Adam B. Schiff got out of his white Porsche Carrera, laced up his brown walking shoes and headed down Hill Street in Los Angeles' Chinatown.

He made his way to the sidewalk, moving in a line over a carpet of bright confetti, holding out his hand and shouting, “Happy New Year.” To the smiling revelers gathered for the city's annual Golden Dragon Parade.

Suddenly, a man wearing a hot pink hoodie approaches Schiff, filming him with his smartphone and refusing his outstretched palm. “I would not shake hands with a Zionist genocide supporter,” he bellowed.

Schiff suddenly staggered across the street and back to his waiting sports car. Protesters continued to shout about the war in Gaza — “What will happen to our children?” — as the Burbank congressman slowly began making his way down the parade route, waving to onlookers from the back seat.

This was a brief interruption to Mr. Schiff's generally successful glide path campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Schiff — spearheading the fundraising effort. poll and marquee support — has been a pacesetter in the contest for over a year. The biggest question appears to be whether he can avoid facing one of the two Democratic senators in November. katie porter and Barbara Lee.

After the parade, Mr. Schiff responded with characteristic calm to calls from onlookers for a ceasefire in the Middle East.

“I completely understand how emotional this issue is,” he later told reporters, his voice completely emotionless. “As I always do, I'm trying to have a civil conversation about what's happening in Gaza and what needs to happen.”

Schiff, plodding along on the campaign trail, is a plain, buttoned-up, calm man, wearing a starched white shirt beneath his standard-issue uniform of navy blue suit and sober tie. (At the parade, he took off his coat and wore a Tang jacket, a traditional Chinese costume.)

If Porter's candidacy is about passion and a promise to be a brawler in Washington, and Lee's is about presence and being the rare black woman in the U.S. Senate, Schiff's candidacy is about pragmatism and a promise to be a brawler in Washington. It's about getting things done.

He talks about the federal money he brought home during his more than 20 years in Washington. His earlier work on patient rights in Sacramento;And before that, we must crack down on polluters. As a federal prosecutor. It's an implicit distinction he's drawing from the ambitious promises of his Democratic rivals and the more fiery rhetoric he's making in typical front-runner fashion, although he rarely mentions them by name on this day.

“I have a track record of getting results for California and bringing people together to get them done,” Schiff proudly said before the parade, accepting the endorsement of the statewide immigrant rights group CHIRLA. “This is a record of effectiveness that I am proud of and will be second to none in this race.”

Schiff and his wife Eve attend the Golden Dragon Parade in downtown Los Angeles' Chinatown to commemorate Lunar New Year and, of course, to campaign.

(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

At a supporters' stop in Los Angeles' MacArthur Park, Schiff stood erect and listening for more than an hour.

He was surrounded by a crowd of supporters wearing aquamarine T-shirts that read “I am an immigrant.” Behind them were brightly colored murals depicting scenes of struggle and protest. Proposition 187, the Ballot Act of 1994 Targeted at illegal immigrants, ultimately He contributed to the sinking of the Republican Party in California.

Schiff nodded as several speakers told stories of economic hardship, family separation and legal impasses in English and Spanish, the latter of which he could not speak. When Schiff's turn came, he vowed to break the decades-long impasse over immigration reform. godlike feat If only he could do it and vow to be the voice of the forgotten and dispossessed in Washington.

Porter's name came up later when a reporter mentioned the Orange County congressman.

she ran the ad Aimed at boosting little-known Republican Eric Early in the Senate race, After harshly criticizing Schiff Because he did the same thing to Republican front-runner Steve Garvey. It's all part of the gamesmanship surrounding the March 5 primary between the top two and the battle for second place.Schiff Would prefer to run against Republicans That would almost certainly guarantee him the election over Porter in November.

Asked to comment on her gambit, a question that prompted her to attack Porter and denounce her as a hypocrite, Schiff refused to bite.

“She has the right to run any kind of campaign she wants,” he said blandly. “We're running a campaign, and we're not giving advice to other candidates on how to run their campaigns.”

Another name rarely mentioned: Donald Trump.

Schiff might have been like that. just a member of parliament If you don't scrap for money and fame led the effort to impeach a rogue president For attempting to intimidate Ukraine and hold it accountable for condoning Russian policies. interfered in the 2016 election.

It's with Schiff's Condemnation by House Republicans; made him A hero to millions of Democrats, It largely inoculates Schiff against accusations that he is too conservative (not a true Democrat, as some on the left argue), and, crucially, makes Schiff a political celebrity. changed to

Mr. Schiff doesn't need to say much about the former president. As Marco Amezcua proves, Trump is always in the background.

Amezcua was among those who attended the press conference at MacArthur Park. He arrived in California from Mexico at age 12 and remains in the country under a program that allows immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children to avoid deportation. The 35-year-old called it “parole.”

Although Amezcua can't vote, she works door-to-door as a CHIRLA volunteer in Beverly Hills, the Inland Empire and East Los Angeles, encouraging Latinos to vote.

“We talk about the candidates,” said Amezcua, who works for a Latino advocacy group when he's not door-knocking. “We talk about their needs and what they might think would better understand their needs. A lot of them point to Adam Schiff,” he said. He says he saw it. TV follows Trump.

These are qualifications that are the envy of Mr. Schiff's Democratic rivals.

“It's important to be in the spotlight,” said Pablo, one of several people in the parade as Schiff, whom he chose over Porter or Lee, walked through Chinatown to celebrate Lunar New Year. Hernandez, 45, said. “I think the others are a little short on time.”

Although some in the parade crowd were friendlier than others – one detractor called Schiff a “supporter of Zionist genocide” – Schiff remained calm.

(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

Later, in an appearance on Univision, Schiff made his first and only mention of Trump on the campaign trail that day, refusing to pass immigration reform at Trump's behest as Republicans continue to use the issue as a weapon in the presidential race. He pointed out that he was doing so.

“Their leader is Donald Trump, who demonizes immigrants, paints all immigrants as murderers and rapists, and uses language we haven't heard since the Nazis and the 1930s,” Schiff said. Ta. “It's embarrassing.”

The appearance was part of a Senate town hall hosted by the Spanish Language Network, where three Democratic candidates appeared separately. Each answered questions for 30 minutes about taxes, crime, homelessness, health care and other topics.

Mr. Schiff answered with metronomic precision, his words honed to a lustrous luster by years of addressing juries and persevering in Congress.

declaration statement. detail. summary.

“My campaign is centered around the need to lower the cost of living for Californians,” he began his response, discussing the impact on California of windfall profits taxes on oil companies, federal housing policy, tax credits, and corporate mergers. Ta. I looked at the cost of groceries before concluding, “I'm committed to doing this and getting the economy working again for people.”

After the interview, Schiff walked into a super-refrigerated spin room reserved for reporters, but few people were there and the reporters had little desire to analyze his performance. There wasn't. There were questions about Gaza, Trump, Russia, and Ukraine.

As she was about to leave, Sif looked down. A glimpse of his bright side peeked out.

“I still have the microphone here,” he said, reaching for the wire in his jacket pocket. Schiff recalled a scene from the movie “The Naked Gun.” When a character unwittingly broadcasts an extravagantly long and loud visit to the men's room, terrorizing a room full of dignitaries and a stunned press corps.

There will be no repeat. Schiff shuts Mike down and walks away with a wicked grin on his face.