5 ms·
The governor of California can turn around an interim appointment pretty quickly if he so chooses; there's some static around a prior promise to appoint a Black
by eropple 3y ago
The governor of California can turn around an interim appointment pretty quickly if he so chooses; there's some static around a prior promise to appoint a Black woman, which most people viewed as effectively a promise to Representative Barbara Lee. She has since declared candidacy for that Senate seat--as Feinstein was not going to run for re-election--and Newsom (understandably, IMO) doesn't want to hand the keys to a running candidate, out of fairness to the also-quite-reasonable alternate candidates.
That said, I wouldn't expect it to prevent a pretty quick replacement if Senate business demands it, so it likely won't be a significant impact from a political or operational perspective.
- justin66 3y ago> doesn't want to hand the keys to a running candidate, out of fairness to the also-quite-reasonable alternate candidates Is that something he has actually said?
- eropple 3y agohttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/gavin-newsom-make-interim-appointment-dianne-feinstein-senate-rcna103933 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/gavin-newsom-... > “Yes. Interim appointment. I don’t want to get involved in the primary,” Newsom said. “It would be completely unfair to the Democrats that have worked their tail off. That primary is just a matter of months away. I don’t want to tip the balance of that.”
- justin66 3y agoHoly moly. "I wouldn't want an interim appointment I make to be political" is a silly enough sentiment that it cannot possibly be sincere. He just didn't know what the right move was yet, in terms of how he would benefit.
- eropple 3y agoEh. It's a silly line, but you can read "political" as "not backing any of the current candidates" and it reads fine.
- bandyaboot 3y agoIf I recall correctly, the Republicans can refuse to allow a replacement to be seated on the Judiciary committee…and they certainly will do that if they can.
- eropple 3y agoSenate business can be conducted with the VP as tiebreaker as well, as I understand it? But I could be wrong.
- alistairSH 3y agoI believe committee membership votes are currently subject to a supermajority, so filibuster rules apply. There won't be a new member seated to Judiciary without a Senate rules package. Sen. Manchin (D) likely won't allow that to happen. This means judicial nominations are effectively hamstrung for the time being.
- eropple 3y agoAh, I didn't realize that! Thank you.
- justrealist 3y agoThe Republicans can't block anything unless the democrats agree to allow it. Like yes there are a lot of self-imposed rules in the Senaate, but it's fundamentally on the Democrats that they can't pull together 51 votes to tweak the rules.
- eropple 3y ago(edit: ignore, I misread the vacancies list)
- justrealist 3y agoThat's not true, there are 50 functionally-democrat senators. There were 51 with Feinstein.
- shmatt 3y agoCue Senator Winfrey
- rjsw 3y agoNot my country but Barbara Lee is 77. Newsom could appoint her now and the Democrats look for someone younger for the long term.