After longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein died in office last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler as her replacement. It was a surprise because she was not a politician, but a lobbyist. That flipped the usual career path. Butler also decided not to seek a full term as senator.
Before her appointment, she was the president of EMILY’s List, which funds the campaigns of pro-choice women candidates. Before that, she was a leader of the SEIU State Council, one of the state’s most powerful union groups.
At the time of her appointment, Newsom enthused, “An advocate for women and girls, a second-generation fighter for working people, and a trusted adviser to Vice President Harris, Laphonza Butler represents the best of California, and she’ll represent us proudly in the United States Senate.”
Unfortunately, she has little to show for her six months in office but voting to a high degree with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York. Progressive Punch, a voting scorecard billing itself “Leading from the left,” ranks lawmakers according to votes on 14 specific issues, including Aid to Less Advantaged People, at Home and Abroad; Environment; Fair Taxation (meaning tax increases); Labor Rights and War and Peace.
Butler scored 93.1 in alignment with Progressive Punch’s Crucial Issues in 2023-24. That was slightly higher than fellow California Sen. Alex Padilla’s 90.57 and Schumer’s 88.82.
By comparison, consider moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, who scored 55.77. He is not running for re-election. But it’s the swing votes like Manchin who get things for their states. They’re unpredictable, therefore must be courted and appeased.
In this year’s bipartisan appropriations package, Manchin boasted he secured $138 million in earmarks for his state, or $77 per capita. While Butler, working on some continuing earmarks from Feinstein, announced she secured $264 million, or $6.77 per capita. That’s one 11th as much.
As a libertarian I oppose all earmarks. But Butler is a liberal Democrat and so isn’t averse to spreading the national taxpayers’ dollars around her state. It’s clear being harder to catch would have brought more pork to California.
The Progressive Punch index isn’t recent enough to include voting on the $61 billion package of military aid to Ukraine. Although it will bring her Progressive score down, Butler is supporting it. Even there it shows she is in lock-step with Schumer.
“The stakes are high, both at home and abroad,” she said of the bill. “We must be urgent in delivering aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and keep our commitment to protect freedom and democracy around the globe.” The bill’s total is $93 billion and aid to the other countries is less controversial.
Maverick colleague J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, on April 12 penned a New York Times op-ed titled, “The Math on Ukraine Doesn’t Add Up.” He wrote, “Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies. And it needs more matériel than the United States can provide.”
This is where having a maverick California senator among the Democratic majority would have helped. There ought to have been more debate on whether or not the $61 billion will even benefit Kiev, or will just go to the Military Industrial Complex.
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the two candidates running to succeed her, both Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican former baseball player Steve Garvey support Ukraine aid. So there will be no change there.
Butler is only 44 years old, so she could run for another California political office in 2026 or 2028. Her fundraising prowess also will be on tap for Democratic political races, including especially an expected presidential bid by Newsom.
On her website, Butler touts establishing youth councils at the EPA, a bipartisan bill to empower specialty crop farmers, authorizing a FIFA World Cup 2026 commemorative coin and joining with Padilla to introduce legislation calling on President Biden to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument. But nothing substantive.
How about something reducing the $35 trillion national debt? Or reforming military procurement so we’re not caught short of ammo again?
She still has six months left to act to help all Californians.
John Seiler is on the SCNG Editorial Board and blogs at: johnseiler.substack.com