Dianne Feinstein is back on the ballot in the Senate, but the drama surrounding her return has barely begun.
Without diminishing the sad circumstances of a legendary lawmaker in decline, the plot points nevertheless read like a mash-up of a politician from “House of Cards” and “Veep,” with a score written by fans of ” The West Wing” or “Succession”. .”
At 89 and fresh off a bout of shingles that led to serious complications, including brain inflammation, Feinstein, D-Calif., returned to the Capitol last week looking weak and disoriented.
When asked about the reception of his colleagues after his return, Feinstein he seemed to claim to the reporters which had not come out at all, even though it lost more than 90 floor votes and left the Judiciary Committee unable to advance candidates since February.
By his side since he came back it has been a new figure with a familiar family connection: Nancy Corinne Prowda, the eldest daughter of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi’s support for her longtime friend calmed the last few weeks for Feinstein to step down, and now her daughter is helping Feinstein do her job with minimal disruption or embarrassment.
Pelosi’s support, while no doubt stemming from genuine affection for her fellow San Francisco political icon, is also wrapped up in the emerging race to succeed Feinstein in the Senate in next year’s election. If her seat becomes vacant before then, it would be filled by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has pledged to nominate a black woman to the job, while Pelosi has endorsed a white man, Rep. Adam Schiff.
It’s a lot to lift on the shoulders of a frail, almost ageless woman whose mental challenges, especially with her memory, have long been an open secret in Washington. (Feinstein, meanwhile, has previously rejected any such characterization.) There are still signs she may have to miss more work, with her office pledging a “lighter schedule” for the senator and confirming Thursday, in light of reports in The New York Timesthat his recent health problems were much more serious than is publicly acknowledged.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer accompanies Sen. Dianne Feinstein as she arrives at the U.S. Capitol after a long absence due to health issues on May 10, 2023 in Washington.
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A senator who doesn’t have votes due to illness is not unusual or necessarily cause for political alarm, especially when that senator represents a state as blue as California. But any absence essentially erases Democrats’ voting advantage in the current 51-49 Senate and leaves the critical Judiciary Committee, which is charged with sending potential judges to the Senate, completely deadlocked.
Also, Democrats are staring down a Senate map in 2024 that, aside from Feinstein’s safe seat, looks brutal for her prospects of retaining control. And of course, his party is led by an 80-year-old president whose re-election prospects are clouded by questions about his age and acuity, as shown in a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll.
Democratic Party activists have for years derided the Senate as dysfunctional, calling for rule changes to overcome what they call Republican filibustering. Now, many of those same voices find themselves in the uncomfortable position of pushing a major figure in state and national politics to step down with a year and a half left in his term.
Feinstein’s latest illness kept her from the Senate starting in February, though calls for her resignation didn’t reach critical mass until last month, when California Rep. Ro Khanna became the first member Democrat in Congress who called for his home state senator to step down, saying it was clear he “could no longer fulfill his duties.”
“We have to put country before personal loyalty,” Khanna said at the time.
Pelosi defended him with a subtle reminder that sick senators are nothing new, and that they have mostly been men who have been allowed to end their careers on their own terms.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is flanked by aides as she returns to the Senate Judiciary Committee after an absence of more than two months while being treated in a shingle case, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 11 . 2023.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
“I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate like that,” Pelosi said.
He didn’t tell her the fact that he is supporting Schiff in the rare open race to succeed Feinstein after Feinstein retires in January 2025. Khanna supports Rep. Barbara Lee, who — perhaps not coincidentally — is a black woman and therefore she is a black woman. at least one possible choice to fill a vacancy was Feinstein to resign before 2025.
Anyone selected by Newsom would have to run on their own for the full six-year term, but would get an incumbency advantage in the March 5 all-party primary. Newsom pledged to pick a black woman if another vacancy arose in his turn, after picking Sen. Alex Padilla, a longtime Latino friend, to succeed Vice President Kamala Harris, whose departure leaving the Senate with exactly zero black. women.
Newsom himself says he considers Feinstein one of his oldest personal friends and has urged her to stay in office as long as she sees fit. But he has acknowledged the difficult nature of potentially choosing another replacement senator.
Senator Dianne Feinstein takes her seat at a Senate Judiciary Committee business hearing on Capitol Hill on May 11, 2023 in Washington.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
“There’s a lot of politics and a lot of people polluting the political process,” Feinstein told Los Angeles reporter Elex Michaelson. earlier this month. “For those who are saying, ‘I’ve had enough of Newsom making this election, I haven’t… I get it, I’m with you. i understand It’s just the nature of what it is.”
That comment was read by some as a hint that Newsom might pick a senator-in-waiting who promised not to run for a full term next year. It all could shape the political future of Newsom, who, at 55, is seen as a potential candidate for the presidency if Biden steps aside, or in 2028.
The positioning comes in a complex political environment, with issues of ambition, political representation and urgent legislative progress colliding. Feinstein might appreciate the layers of intrigue, though they may not match the wild and tragic circumstances that left her as San Francisco mayor in 1978: the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
Meanwhile, at least for now, Feinstein is doing the most basic part of her job: casting as many votes as she can. However, this comes with the knowledge among friends and supporters that an unparalleled legacy can be clouded by how a career ends and the unpleasant conversations that surround it.
