A rare open Senate seat in California is giving a large batch of ambitious Democratic politicians the chance to argue their best case to the state’s governor for succeeding Kamala Harris in her current Washington job.
Many news outlets, including the Associated Press and Fox News, announced Saturday that Democratic candidate Joe Biden would become the next president of the United States. His running mate, Harris, a California senator since 2017 and previously the state’s attorney general for six years, is set to become the nation’s first female vice president.
That will give an opening to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint a replacement for the final two years of Harris’s term. In the overwhelmingly Democratic state — Biden is beating President Trump there 65% to 33%, with ballots still being counted — the governor will have no shortage of possibilities for the Senate seat.
One oft-mentioned person is Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who earned national attention over the winter leading the Senate impeachment trial of Trump on charges related to the Ukraine whistleblower affair.
Then, there’s Rep. Karen Bass of Los Angeles, who was on Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist before he selected Harris. Other possibilities include Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland.
Also in the mix could be California state Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, Rep. Ro Khanna of Silicon Valley, and Secretary of State Alex Padilla, among a list of other possibilities stretching into the dozens.
But the appointment wouldn’t be risk-free.
The person Newsom chooses would have to run for election on their own in 2022 for a full six-year term. And California voters have previously turned out of office appointed senators, including Republican John Seymour in 1992, after nearly two years in office, and Democrat Pierre Salinger in 1964, who only held the post for about four months.
