\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were prepared, they were informed and they were pretty used to dealing with being in rooms with a bunch of old guys who felt like they could push women around,\u201d Robbins-Roth said.<\/p>\n
But she said her vote wasn\u2019t set in stone. Swalwell had caught her eye when he served as a House manager during the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was one of the folks I was so impressed with,\u201d Robbins-Roth said. \u201cI was just kind of bummed that he turned out to be one more guy who let the power of his situation determine how he was going to behave towards other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m back at Katie Porter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath of Swalwell\u2019s exit from the race, the Porter and Steyer campaigns each pointed to recent polling to argue that their candidate was best positioned to benefit from Swalwell\u2019s downfall.<\/p>\n
A March survey<\/a> from UC Berkeley\u2019s Jack Citrin Center and Politico found 39% of Swalwell voters picking Porter as their second choice, and 15% preferring Steyer. An April poll by Global Strategy Group for the Steyer campaign found Swalwell supporters more closely divided on their second choice, with 31% backing Porter and 25% supporting Steyer.<\/p>\n Shekhar Sakhalkar, of San Jos\u00e9, said he is backing Steyer because of the billionaire investor\u2019s early support for impeaching Donald Trump. Steyer launched the \u201cNeed to Impeach\u201d campaign to remove Trump from office less than a year into his first term.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought that he was trying to do the right thing in calling out the right problems,\u201d Sakhalkar said. \u201cSo I was impressed with that part from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n Berkeley resident Susanna Porte also likes Steyer, along with former state Controller Betty Yee<\/a>. She said both have focused on her top issues of the environment and economic justice and have \u201cdecided to challenge PG&E.\u201d<\/p>\n There are currently seven notable Democrats in the race, including former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa<\/a> and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond<\/a>. Porte said a smaller field could help voters focus on the strongest candidates, but she doesn\u2019t want to see Yee exit just yet \u2014 despite Yee polling in the low single-digits.<\/p>\n \u201cSince she does seem to represent a lot of my views, I hope she\u2019ll stay in, and perhaps someone else will jump out of the race,\u201d Porte said.<\/p>\n But the seven notable Democrats left in the race all see an opportunity to make inroads with Bay Area voters now that Swalwell is out of the campaign. On Wednesday, Mahan launched a $3 million ad buy that included broadcast television in the region \u2014 while Becerra touted an influx of first-time donors.<\/p>\n Coakley said he\u2019s taking his support back to Becerra \u2014 and has started to engage more deeply in the race since the Swalwell scandal broke.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve gone to the [candidate] websites,\u201d he said. \u201cI hadn\u2019t really done that before all this had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n