Nearly three years ago, Alex Padilla walked down the aisle in the U.S. Senate chamber, on his way to be sworn in — using his mom’s Bible — as California’s first Latino member of that body.
During the trip down the aisle that day, he had company — a vigorous Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Even with the gravity of his own already storied political rise from the Pacoima home of immigrant parents, Padilla, 47 at the time, was every bit the “junior” senator from California. Standing a few feet behind him during his swearing in was a blue-suited Feinstein — a towering figure of the Senate and the revered trailblazer from California. He raised his right hand and took the oath of office.
But on Friday, Sept. 29, Padilla suddenly found himself, under unenviable circumstances, as California’s new senior senator. His mentor had died the previous day, at 90 years old — ending a three-decade Senate career.
Padilla stood in the now-familiar Senate chamber on Friday, his mood contrasting starkly with how he felt three years ago. His voice broke and he tried holding back tears while eulogizing his mentor, Feinstein, who died the night before.
He echoed her career, from her time as mayor in San Francisco to the moments after his own inauguration, when she commandeered the cellphone from him as he was Facetiming his wife and children — to tell them how proud she was of Padilla and that she would treat them to lunch next time they were in Washington, D.C.
“That was Dianne Feinstein,” he said.
While likely far from his mind, Padilla has still found himself — overnight — taking another step in a rapid ascension that has taken him from a Pacoima kid who watched his father carve out a living as a dishwasher and short-order cook in the San Fernando Valley and whose mom cleaned houses in Sherman Oaks to a senior senator.
Such rapid ascension is not unusual, of course — and not unexpected in the…
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