It was oddly because I thought she would be a strong candidate for actual election to the seat in November 2024 that I was a bit annoyed when Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to replace the late Dianne Feinstein in the United States Senate.
It’s not that I thought she was my preferred candidate, at all. Butler has political positions that are not my own. Although labor unions did great things for working people in California, after youthful organizing right out of college she eventually became head of the SEIU in California, one of those unions that is forever pushing not just for appropriate pay and benefits for its members but for — this is an exaggeration, but still — a minimum wage of $50 or so, whatever the market would bear.
The market would not bear that.
No, it’s actually her all-around smarts, great career path into an HBCU and out of poverty in her native Mississippi and record of service that would have made Butler a formidable candidate.
Plus, looks and photo ops amount to more than a little when it comes to being elected to office, and from the minute she was named senator, Butler has looked positively senatorial.
So comfortable in her shoes after being raised by the governor from relative obscurity into high office. In a widely published photo of Butler sitting with Newsom and celebs such as George Clooney at a Los Angeles schools event, she looked like she’d been on a big public stage forever instead of for five minutes.
Related: Read more about Laphonza Butler
When Newsom made the appointment and disclosed that he’d done so without asking her for any commitment about whether she would run next year or not, I thought, uh-oh — once someone steps into such a seat of exalted power, it can be really hard for them to step down from it. And the power of incumbency, as with the power of good looks, is a great advantage.
So it was with great relief, to me at least, when Butler said she wouldn’t run, but rather, as she told Shawn Hubler in The New York Times, that she intended to be “the loudest, proudest champion of California” in the remaining months of her term, but that she had realized “this is not the greatest use of my voice. … Just because you can win a campaign doesn’t always mean you should run a campaign.”
Wow. If serving in the (perhaps formerly) greatest deliberative body in the world isn’t the best use of her voice, this is someone with very high ambitions indeed.
“I know it’s surprising — folks don’t traditionally see people who have power let it go, but this is a moment where I’ve had to mind my own truth and hold it in my own heart,” she said.
Formidable, as I say.
But the ongoing contest between three members of Congress — Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff — and I suppose you could throw Steve Garvey and a former L.A. newscaster into that mix, has already been shaping up to be a good one. A real barn-burner, in fact. They’ve been out on the campaign trail for months, and they’ve been raising money toward this end for years. My relief at Butler’s decision has certainly got nothing on theirs.
As I’ve said before in this space, I’m voting for Adam Schiff to be the next junior senator from the great state of California. Since God was in short pants, he’s been my own representative in the California Senate and then in the United States House of Representatives, and he’s been a fantastic one. He’s going to be a great U.S. senator, for the rest of his career.
I’m just glad he doesn’t have to face off against a tough-to-beat incumbent in order to get there.
Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com
