Senator Dianne Feinstein dead at 90, Newsom will replace her with Laphonza Butler

We start today with the death of the longest serving senator, Dianne Feinstein, who passed away very late last week at age 90. Gavin Newsom has already indicated who he will select as her replacement. We will discuss that and we will talk about the longer term implications of this. CNBC reports Dianne Feinstein, both the oldest member of the U.S. Senate and the longest serving senator from California, has died at age 90. This leaves vacant a powerful Senate seat, says CNBC, requiring Governor Gavin Newsom to appoint a temporary successor. Remember, we've interviewed two of the three major candidates running for that seat in 2024. We will talk about that. The Democratic senator's decades long career was studded with major legislative achievements on issues including gun control and the environment. She has been in the Senate since 1992 and she passed away in her home in Washington, D.C. It truly is. You know, one of the unfortunate things about this is that due to the very apparent decline of Dianne Feinstein over the last few years, and we don't need to now enumerate every element of it and, you know, jump on her grave. We don't need to do that. But due to the obvious decline of Dianne Feinstein, so many questions have been raised over the last few years, including should there be upper limits for members of the Senate? This is not just because of Feinstein. It's come up because of Grassley and Mitch McConnell's latest health issues, Trump and Biden, et cetera. That's one issue. But as far as Feinstein specifically, it's sad to say, but the appearance of her legacy was diminished because of all of that talk about her health, when the reality is that this is a career that in some total was more than half a century. Incredible accomplishments at so many different levels, her role in women's rights and labor rights and in so many different areas. It really is an incredibly accomplished and storied career that some are finding it difficult to separate from what feels in some circles as a refusal to give up power when the time to give up power was appropriate. She planned to retire at the end of the current Senate term, which, of course, would be decided in November of twenty twenty four. And ultimately, the current term would end in January of twenty twenty five. She did not make it there. And now Gavin Newsom ends up in the position of selecting her temporary replacement, which would bring us just to the already scheduled election, 13 months almost to the day from today, which is incredibly soon. It's unbelievable that we are already at the twenty twenty four election. The selection that Gavin Newsom has made is that of Lafonza Butler, who will become from an identity perspective, as many of the stories point out, the first black lesbian to serve in Congress. I don't have much to say about that. Obviously, any time that there is an interesting identity story, it can be meaningful and powerful to people. I don't ignore that at all. I just don't have much to say about her being the first black lesbian to serve in Congress. More interestingly, is the background of Lafonza Butler. The question as to whether she will now want to run for this seat in November of twenty twenty four. There's much to say about that. And of course, there is already a controversy which relates to her residency. A little bit about her background. Butler, a Democratic strategist and advisor to Kamala to Vice President Kamala Harris. His 2020 presidential campaign will be the only black female senator to currently serve in Congress and only the third in U.S. history. She will be the first openly LGBTQ plus person to represent California. Newsom describes her as a staunch leader who will proudly represent the Senate, proudly represent the state in the Senate, carry the baton left by Feinstein, an advocate for women's rights, a second generation fighter for working people and a trusted advisor to Vice President Harris. That is the selection from Gavin Newsom. It's all fine, well and good. The immediate controversy is does she actually live in California, which is indeed a question that should be answered because the rules are that they must. There is I'm not going to read this entire Newsweek article to you, but we'll link to it. It's called Lafonza Butler's non-California residents raises questions. The question that's being raised is that it appears as though it appears as though Butler is registered to vote in Maryland, owns property in Maryland and seems to have a number of different ties to Maryland. Now, of course, if she merely owns a home in Maryland but really resides in California colloquially, as we understand that to mean and also for legal purposes, there really is no issue. However, there is a question as to whether she lives in California. I don't expect that this is going to be an impediment to her ultimate taking that seat. But it is a question that has immediately came up. The next question is, will Butler run for this seat afterwards? She would be a very late addition as that race is already underway on. In addition to that, Gavin Newsom previously said, I plan to appoint someone who is not looking to keep this seat indefinitely. If given the opportunity to select someone, Newsom said, I am going to appoint someone that truly will just be temporary. It will just be interim. And if that is the case, if that's something that was discussed with Lafonza Butler already, the expectation would be she will be there only until January of 2025, about a 13 month. I'm sorry, 15 month term, essentially. And then whoever wins that election, be it Adam Schiff or one of the other candidates, will will take over. This is the way that the legacy of Dianne Feinstein is. This is the epilogue, so to speak. And we will see what comes for that Senate seat in California.