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Gov. Gavin Newsom selects new senator and secretary of state

December 23, 2020

Alex Padilla

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

California Gov. Gavin Newsom selected Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill the United States Senate seat being vacated by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Newsom then selected Assemblywoman Shirley Weber to replace Padilla as California’s secretary of state. Padilla will become California’s first-ever Latino senator, while Weber will become the first black California secretary of state.

“His appointment will make history,” Newsom said of Padilla in a tweet. “But the Alex Padilla I know is far more interested in changing history — especially for the working men and women of our state and country.”

A son of Mexican immigrants who once worked as a cook and a house cleaner, Padilla previously served as a Los Angeles city councilman and state senator. Padilla has twice been elected as California’s Secretary of State.

Padilla is a longtime friend and supporter of Newsom.

Weber, who represents a district in the San Diego area, was elected to the Assembly in Nov. 2012. She chairs the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Public Safety and the California Legislative Black Caucus.

Shirley Weber

Newsom described Weber as a “fearless advocate with unimpeachable integrity and moral clarity.”

“The daughter of sharecroppers from Arkansas, Dr. Weber’s father didn’t get to vote until his 30s and her grandfather never got to vote because he died before the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965,” Newsom said in a statement. “When her family moved to South Central Los Angeles, she saw as a child her parents rearrange furniture in their living room to serve as a local polling site for multiple elections. Now, she’ll be at the helm of California’s elections as the next Secretary of State — defending and expanding the right to vote and serving as the first African American to be California’s chief elections officer.”

It is expected that Newsom will have to appoint a new state attorney general, as well. President-elect Joe Biden has selected California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as secretary of health and human services in his administration. Becerra’s appointment to the Biden administration post requires Senate confirmation.

The amount of appointment power Newsom is currently enjoying is considered to be a first for a California governor in about seven decades or more.


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Who cares about their race? Are they competent? That should be the real story here. Sadly if they are being appointed by Newsom that may be in question.


0

The “first-ever Latino senator” in California history. I guess it’s about time, considering California was a Spanish speaking area long before the U.S. Constitution even mentioned senators. I would also posit that California’s initial economic successes, on the back of its agricultural output, was largely made possible by Latinos. Mr. Padilla is also a MIT graduate, and while his admittance may have been part of an affirmative action program, his diploma certainly was not.


4

NPR did a good job discussing his success in America as a true citizen as a child of immigrants. He is a success story, truly. The incoming admin is still of old, outdated, industrialist ideology, but with much hope. Like Indigenous Native Representative Haaland in his cabinet too. Finally, proper American representation, not just a bunch of Anglo Billionaires. Ca truly needs ALOT of Hispanic representation as this was their Ancestral home pre Spanish Conquistador and the Chumash. Really we should have a Chumash dictating most everything I feel, especially Land Management and eradicating poverty, as they had NONE. I’m quoting alot of DR K from Cuesta College, hes a very odd, complicated handsome, open minded, mountain biking stud muffin Conservative I’d take to Olive Garden, and he’d accept my Marxist offer, were all friends here, we all have family, etc. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas CCN neighbors who see me when they need but will never know me, only in heinsight. <3 <3 <3 xoxoxo


-5

For race to be unimportant and we’re all the same, they sure make hay out of what race the new position holders are.


9

Couldn’t “they” notch one or two of these jobs on their belt before you complain about all the hay being made about them?

We may get closer to all be the same as you say when we run out of these “firsts” to check off.

The 251st Latino to take a job isn’t noteworthy or deserving of hay, but the first few are. Maybe not to you, but to others they are. It is a simple concept to understand—a logical inference that most easily grasp.

I don’t doubt your intelligence, so why pretend you don’t get it? Do you need to take back some of that “hay” .. “joy”? Have you ever thought why?


-13

I’d like to know it either of them are left handed, you it’s all about checking the boxes. That said, even though I do not follow LA politics, I’d guess that Padilla understands work ethics, a hand up but not a hand out. Usually immigrants have no empathy for the complaining lazy Americans.


-4

I think you mean Lazy Billionaires milking the proletariat, sending us to war, and exploiting immigrant labor. Americans are not lazy, but the Rich are. And agree, most if all immigrants work jobs many wont, long hours, and low pay. Now well start to issue more green cards for Ag jobs, path to citizenship and new tax payers. Slo county used to have federal oversight for Ag, but the lazy Rich Ag owners didnt like getting fines, The Democrats got rid of them, not Republicans, odd huh. And peoples hatred for Gavin, aside from his wealth, are the same folks who hate masks and basic hygiene; freedom threat!, and think microchips are in vaccines…


-14

What we need is to find someone to replace Newsom.


33

That’s coming. Can you say “Recall”? They have extended the opportunity to sign the recall petition for this nut until March of 2021.


3

Would you rather Newsom be up there, next in line to Joe?


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