WHAT SHOULD GUIDE NEWSOM’S SENATE PICK

Gov. Gavin Newsom has an embarrassment of riches and a difficult decision ahead to replace Kamala Harris as senator for the final two years of the vice president-elect’s term. There are many ambitious, talented, hard workers who might have already become senators if they didn’t live in a state with 40 million people in which a seat opened up only once in 28 years — in 2016, when Barbara Boxer, D-san Francisco, retired, and gave Harris a shot.

Newsom is already being lobbied hard and ultimately will pick whoever he wants. But if he’s interested in the perspective of The San Diego Uniontribune Editorial Board, we hope he bases his decision on two guiding principles. The first is that his choice should reflect the modern California, which became a majority minority state in 2000. Newsom should choose a candidate of color. Many Californians believe the governor should name a Black official to replace Harris, whose parents are from Jamaica and India and who is only the second Black woman senator ever, and Rep. Karen Bass, D-los Angeles, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-oakland, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed all have prominent supporters. But advocates for Latinos, who have passed White Californians to become the largest ethnic bloc in the state, also have a strong case. The state has never had a Latino senator, and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra are contenders. Treasurer Fiona Ma or state Controller Betty Yee, if chosen, would bring more Asian American representation to a Senate that is overwhelmingly White.

The second default for Newsom should be geographic. It’s time that the Golden State had a senator from Southern California, home to 60 percent of state residents and a busy border region. Harris, Boxer and current Sen. Dianne Feinstein are all San Franciscans. Padilla, Becerra and Bass are all among the potential finalists cited by insiders in media reports. All are from Los Angeles. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, who would be California’s first openly LGBTQ senator and who is widely seen as a rising Democratic star, is said to be in the mix. Closer to home, so is San Diego’s Toni Atkins, the president pro tem of the California Senate and former Assembly speaker who has been an LGBTQ pioneer in California politics.

Of course, the governor will also choose someone on the issues, starting with someone willing to work closely with President-elect Joe Biden to address the pandemic, climate change and a wobbly economy. But Newsom should also focus on three California issues. The first — related to climate change — is the urgent need to get the White House to do more to to help California deal with wildfires. The federal government owns more than half of California’s 33 million acres of forest and hasn’t done nearly enough thinning and forest management to minimize the risks of the massive blazes — even though President Donald Trump has ridiculed Newsom for this very failing in state forests.

The second is the need to use Senate legislation to help address California’s housing crisis (and the housing crisis seen in many urban areas across the nation) by weakening the environmental rules so often used to block new construction.

The third is to build on the accomplishment of Feinstein, Harris and San Diego-area House members Susan Davis, Mike Levin, Scott Peters and Juan Vargas in getting $300 million from the federal government earlier this year to fix broken sewage infrastructure that led to sewage from the Tijuana River fouling South County beaches for hundreds of days over the past decade. It is quite likely that $300 million will be inadequate to fully protect San Diego.

We wish the governor luck. Whoever he picks will have a head start on the 2022 campaign to hold the seat for a full term. No disrespect to San Francisco, but giving that edge to someone from Newsom’s hometown wouldn’t sit well with a lot of people elsewhere in the state. Give someone else a shot.