Becerra indicates he would be happy to be named a US senator

Attorney General Xavier Becerra more or less confirmed Tuesday he would accept an appointment to the U.S. Senate if California Sen. Kamala Harris were elected vice president in November.

He also opined on ballot language, changes to police use of force rules and his many lawsuits against President Donald Trump during an hour-long virtual conversation with reporters hosted by the Sacramento Press Club.

“I’d be honored to be the U.S. senator,” Becerra said. “I’m honored to be the attorney general. That’s totally up to Gov. Gavin Newsom. I hope on Nov. 3 we give Gov. Newsom an opportunity to appoint a new U.S. Senator.”

If Harris were to vacate her seat, Newsom would have the power to appoint someone to fill the last two years of her current term. Gov. Jerry Brown previously appointed Becerra to fill out the rest of Harris’ term as attorney general when she was elected to the Senate.

Becerra also took a question about criticism he has received for filing 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration. “Most of those cases we’ve been winning,” Becerra said. “Not only are they not frivolous, a lot of people have accused us of trying to poke Donald Trump’s eye. No. If that were the case, we’d have a whole bunch of our cases dismissed.”

Becerra spent much of the summer litigating against Republicans and others Californians. He has come under fire for the ballot title and summary information he provided for initiatives voters will decide in November.

This year saw a possible record number of these cases. But Becerra again pointed out his office has mostly won. Last month, a Sacramento judge rejected the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association’s claim that his summary materials for a property tax measure was misleading because it failed to make it clear Proposition 15 would raise taxes. The so-called split roll initiative would remove some protections business property receives against tax increases under Proposition 13.

Some Republicans and others have argued the ballot material writing task should be moved to the Legislative Analyst’s Office or some other non-partisan entity. But Becerra said this would not stop the complaining.

“Find me someone who is not political in this world, and I’ll tell you they were not born on this Earth,” Becerra said. “The reality is that we all bring certain biases, perceptions and so forth. What you try to do is remove yourself as much as you can... Others say you should give it to someone else to do. I guarantee you, the moment you give it to them, someone is still going to object and say we need to give it to someone else.”

Much of the conversation centered on proposed changes to policing that came up this year in the wake of mass protests and riots in response to some police shootings resulting in death or major injury. Among the bills currently sitting on Newsom’s desk is AB 1506. If signed, it would create a division within the Department of Justice to investigate police shootings of unarmed civilians.

As he often has with legislation, Becerra framed AB 1506 in terms of resources. His office has estimated the law would cost his office about $80 million a year to enforce. The Department of Justice is happy to take on the task, he said, but added the Legislature must give him the money to do so.

Becerra also said in many cases he tries not to wade into policy debates around potential laws he would have to enforce. But on Tuesday he did speak in favor of creating a process for certifying — and when necessary, decertifying — police officers.

This was the concept behind SB 731, a bill designed to make it much harder for an officer who leaves a department due to excessive use of force or other misconduct to get another law enforcement job in California. Becerra’s department included certification for officers among recommendations it issued this year for improving policing. But he said this will also come with a price tag and the need to set up a fair system to review misconduct claims.

“We have a licensing procedure for medical doctors,” Becerra said. “We have a licensing procedure for beauticians. We don’t have one for peace officers, and we should. The difficulty is that doctors, beauticians and peace officers will be entitled to due process. ... At the end of the day the clock ran out on the Legislature.”