politics

It’s just so fucking hypocritical and denigrating that one of two Sentators for California isn’t even from the state. She’s from Maryland and knows Maryland issues - she can’t represent the issues of the state of California. She has no legislative or elected office experience whatsoever.

Hell, Newsom as much came out and said she was appointed just because she’s so close to the Democratic Party machine.

Last election, Dr. Oz was a “carpetbagger” and evil for living in NJ and running in PA - it was a core piece of the Fetterman campaign. It resonated with voters - Fetterman won.

So, Republicans do it = bad, Democrats do it = so progressive, don’t question it.

I haven’t read one thing yet that shows she’s at all familiar with California or the issues facing the state. Just how progressive and LGBTQ and Black she is.

She checks many of the boxes on the identity politics ‘Bingo’ card that attract white college-educated liberal voters. She’ll also draw black votes, again, if she runs for a full term. The first constituency is more highly correlated with Porter, the latter more with Lee (who a recent LA Times poll shows at 7% versus 20% for Schiff and 17% for Porter).

I feel like one of the problems of being in politics is it attracts too many people with huge egos, who want to make the story all about them. While I have no doubt she is qualified for this she was still basically given this job. It would make her a lot of enemies in the party if she went out and pushed her luck to try and win the seat outright.

She's not even 50 yet, I don't think there is anyone in their mid-40s who can put "former US Senator" on their resume. I bet if she declines to run, she can have any job or appointment she wants after this, particularly in California State government. And she will have at least one US Senator as an ally, too. Withdrawing now could be a path to being a Cabinet Secretary in the Harris administration, with plenty of time after that for a Congressional run.

If she actually runs it's going to be clear that this was all meant to stop Barbara Lee from winning.

Silly progressives. Haven't you learned your lesson yet?

This is so fucking exhausting.

Lee – who went from hoping for the appointment to, in recent weeks, making a political issue out of knocking Newsom on the assumption she wouldn’t get it – spent Monday and Tuesday reaching out to fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus to urge them to stick with her, even though there is now another Black woman in the spot. Schiff’s initial response was to trumpet the big lead he has in fundraising, which aides were hoping would get both Butler’s attention and that of reporters busy assessing her chances. California political insiders have noticed anti-Butler opposition research appearing and a new anti-Butler account on X, and have been pointing fingers over who is behind them. False rumors that Newsom offered others the appointment first have been floated, too.

Patting backs, making nonsense announcements to get media attention, oppo research... I mean, I'm not naive, this is the way things go. But we're never going to get the best-qualified people to serve in government while campaigning requires this much machination unrelated to the actual merit of the candidates. Maybe some time around our evolution to a full Type 1 civilization we'll have figured this out.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

But while they briefly paused public politicking until after the Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s funeral on Thursday – with Lee and Schiff flying there on Air Force 2 – they spent even this past week preparing to ramp up new endorsements and outreach that they hope will convince Butler there is not enough time to mount a credible campaign, and that she could risk being known now for her historic appointment to serve the remainder of the late senator’s term through January 2025 to being known for coming in third, fourth or even fifth in a race that has its first round on March 5.

(The top two candidates, regardless of party, move on to a November election, and the race is set to get another wrinkle next week, when former Dodgers and Padres first baseman Steve Garvey is expected to launch his campaign as a Republican.)

Butler had a meeting with a small group of advisers the day after being sworn in to do a preliminary review of polling data as part of what people familiar say is a push to make a decision by next week.

But Butler is well-known among California insiders, with top Democrats in the state telling CNN, “She does not do things that she cannot be successful at – so my guess is she would not have put herself in this spot if she didn’t think she had a shot at winning an election.”

Butler has multiple clocks ticking on her at once: She has to build a new staff out of the people who had stayed on as caretakers for the long-ailing Feinstein; she has to start making public appearances in the hopes of getting attention in a big state where her name ID is effectively zero; and she has to do it all while learning a complicated job in the middle of what could grow into a full-blown congressional crisis in the aftermath of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s defenestration, all without any prior experience in office.

Several California political insiders speculated that a fundraising disadvantage could be overcome if a few wealthy donors funded an independent expenditure effort on Butler’s behalf, especially given that even Schiff’s $32 million head start isn’t that much in a state where campaign operations and television commercials are so expensive.

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