Gavin Newsom publicly dreaded the decision he has to make.
With the death Thursday night of Dianne Feinstein, California’s longest-serving senator, the moment has come, forcing a choice the Democratic governor has made more complicated by his public promises to appoint a Black woman who isn’t already running for the seat.
“It’s a choice that should have been easy — who among the state’s deep Democratic bench would he like to elevate?” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at the University of California-San Diego. “But the governor’s commitments and comments have made it more complex for him.”
Newsom in a statement Friday said he is mourning the passing of his “dear friend” and “lifelong mentor” but had no comment on appointing a successor.
Asked Sept. 10 by Chuck Todd on Meet the Press about the possibility of having to fill the seat of California’s ailing, 90-year-old senator, Newsom said, “I don’t want to make another appointment, and I don’t think the people of California want me to make another appointment.”
“That said,” he added, “it’s my job, it’s my responsibility. If we have to do it, we’ll do it.”
The only Democratic Black woman who’s running for Feinstein’s seat, Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, already has castigated Newsom for telling Meet the Press he’d make an “‘interim appointment” of someone who “wouldn’t run again” for the seat to avoid getting “involved in the primary.”
“Black women deserve more than a participation trophy,” Lee said in a statement shortly afterward. She has trailed fellow Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff of Burbank and Katie Porter of Irvine in polls and fundraising though many voters remain undecided.
On Friday, Our Revolution, a progressive political organizing group launched by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, called on Newsom to “fulfill his promise” by appointing Lee.
Nolan Higdon, a California State University East Bay…
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