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TWITTER Gov. Gavin Newsom must name a replacement for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. |
OPINION:
The ideal person to take California's Sen. Kamala Harris' Senate seat would be a seasoned politician with statewide appeal, a Democrat, a woman, a member of the LGBTQ community, come from a union family with roots in Northern and Southern California and be of Asian, Latino and African American heritage.
Unfortunately, for Gov. Gavin Newsom, no such person exists.
When Harris is sworn in as Vice President, Newsom will have the onerous task of choosing her replacement. As a woman and having immigrant parents from India and Jamaica, and being born in NorCal but presently residing in SoCal, Harris checked off a lot of those boxes so Newsom is being urged with a similar resume.
“This (selection) is not something that I wish even on my worst enemy," said Newsom prior to the Nov. 3 election. "because you create enemies in this process … not just friends. And it’s a vexing decision. It’s a challenging one.”
Newsom is under strong pressure to name a Latino to take Harris' place. California has never had an Hispanic represent the state in the Senate despite making up about 40% of California's population. The influential LGBTQ community wants someone who can speak for their issues and the relatively small but vocal African American community want someone who can build to their moral and political presence on Capitol Hill.
Former Congressman Mike Honda and Madakebe Suan-Trang Mielke, president and CEO of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) and chair of ReflectUS wrote an oped for the San Francisco Chronicle listing a number of Asian Americans with the political credentials to fill that role.
Fortunately, there is a deep bench of qualified candidates who might check off some of the boxes. According to the authors, they include:
• State Controller Betty Yee, who previously served on the California Board of Equalization.
• State Treasurer Fiona Ma, who previously served on the Board of Equalization, in the State Assembly and on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
• Former State Treasurer John Chiang, a former candidate for governor. He previously served as state controller and on the Board of Equalization.
• Rep. Judy Chu (D-Pasadena), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. The first Chinese American woman elected to Congress, she previously served as mayor of Monterey Park, in the State Assembly and on the Board of Equalization.
• Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Santa Clara), who defeated incumbent Honda in 2016 to represent the 17th Congressional District. He previously served as deputy assistant secretary of commerce under President Obama and co-chaired Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
• Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), who previously served as a California state senator and assemblyman.
• Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside), the first openly gay person of Asian descent in Congress. He previously served on the Riverside Community College Board of Trustees.
• Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Campbell), who previously served as mayor and councilmember in Campbell. He was a national co-chair of Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign.
• Assemblymember Todd Gloria (D-San Diego), who is mayor-elect of San Diego, where he previously served as a councilmember and interim mayor.
To their list, I would add Assemblymember Rob Bonta, a Filipino American whose diverse district is across the bay from San Francisco includes Oakland and Alameda; who as chair of the California Asian & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, he has developed relationships with Latino political leaders in the southland. The son of union organizers for the powerful United Farm Workers, he has inherited those emotional ties with the Latino community.
In their opinion piece, Honda and Mielke reminded Newsom that the AAPI population is 16% of the state's population and is the fastest growing group in California.
With the exception of Harris, there are only two Asian Americans serving in the U.S. Senate: Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.
It won't be easy, but Newsom can't please everyone.No matter who his choice is, he will offend some other group.
If Newsom picks a current officeholder, he can heal some of the bad feelings by picking a replacement to fill in the just-vacated spot.
In an interview with KQED, PBS' San Francisco affiliate, the governor said of his decision: "I do take it very seriously. It's a sobering responsibility to make that decision. And it has national, not just domestic, ramifications as it relates to the state itself. And so it's a weight of responsibility. And we'll figure it out."
That's politics, folks!
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