Big openings for governor to fill
Presidentelect Joe Biden’s reported decision to nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as health and human services secretary would put a veteran of Washington politics and the Trump resistance at the forefront of efforts to expand health care reform and right the pandemic response. It could also give Gov. Gavin Newsom the power to decide the future of three important elected positions.
Having no public health experience, Becerra was a surprising choice. But his 24 years representing Los Angeles in the House, where he served in the Democratic leadership and on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, should serve Biden well as he works to bolster the Affordable Care Act. Becerra’s time as attorney general has also given him executive experience and a record of more than 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration, including a lead role in fending off the latest attempt to overturn the ACA. The son of a Mexican immigrant, Becerra would also make the Cabinet more representative of a group that has been viciously targeted by President Trump’s rhetoric and policies.
In Sacramento, meanwhile, Becerra’s departure would create another highprofile vacancy to be filled by the governor. Newsom is already considering candidates to serve the two years left in Vice Presidentelect Kamala Harris’ U. S. Senate term. If he chooses the reported frontrunner, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, it will give him the power to choose Padilla’s successor as the state’s top elections official.
Newsom’s appointee would have to run for election to remain in any of the three offices for more than two years. But the governor’s choice would enter the campaign with the potentially decisive advantage of incumbency.
While Newsom would be the first governor to fill three vacancies in short order in nearly 70 years, gubernatorial appointments have not been rare overall. Harris’ successor would be the sixth U. S. senator from California chosen by a governor in the past century. Becerra was appointed attorney general by thenGov. Jerry Brown nearly two years before he was elected the state’s top law enforcement officer, succeeding Harris when she became a senator. If Becerra’s elevation to Biden’s Cabinet proceeds, governors will have chosen two attorneys general in a row.
State law gives the governor the power to fill vacancies in statewide elected offices with the Legislature’s consent. The 17th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, which established the popular election of senators in 1913, also allows state legislatures to give governors the power to appoint senators to fill vacancies, as lawmakers have in California and most other states. It hasn’t always gone well: In February, Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Vacancies in the House of Representatives and California Legislature, for example, must be filled by special elections. Oregon and four other states likewise require special elections to fill U. S. Senate vacancies. Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, a Sacramentoarea Republican, has proposed legislation to the same effect in California, though to no avail.
Newsom expressed appropriate discomfort with his kingmaking role last month, calling the question of Harris’ successor a “vexing decision” and “not something that I wish even on my worst enemy.” If he’s sincere, he should appoint caretakers to any vacancies and work with the Legislature to relieve himself and his successors of a privilege that rightly belongs to the voters.