Senator Dianne Feinstein's career was filled with firsts, including first woman mayor of San Francisco and one of two of the first women elected to the U.S. Senate from California.

Senator Dianne Feinstein’s career was filled with firsts, including first woman mayor of San Francisco and one of two of the first women elected to the U.S. Senate from California.

  • Heresy_generator
    15•1 year ago

    No, Newsom has said two things about the appointment: It’s going to be a black woman and it’s going to be someone intended to be a placeholder so as not to advantage one of the actual contenders (Schiff, Porter, or Lee) with incumbency.

    • @lars
      6•1 year ago

      Wow — congratulations to the people of California!

      Except the “placeholder”.

      • Heresy_generator
        5•1 year ago

        I think the term of art he choose was “caretaker” come to think of it. But hell, they get to be a Senator for a year, something that they probably never would have gotten the chance to do otherwise. And it’s voluntary, of course, if someone doesn’t want the job temporarily they’re free to turn it down.

        • @tburkhol
          3•1 year ago

          Caretaker is way better. “I’ll put a black woman in as a placeholder until a real senator can be elected” sounds horrible.

          I mean, it’s a very pro-democracy move to make an explicitly temporary appointment and not distort the election. It’s also a very progressive move to fill the seat with a highly qualified member of an under-represented group. High marks on both counts. It’s just hard to describe the coincidence of those goals in a way that doesn’t sound like tokenism.

      • ErtebolleOP
        3•1 year ago

        Placeholder Senate seat isn’t so bad, you still get to be a Senator even if only for a little while.

    • @Ensign_CrabEnglish
      0•1 year ago

      Right. Whichever centrist he appoints is gonna decide they want to keep the seat, and the party protects incumbents from progressives challengers.