population Health at the University of Southern California. People historic period differently from one individual to the next, she says. "Some older adults are quite frail, while others are incredibly robust."

And their chronological age doesn't actually tell you much.

"Rather than focus on someone's age, we should be focusing on their biological age, which is the age of their cells, tissues and organs," Ailshire says.

That's not the sort of information that voters have access to. What they do know most Feinstein is that she received a pacemaker last year, but only missed a single day of work. That work includes serving as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, as well as having senior status on Appropriations and the Senate Select Commission on Intelligence.

Throughout her career, Californians accept known Feinstein as a cautious, eye-of-the road politician. That served her well when she was first elected to the Senate in 1992. The California electorate was also more moderate and so. But Harold Meyerson says, California leans more to the left these days.

"And so in many means, I think, she all the same positions herself to the right of certainly where California Democrats are, and in many means, of where California is."

But it's never been Feinstein's way to be a liberal flame-thrower. Instead, equally she told an audience in San Francisco terminal year, what's of import is knowing how to get things done.

"You've got to exist able to compromise," she said. "And compromise, ladies and gentlemen, isn't a dingy word. Compromise is what moves this authorities forrad."

Feinstein has a major chief challenger from her left. He'south Kevin de Leon, 51, leader of the California State Senate. And since California has a nonpartisan, top-two primary, he'south likely to be her opponent in Nov as well.

De Leon has blasted Feinstein for existence too conciliatory towards President Trump and too tedious to stand up for immature people on DACA, the plan for some undocumented immigrants who were brought to this state every bit children. For the record, Feinstein voted against the January upkeep resolution to re-open the government because information technology lacked an extension for DACA.

De Leon's campaign declined to exist interviewed for a story on Feinstein's age.

He's been endorsed by the progressive political action committee, Democracy for America, which claims around 300,000 members in California. Communications Manager Neil Sroka says what his organization wanted to know was, "Who'due south going to be all-time equipped to lead the resistance to Donald Trump and set a path forward for what an inclusive, populist vision for this country looks similar?"

And for his organization, that wasn't Feinstein. Her age isn't a problem, simply her long tenure in the Senate is.

"We're going to need more [progressive] candidates moving upwards the ranks," Sroka says. "We can't practice that if the same sometime people are running for the same old offices over and over again."

Feinstein is hardly the first candidate whose age has go an effect. Merely few have been damaged by it. In 1984, President Reagan famously teased his younger opponent, Minnesota Sen. Walter Mondale, that he would not criticize him for his youth and inexperience. And just two years ago, when Arizona Sen. John McCain'south primary opponent said he was besides old to be running for re-election at the age of fourscore, her comments were chosen desperate, nasty and sick by the media; she lost decisively.

Merely Dianne Feinstein may exist more vulnerable. While polls evidence her ahead past double digits, one survey showed her support dropping several points when voters were told her historic period.

Bill Carrick, Feinstein's longtime political strategist, says there have been older politicians going dorsum decades "and I never heard all this racket." Then once more, he notes, they were all men.

"We at present are getting to the point where in that location are senior senators who are female," which suggests, says Carrick, that the concerns expressed about Feinstein's age represent "quite a double standard."

Gerontologist Jennifer Ailshire says that if there's going to be a double standard, the science says it should be the other way round.

"Women have a survival reward over men," she says. "Scientists have found that men have higher epigenetic crumbling rates, meaning their cells and tissues are older, fifty-fifty when they're the aforementioned chronological age [as] women."

Whether age should exist an ballot issue will ultimately be settled past the voters. Merely those voters themselves are as well aging. A dozen years from now, i-fifth of the U.S. population will exist 65 years erstwhile or more.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2018/02/07/582285818/will-age-become-an-issue-in-dianne-feinsteins-re-election-campaign

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