Governor Gavin Newsom is on a path to become the next California kingmaker should Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden make his dream administration a reality.
Already staring down the possibility of appointing a successor to Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), Newsom will now have another opportunity to make a Democratic politician into a de-facto rising star if he gets to pick a replacement for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who Biden selected as his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Should Beccera be confirmed as HHS head, Newsom, in his first term, would be tasked with appointing someone — naturally, a Democrat — to the same political office Harris occupied before she was elected as the first new U.S. senator from California in decades.
Biden’s decision to tap Becerra, however, may also make it easier for Newsom to choose a replacement for Harris, given that he can now balance competing interest groups who have expressed a desire to see their favored candidates rise to the top of the pack.
Former State Assembly leader Willie Brown has been publicly saying that Newsom should choose a black woman for Senate. “It would be a win for the state, a win for the nation and a win for Newsom,” wrote Brown in a column, “And there won’t be any downside for Newsom either. No one is going to say boo if he appoints a woman of color.”
Brown has offered up the names of a number of “suitable candidates to fit the bill,” including Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and Congresswoman Karen Bass, who was believed to be a running mate candidate for Biden prior to his selection of Sen. Harris.
But Newsom, who has not indicated when he plans to announce his Senate pick, has also been facing pressure to appoint a Latino to the Senate, including pressure from Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has endorsed Newsom ally Alex Padilla, the current California Secretary of State.
“Gov. Newsom, you have an opportunity to change things,” said Democratic Assemblyman Robert Rivas at a recent press conference, reports The Los Angeles Times. “Your choice matters. It matters for all those kids imagining what they could be when they grow up. It matters to Latinos who make up almost 50% of COVID-19 deaths, 60% of our state’s uninsured. All of whom need a voice in Washington, D.C.”
While other Californians have been floated as possible selections for the U.S. Senate — where both Feinstein and Barbara Boxer enjoyed careers more than double the average length of senators of the most recent Congress — many consider Padilla to be the front-runner among them.
By picking Padilla, Newsom would also be offering a gift to himself: Yet another position to fill. That is, should Newsom choose Padilla, as many suspect he could, he could then instantly elevate three California Democrats to higher office, offsetting disappointment among interest groups with one pick by choosing someone else for a different office — all in his first term.
This doesn’t even take into account the possibility of appointing a successor to Dianne Feinstein, the 87-year-old senator who has been thrown under the bus by progressive activists in public and allegedly by Democratic senators in private, who recently decided to step down as top Democrat on the judiciary committee, and who even saw a column recently run in her hometown newspaper questioning whether she should consider retiring from office.
For all his 2020 controversies, Newsom must be looking forward to the future.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.