https://politico.com/news/newsom-senate-pick-butler
California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision.
Butler is a veteran organizer and well-known in Newsom’s orbit. He contemplated hiring the Southern Mississippi native to be his first chief of staff, and she was a one-time partner in the San Francisco-based consulting firm, now known as Bearstar Strategies, with his top political advisers. She has remained a confidant of Vice President Kamala Harris, after serving as a senior strategist on her 2020 presidential campaign.
Butler, who is based in Washington and maintains close ties with Los Angeles, had a stint as director for public policy and campaigns at Airbnb and spent nearly two decades as a powerful and well-respected labor leader with the Service Employees International Union. As president of SEIU California, she worked closely with then-Gov. Jerry Brown on policies like hiking the minimum wage to $15 per hour and raising taxes for wealthy Californians. She also served on the University of California Board of Regents, to which she was appointed by Brown in 2018 before stepping down in 2021.
Newsom is moving swiftly to name the next senator, two days after Feinstein’s death and just as a perilously split Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown. Senate Democrats are in need of every vote in the closely divided chamber.
California’s newest Senator Laphonza Butler literally lives in Maryland and registered to vote here LAST YEAR
@PanickyNominationDemocrat8mos8MO
She lived in California from at least 2010 until she took the position at Emily’s List in 2021 and relocated for that job. I’ll bet it’s ok under California law for her to move back to California for this interim position. It’s not like she has no ties to the state.
Article 5 section 3 says they are meant to be a resident of the state they are representing at the time of appointment
@PanickyNominationDemocrat8mos8MO
They are already claiming that only applies to elections. Someone should sue.
@PantherCodyRepublican8mos8MO
@BlueStateWidgeonRepublican8mos8MO
Imagine the outrage if a Republican governor appointed the head of the NRA as a senator, political favoritism for progressives but not for conservatives
@MothEleanorLibertarian8mos8MO
He picked her because there’s absolutely zero chance she gets elected in 24 when the seat comes up. I’m sure he has reasons…
@BlueStateWidgeonRepublican8mos8MO
This inspiring story shows that anybody, if they work hard enough, can go from DMV clerk to the Senate.
@D1plom4tElephantDemocrat8mos8MO
What’s wrong with that? Do you know the requirements to be a Senator?