A pandemic, protests and a looming presidential election have transformed politics in California. The decisions made in the coming weeks and months will have long term impacts on the political make-up of the state.
KCBS Radio Political Reporter Doug Sovern is on vacation. Sonoma State Political Science Professor David McCuan is filling in for him.
David, looking ahead, what are some of the major issues on the horizon that California will need to reckon with politically?
If you think about it, the legislature being back in-session, they’re around until the end of August, but what you really have to deal with and contend with is the budget. The budget really is the 900 lb. Gorilla here, and what that budget looks like is going to rely a lot on what happens in Washington D.C. So, in that sense, what happens in the future of California is dependent on the negotiations that Mitch McConnell is having in Washington D.C., the avenues that Gov. Gavin Newsom decides to take. Amidst all of that, the legislature is somewhat restless. They want to please their constituents. Many people want to push back. You're in an election year. At the same time, you have a dozen items on the ballot. What that means. is it’s going to test the relationship between the legislature and Gavin Newsom, and that’ll be something to watch in the weeks and months ahead.
To discuss further, long-time California Political Strategist and Consultant Garry South joined KCBS Radio’s “The State of California.”
We’ve discussed the influence of the left and right on Joe Biden’s candidacy this week. Should he pick Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate and is successful, who then fills her role in the Senate?
Very good question. I’ve been asked that question before, and let me give you kind of the same answer. First of all, I’ve worked for two governors, who had the ability to make appointments to statewide offices when there were vacancies. One of the things you look at, when you're the governor and you have to appoint someone -- particularly to a weighty position like the Senate where you're only 1/100 members of what used to be, at least, the world’s greatest deliberative body – is whether or not that person can win that seat outright on their own when they come up for election. And remember, the Kamala Harris seat, her term ends in 2022. So, if she goes to Washington as vice president and if the governor appoints a replacement, that person will only hold that seat until 2022 and they will have to run for it in their own right. So, that often argues for someone who has already won statewide office, who has demonstrated electoral appeal. That doesn’t mean that’s what the governor has to do, but that’s often the case.
The second thing I will say – you know I ran Newsom’s first campaign for governor in 2008-2009 before he pulled out and you know, you’ve followed him both in his career as mayor of SF and governor – he likes to make history. If you look at the history of California in the U.S. Senate, since we became a state in 1850, we’ve had 44 people representing us in the U.S. Senate. There's never been a Latino, ever. We've had two women representing us since 1992. We were the first state to have two women at the same time. We still have two women. We have had an African American in Kamala Harris. We've had two Asian Americans who represented us in the U.S. Senate, including, again, Kamala Harris, who’s half Asian Indian. So, if the governor wants to make a historic appointment – and I can't open up his head and see what’s in it – if he wants to make a historic appointment, it would be a Latino or Latina, the first ever to serve California in the U.S. Senate.
How would you assess Gavin Newsom’s time as governor? He’s had to manage a number of compounding crisis. Would you compare him to any past governors, or what would be your assessment at this point?
Well I worked for Governor Gray Davis. As you know, I ran his campaigns for governor and I was his chief political advisor, so I've seen this movie from the inside. The problem a California governors has – and Davis certainly fixed it with the electricity crisis that hit through no fault of his own in 2000-2001 – is that in California, we are hit by biblical proportion plagues, whether it’s droughts or fires, whatever. Newsom has unfortunately been hit by a double-edged sword. The coronavirus, which is killing people in California, has also severely dented the California economy. I don’t envy him, because a governor has to take into account and has to balance the interests of public health – which is clearly the top interest. You don’t want people to get sick and die, but at the same time you have fiduciary responsibility for the economy of your state, to make sure people can keep their homes and pay their rent and keep food on the table for their kids. So, he's been confronted here with a horrible dilemma about protecting public safety and flattening the curve on coronavirus, and at the same time trying to keep the economy in some semblance of working order. I don’t envy him at all.
I mean, there were economic consequences in the electricity crisis because when power goes off, hospitals go down and businesses close and street lights don’t work and all the rest. But, this is just a classic two-edged sword that he's facing, and I think he's done quite well. Although, the proof will be in the pudding as to how this all turns out. We now have a huge spike in infections in California. Our death toll is going up. There is at least talk, by both the governor and the mayor of L.A. where I live, about another shutdown and stay at home order. So, we'll see how it works out, but I don’t envy him. I mean, I worked for a governor that got recalled, because it was viewed by voters that he did not handle a crisis particularly well. So, that has to be a specter also, that the sitting governor of California has to keep looking over his shoulder at.
