Newsom focused on ‘character’ in state office appointments

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday formally introduced Alex Padilla as the state’s next U. S. Senator and Shirley Weber as Secretary of State, saying the selections came down to one thing: character.

“Of course competency matters, of course technical expertise matters,” the governor said during a video call with Padilla and Weber, “but character matters as well.”

During his career, Newsom said, he’s admired politicians from afar only to get to know them and have that admiration wane upon seeing them put themselves, not others, first.

Padilla, the current secretary of state who is slated to take over Kamala Harris’s seat in the U. S. Senate when she is sworn in as vice president, and Weber, a state assemblywoman from San Diego, stood apart because they are not like that, Newsom said.

“They’re here to do something, not be something,” he said.

And, for a governor who has himself been accused at times of being a political climber, they represent a chance to make history. Padilla, born to Mexican immigrant parents who spent decades working as a short- order cook and a house cleaner to give their three children a better life, will become the first Latinx senator from the Golden State. Weber, whose family fled to California from Arkansas to keep her father from being lynched, is slated to be the first Black secretary of state, filling the seat Padilla will vacate.

Newsom praised Padilla for “magnificently” handling the 2020 election, where millions of Californians mailed in their ballots to avoid voting in-person during the coronavirus pandemic. And he applauded Weber for her work on police reform and voting rights, something that will be central during her tenure as secretary of state.

Padilla, whose tearful reaction to being chosen went viral in a short video clip, said the fact that he’ll be heading to Washington, D.C., is “still sinking in,” but that he’s “excited and eager for this next chapter.”

Padilla said the coronavirus has exacerbated gaps — between who can work from home and not, between who keeps their jobs and not, between which families can pivot to remote learning and not — and vowed to address inequities as senator.

“All of that is not lost on me, because I can relate,” he said, mentioning his upbringing in the San Fernando Valley and his family’s fight to achieve their own version of the American Dream.

His sister, he said, works for the Los Angeles Unified School District, while his brother works for a Los Angeles councilmember.

“We’re all in public service and that’s not a coincidence,” Padilla said.

Weber, too, touched on the role her childhood played in shaping her current work, noting that her father instilled in his eight children the importance of education and exercising the right to vote. Her grandfather, she said, never got the chance. Growing up, her childhood home served as a polling place, which made her parents deeply proud.

“I’m honored to have been asked to do this,” she said. “My grandkids are just in awe.”

Her 9-year- old grandson, she said, sees not only a grandma who makes cookies but a powerful woman who makes important speeches and does critical work.

“I take this responsibility very seriously,” Weber said, noting that she will assume the role of secretary of state as people across the country are challenging the right of others to vote, making false accusations of voter fraud and working to disenfranchise people who have the right to be heard.

“My family has lived that,” she said, “and so for me, I am always the person who looks at every aspect of freedom and justice.”

Both Padilla and Weber said they planned to run for a full term in their new roles in 2022 after serving out the remainder of the current term. For years, Northern California has laid claim to statewide office holders, from Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco to Harris, born and raised in the East Bay. Padilla, from Los Angeles, and Weber, from San Diego, will add some geographic diversity, as well, noted, Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor.

Padilla’s selection was not without controversy. With Harris’s departure from the Senate, there are no Black women in the powerful decision- making body and some advocacy groups said the governor should have selected an African American senator to replace Harris.