The madcap 48 hours that went into Gov. Gavin Newsom naming Laphonza Butler a U.S. senator.
Laphonza Butler never knew how seriously she was being considered for the Senate seat, according to a person close to her. | Stephanie Scarbrough/APSACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom knew he needed a succession plan for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat. He just didn’t want to believe it.
In once again navigating out of a vise of his own making, Newsom ended up doing something larger: articulating his vision of generational change in a state he touts as a beacon for progressive governance and a bulwark against the rightward march of red states and the U.S. Supreme Court. Other Newsom confidants on the periphery of the selection process reported receiving a torrent of names for potential picks, from former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs to former California First Lady Maria Shriver . To those in the know, the irony of all the lobbying was that Newsom had quietly thinned his large herd of advisers working on the search. He wanted to avoid conflicts of interest with consultants that have formal roles with Reps.
“There was this difficult place you’re in where you want to be super respectful of the fact that a senator just passed away, someone he’s really personally close to, and the anxiousness going on in D.C. about the thin voting margin,” another aide recalled. Williamson, who spearheaded the selection process for Newsom, was the first person to float Butler’s name to him as a possible Senate pick. Now, she was the first from his office to test the idea with Butler herself. The two have a friendship that stretches back years — they worked together hashing out major legislative deals like raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Williamson, a top aide to then-Gov.
Newsom and his team worked out of his Capitol office that day, distracting themselves by churning through a tall stack of bills to be signed and keeping one eye on updates from Washington. Schumer’s staff was texting with the latest developments from the Hill. When the shutdown, it released some pressure to make a pick in time to keep the government open, but did little to lessen the heat on Newsom., accompanying the body of her late friend to their hometown of San Francisco.
The particulars around filling a Senate seat in a matter of days created an undercurrent of chaos that ran through the entire frenzied weekend.
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