Californians will finally get a chance to elect a senator after Kamala Harris gave up her seat in 2021 to become Vice President.
If it sounds like there’s a familiar name already on the ballot, here’s why: When Harris left office, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed current Sen. Alex Padilla.
The U.S. Constitution’s 17th Amendment specifies that appointees to the Senate should serve “until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.” In May 2021, the California Legislature passed a law calling for the replacement vote to take place during the regularly scheduled election this November.
That’s why California voters will be asked to elect a senator to fill the remainder of Harris’ term — which ends in January — and a senator to serve the next term.
Could different applicants be elected for the short-term job and the longer-term position? It wouldn’t be the first time. But Padilla, who has the backing of the entire Democratic establishment, is the clear favorite after winning more than 54% in both races in the June primary. Of the 20 candidates who lined up to unseat him, Republican Mark Meuser emerged from the pack to square off against the incumbent in November.
MARK MEUSER
Republican, Lawyer
Meuser is a career lawyer whose work has never strayed far from conservative politics. Born in Huntington Beach, Meuser got a law degree at Oak Brook Christian, a correspondence college. After a brief detour working for a Republican state senator in Missouri, he set up his own private practice in the East Bay before landing a job at a law office perhaps best known for waging legal war against California’s liberal laws.
This isn’t the first time Meuser has run for office. It’s not even the first time he’s run against Alex Padilla. In races for state senator to Secretary of State, the Republican hasn’t been deterred by the long odds of pitching his red policies to mostly blue voters.
ALEX PADILLA
Democrat, U.S. Senator
The son of two Mexican immigrants who settled in Pacoima, Padilla graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then made the unlikely jump into politics in his mid-20s. Like many of California’s most powerful Latino politicians today, Padilla says the impetus was Proposition 187, the 1994 California ballot measure that blocked public education and non-essential services to undocumented immigrants.
Since then, Padilla has steadily climbed the ranks of California political power: From staffer to Sen. Dianne Feinstein to Los Angeles City Council member to state senator to California’s secretary of state. It was early during his state Senate career when Padilla made the fateful decision to support then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in his 2014 unsuccessful campaign for governor. That cemented a political alliance that made Padilla an obvious choice when Newsom was elected governor four years later and was tasked with filling a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate.
Citations
https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2022
