Washington — Today, progressive leaders from around California signed a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom demanding that, should Senator Kamala Harris become vice president, Gov. Newsom appoint someone to fill her vacant Senate seat that supports ending the legislative filibuster.
Read more from Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle:
- “The single most important consideration in making this momentous decision must be whether the person you choose is committed to ... (being) a true champion for a functional, effective Senate,” said a letter written to Newsom on Monday, whose signers included the head of the 2.1 million-member California Labor Federation and the progressive group Courage California, which claims 1.4 million members.
- The letter to Newsom is an indication of progressives’ concern that Democratic priorities such as expanded government-funded health care, tax changes, climate change initiatives and coronavirus stimulus could still be thwarted next year by Republicans led by McConnell, who once said his top priority as Senate minority leader was to deny President Barack Obama a second term.
- “We don’t want the people who are on the (Harris replacement) list to be cagey about their answer,” said Amar Shergill, chair of the progressive caucus of the California Democratic Party. “What we need to make clear to Gavin Newsom and to the people on his list is that they should never expect to get support from progressives and labor in the future if they don’t support getting rid of the filibuster.”
- “Sen. Feinstein’s out-of-touch flattery of Lindsey Graham and her continued support of the filibuster underlines what has become obvious in California; we need a truly progressive senator to lead the battles ahead,” said Shergill, the state party’s progressive caucus chair.
You can find the whole piece in the San Francisco Chronicle here.
The energy in California comes as progressive activists across the country are lining up to oppose the filibuster. Fix Our Senate recently held a livestream event with Senators, advocates, and activists and viewed by over 200K people to make the clear call to fix the broken Senate and eliminate the filibuster in 2021. Just last week, President Obama appeared on an episode of Pod Save America, denouncing the filibuster as an impediment to getting things done.
