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When the chief of California’s Legislative Black Caucus talks about why it must be a Black lady who replaces Kamala Harris within the U.S. Senate, she typically comes again to the outdated adage about political energy.
“If you don’t have a seat at the table,” Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) informed me, “then you’re on the menu.”
And Black folks in California rightly haven’t any intention of being on the menu. For the second time this week, an amalgam of Black leaders despatched a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, urging him to choose Rep. Karen Bass of Los Angeles or Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland to fill the seat quickly to be vacated by Vice President-elect Harris.
“Representation matters,” they wrote. “Our democracy should reflect the vibrant diversity of California and reward African American women for continuing to power the Democratic Party to important victories nationwide, including regaining the White House.”
Only downside for Newsom is that Latino leaders are making an identical argument.
“California is blue, blue, blue because of us,” Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) stated final month. “It is the work that Latinos did on the ground. It is our housekeepers and our janitors. We built California as a new California, as a California that elects Democrats time and time again.”
The Latino Legislative Caucus is pushing Newsom to nominate Secretary of State Alex Padilla — particularly now that one other potential decide, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, has been nominated to turn out to be the nation’s subsequent Health and Human Services secretary.
So what’s a governor who loves to speak about fairness to do when confronted with this phalanx of certified candidates of coloration?
Here’s a thought: We ought to assist him out by urging Dianne Feinstein to step down early — ideally earlier than the following Congress — in order that California can have two open seats within the U.S. Senate as an alternative of only one.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, visits Dodger Stadium with Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Oct. 30, 2020.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
While it’s not the best answer to Newsom’s political downside, it’s the proper answer. Representation does matter, and the extra I take heed to Black and Latino leaders demand it on behalf of a state that’s turning into extra various yearly, the much less I perceive why our senior senator continues to be in workplace, blocking progress.
In fact, I didn’t completely perceive it in 2018 both, again when Feinstein was working for reelection in opposition to now-L.A. City Councilman Kevin de León. Then a member of the Sacramento Bee’s editorial board, I keep in mind listening fastidiously once we requested her why she wished to return to the U.S. Capitol after spending many years in Congress.
Her reply? A doubtful “because there’s so much more I can do.”
Feinstein went on to speak concerning the significance of her seniority on the high-profile Senate Appropriations, Intelligence and Judiciary committees — management of which she has agreed to drop — and her apparently distinctive proficiency in securing grants.
And then she stated this: “I think I represent the values of the state.”
Yeah, no. That simply doesn’t ring true anymore. Certainly not after the 12 months we’ve had, with racial reckonings over white supremacy, an financial upheaval that has devastated poor and middle-class Californians alike and a pandemic that continues to disproportionately declare Latino and Black lives.
At 87 years outdated, Feinstein is the oldest member of the U.S. Senate, a member of the Silent Generation in a state dominated by folks below 40. She is a rich lady in a state overrun with poverty, and the homelessness that too typically accompanies it.
Criticism of Feinstein has been escalating in current months, particularly from the progressive left after affirmation hearings of now-U.S. Supreme Court Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Persistent questions on her psychological acuity — notably her short-term reminiscence — haven’t helped, with staffers continuously having to make clear statements that Feinstein has made to reporters.
Given all of this, it might make excellent sense for Feinstein to be selfless and retire early with California’s gratitude for a distinguished profession. Now is totally the time to be an ally to communities of coloration and let one other youthful lawmaker signify the evolving values of this state. For to adequately handle the various long-standing, race-based disparities in every thing from healthcare to housing, California wants a Black senator and a Latino senator.
But politics hardly ever, if ever, makes excellent sense. What’s much more more likely to occur is that Feinstein will serve till her time period ends in January of 2025.
That means it is going to be as much as Newsom to make sure that California has an actual shot at this multicultural future within the U.S. Senate — and the one manner to try this is to nominate Lee or Bass to interchange Harris now. Black folks can’t wait.
From left, Reps. Karen Bass, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters of California in Washington.
(Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)
If the governor doesn’t, the unhappy fact is it could possibly be extraordinarily tough — if not unattainable — for both of those extremely certified ladies to ever turn out to be a U.S. senator, regardless that every deserves the seat. And, if historical past is any indication of the longer term, it’ll take a number of extra years for one more Black lady to have an actual shot on the higher chamber, provided that there are just a few of us on the highest ranges of presidency.
Blame systemic racism and sexism.
Harris was solely the second Black lady to serve within the U.S. Senate, after Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois. And with Harris turning into vp, there are actually solely three Black ladies in California’s congressional delegation — and none within the Senate from this state or some other state.
“The ability around the nation to recognize and to support Black women in statewide positions is very bleak,” Weber stated. “You got 100 people in the Senate and you don’t have one Black woman” with out Harris.
That is unacceptable.
Weber recollects the “extremely expensive” combat that was essential to get Harris in entrance of voters statewide for the primary time, and scoffs with anger on the concept of getting to do it once more quite than with the ability to depend on the visibility that comes with incumbency.
It is especially galling at a time when Democrats are hailing Black ladies for being the “backbone” of the social gathering and are relying on one other Black lady, Stacey Abrams, to make sure sufficient voters end up in Georgia subsequent month to flip the Senate again to Democratic management.
A Latino candidate, then again, would probably have higher luck with voters whereas working for Feinstein’s seat — assuming once more that historical past is any indication of the longer term. Already 1 / 4 of California’s congressional delegation and about half of the present statewide officeholders are Latino.
That’s why Weber, joined by Black politicians and activists up and down California and throughout the U.S., isn’t giving up. And rightfully so.
“This is our seat,” she stated. “We have fought to get the seat, and there was a reason why we fought for the seat. And we should not have to justify it.”
I hope Newsom is listening.
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