San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Feinstein could start on path toward making graceful exit
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s graceful slide toward the exit is rare to see in politics. It’s hard to leave the spotlight and relinquish power — especially for those who’ve held a lot of it.
(See “Trump, Donald,
48 hours before Pelosi spoke.”)
“Scripture teaches us that: ‘For everything there is a season — a time for every purpose under heaven,’ ” Pelosi, 82, said from the House floor in announcing that she would not run for leadership, but would remain San Francisco’s representative and has no plans to retire. “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic Caucus that I so deeply respect.”
Eyes then turned toward San Francisco’s other pioneering female leader: 89-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein. It’s not an age thing. Feinstein’s term ends at the end of 2024, and as my former colleague Tal Kopan and I reported earlier this year, some of her colleagues feel that she is mentally unfit to serve.
That situation doesn’t seem to be im
“There is a great life after the Senate.”
Former Sen. Barbara Boxer
proving. Just last week, a reporter asked Feinstein if she would be seeking the role of Senate president pro tempore, a soonto-be vacant position that would put Feinstein third in the succession line to the presidency. It typically goes to the most senior member of the majority party.
“I haven’t thought about it, but I’ll let you know when I do,” Feinstein told Business Insider.
An aide then clarified that Feinstein “has no intention of seeking the position” and had said so previously to other reporters. Indeed, Feinstein told the Washington Post on Oct. 22: “I’ve never thought about being the president pro tempore and I have no interest in it at this time.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed. He’s nominating Washington Sen. Patty Murray to the position. Despite Feinstein’s seniority, she does not chair any Senate committees.
Feinstein’s office demurred when asked about her re-election plans.
“The 2022 election is not over yet. We’re still counting votes for several California congressional races and there is an upcoming runoff election for a Senate seat in Georgia,” Feinstein spokesperson Adam Russell told me in a statement Friday. “Senator Feinstein will make and announce her decision regarding the 2024 election at the appropriate time.”
There is a way for Feinstein to course-correct and begin a graceful exit: She can follow former California Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Long Goodbye Plan. If followed, it would mean Feinstein’s glide path out the door would begin in just a few weeks. Perhaps soon after the results in the Georgia Senate runoff are finalized, if there’s a hint embedded in Feinstein’s statement.
Boxer — then 74 — announced in January 2015 that she would not seek re-election in 2016, nearly two years before her term ended. If Feinstein followed a parallel timeline, she would announce in January that she’s not going to seek re-election in 2024w.
The reason most politicians don’t give The Long Goodbye is out of fear being a lame duck for the rest of their term. That they would lose their leverage.
Boxer told me fears about being a lame duck are “baloney.” She served 24 years in the Senate and five terms in the House before that. She said her colleagues didn’t treat her any differently after she announced that she was dipping. The younger ones who were waiting for a Senate seat to open up were happy.
“I’ve never been a person who was good at saying, ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ when I knew,” Boxer told me Friday. “And I knew that was gonna be my last term. I had thought about it a lot. I wanted to step away at the top of my game for two reasons: One, I was proud of the work I did. I knew other people could pick up that baton. And I wanted to do other stuff, which I’m doing and which I’m loving.”
Plus, Boxer wanted to give her successor the opportunity to raise enough money to run a statewide campaign in one of the most expensive places in the country to do that. Boxer raised and spent $28 million on her last race in 2010 against wealthy former HP CEO Carly Fiorina.
That was the last truly competitive Senate race in California.
The 2024 race might cost three times that much. Or more if a California billionaire decides to make a career change. Wealthy developer Rick Caruso has some time on his hands after spending $104 million to lose to Rep. Karen Bass in the recent Los Angeles mayor’s race.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, has $21 million on hand and would almost certainly run if Feinstein doesn’t. Another probable contender is Rep. Katie Porter, who had raised $24 million this year but only has $8.8 million on hand after her unexpectedly tough re-election battle against former GOP Assembly Member Scott Baugh.
Yes, Boxer has talked to Feinstein about when to leave. The two — who were both elected in 1992’s “Year of the Woman” — speak every once in a while and swap emails, Boxer said. She said she would “never tell anyone else what to do. People have to come to their own decision.”
But she does have a retirement pitch: “There is a great life after the Senate. You know, California is spectacular and you won’t have to go on airplanes (back and forth to Washington) and you can do things you haven’t done before. I have a wonderful life. That’s what I’ve told her.”
Feinstein hasn’t responded. Said Boxer: “I think she isn’t ready to just tell anyone what her plans are.”
Perhaps Feinstein’s feels the responsibility to stay because she has so often been a pioneer during her half-century career in politics.
She was the first female Board of Supervisors president in San Francisco, and guided the city through the 1978 assassinations of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Feinstein replaced the mayor and served for a decade, the first woman to hold that position. In 1992, she and Boxer became the first women to represent California in the Senate.
Earlier this month, Feinstein sent out a news release marking her 30th year in the Senate. She is now the longest-serving female senator in history.
“It’s an incredible honor to become the longest-serving woman senator in our nation’s history, and I’m forever grateful to the people of California who sent me here to represent them,” Feinstein said in a statement.
Boxer doesn’t expect her to leave early. Neither does Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said told reporters this week that “I don’t care what the pundits are saying. (Feinstein) still commands a room, commands our respect and I don’t expect her to resign.”
“If I were a betting person, I would bet that she serves out her term,” Boxer told me. “Knowing Diane and knowing how she views the work and knowing how she loves the work, I would not expect her to retire them before her term ends, barring something unforeseen.”
When Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, announced last year that she wouldn’t seek re-election, she told me that she’d like to see a limit placed on how long people can serve in Washington. “Not a term limit. An age-limit ban,” said the then-71-year-old. Speier’s magic number: “Oh, probably 75.”
You could fill a pickleball court with Northern California House members who’d be headed home if that rule in place, including Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, 79; Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, 76; John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove (Sacramento County), 77; Doris Matsui, DSacramento, 78; and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, who turns 75 next month. And, yes, Pelosi and Feinstein.
Boxer isn’t for age limits because “some people get better when they’re older than when they’re younger. Some people are stupid when they’re 40.” Serving in office “isn’t like flying a plane,” she said. You can do it when you’re older.
Yet being in public service also requires two layers of awareness: The self-awareness to know that you still have the abilities to do the job. And the outward-facing awareness to know that voters still support you.
“You better make sure you know that they’re with you,” Boxer said. “If you stay too long, you could get a surprise. Just because you run, doesn’t mean you win.”
No matter how old you are.