Where Dianne Feinstein?
Feinstein, a fixture of California politics for more than half a century and a U.S. senator for three decades, recently returned to the Capitol after a weeks-long battle with shingles, a debilitating disease.
It might have been thought that his return, after many calls from the left of the Democratic Party for his absence, would calm those who wanted him to resign.
However, the critics didn’t miss a beat. They could no longer complain that he was AWOL and thereby inhibiting the party’s ability to advance an agenda in the tightly divided Senate. But they continued to drum, citing the obvious fact that age (he’s 89) and the lingering effects of shingles have worsened the decline in his cognitive abilities.
Feinstein’s deterioration has virtually no effect on Senate operations. As long as she’s alive and able to respond to the roll call, President Joe Biden and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can do what they can with any other Democrat holding one of California’s Senate seats.
The ongoing demands for her resignation – which she adamantly insists will not happen – are not really about her cognition, but about her somewhat centrist position on the ideological scale.
Feinstein has already said she will not seek another term in the Senate next year and that her successor will be another Democrat, but what kind of Democrat is somewhat uncertain. Three major contenders, all members of Congress, are already campaigning and none has become a clear favorite.
The progressive left would prefer Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland or, perhaps, Rep. Katie Porter of Orange County. Progressives don’t want Rep. Adam Schiff of Los Angeles, who has had centrist leanings in the past but is now trying, with little apparent success, to rebrand himself as a progressive.
Lee appears to be trailing Porter and Schiff and if it’s a three-way battle, the two women could split the progressive vote and give Schiff a better chance of winning. So progressives want Feinstein to resign, which they hope will result in Lee being nominated to the seat by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
That hope hinges on something Newsom said two years ago after appointing Alex Padilla to California’s other Senate seat, replacing Kamala Harris once she became vice president.
Newsom took heat from black political figures for not appointing a black woman to replace Harris, who identified as black and South Asian. He tried to cool the criticism by naming a black woman, San Diego Rep. Shirley Weber, as Padilla’s successor as secretary of state. However, as the criticism persisted, Newsom pledged on national television to appoint a black woman to succeed Feinstein if she resigned.
That promise, essentially a byline to get off the political hook, could now bite if Feinstein did, in fact, resign. Newsom would be under pressure to put Lee in the Senate, giving her a big advantage to win a full term next year. He would also be punished for interfering in the elections.
Newsom surely hopes Feinstein, even impaired, will serve out her term. But if she were to resign, as those on the left are demanding, she would face some difficult choices. He could nominate Lee, bypass Lee, and nominate another black woman, like San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who would run for a full term. Or, you could appoint someone else as a caretaker who doesn’t seek a full term.
Every option is full, given that the campaign to succeed Feinstein is already underway. Newsom is potentially caught in a no-win political trap of his own making.
CAL matters is a public interest journalism company committed to explaining how the California State Capitol works and why it matters. Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for newspapers in California.
