Essential Politics:
Brown had to move quickly in choosing new attorney general.
The phone call that Gov. Jerry Brown made Wednesday night was unusual. A governor who marches to his own methodical timetable for decisions was having his hand forced by the politics of Capitol Hill, and the job of California attorney general hung in the balance.
In the end, Brown got the man he wanted: Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles). But it was Becerra’s effort to make a big career move that complicated things.
In interviews with advisors to the governor and those close to Becerra, a portrait emerged of two veteran politicians who have mutual admiration but don’t really know each other very well. In fact, the 12-term congressman plans to meet Sunday with Brown in Sacramento.
It was Becerra’s angling for an unexpectedly open high-profile post leading Democrats on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee that pushed the circumspect governor into action.
In Sacramento, those close to the governor said the list of potential replacements for Kamala Harris, now California’s senatorelect, was short, much shorter than the ones circulated by political watchers. Advisors confirmed that either First Lady Anne Gust Brown or the governor’s top aide, Nancy McFadden, could have had the job if they had wanted it.
Neither did, perhaps knowing the importance being placed on picking someone who would be willing to run for a full term in the job in 2018 (though Becerra declined to talk about future plans when asked Thursday).
Becerra, on the other hand, intrigued the governor. Not only did he have the right credentials — a former deputy attorney general, former state legislator, veteran member of Congress — but advisors said the governor also valued diversity. And the chance to select the state’s first Latino attorney general was important.
Though few jobs are as important to Brown, himself a former attorney general, the leading contender never came in for an in-person interview. Becerra, who grew up in Sacramento, had been in town just before election day to stump for the reelection of Rep. Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove). He met with McFadden on that visit, but not the governor.
And so the two men, who had no deep personal relationship, made the big decision long distance.
“When they talked,” McFadden said in an interview, “the man matched the resume.”
Becerra had been looking for somewhere to land. Out of places to move in House leadership and nearing the limit on how much longer he could lead the House Democratic Caucus, the vocal advocate for Hillary Clinton had spent the last year campaigning for her across the country with hopes it might lead to a new position.
Clinton’s loss Nov. 8 put an end to that speculation, and for a while Becerra’s next move seemed unclear.
Surprise news Tuesday afternoon that the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), would not seek the position again led Beccera to quickly announce his plans to seek the position and lobby colleagues to back him. Levin quickly endorsed Becerra over Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Richie Neal, who had sought the job before.
Word of Becerra’s effort quickly reached the state Capitol and the governor’s inner circle sprang into action. Perhaps fewer than a half dozen people knew of Brown’s decision until news began to spread early Thursday.
Becerra called the offer “sudden” and said that with Congress in session he hadn’t even had a chance to talk with Brown about the job in person.
“It went very quickly when it started to move,” he said. “I was as stunned as you probably were and others were.”