Liberals and moderates clash as Newsom prepares to pick next AG

Has someone on Gov. Gavin Newsom's staff been leaking Rep. Adam Schiff's name as a possible attorney general pick? Now that Schiff is facing a backlash from the left, is Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, a leading contender to replace Xavier Becerra, who still holds the job?

Former GOP political consultant Dan Schnur argued in the Jewish Journal on Monday that a recent Politico piece on prospects for Schiff, D-Hollywood, getting the job was a "trial balloon" to see how the pick might play on both the political right and left. Schnur argued the tone of that piece, positing Schiff as the leading contender, suggested Newsom was trying to gauge how such a choice would be received.

"If I was going to launch a trial balloon, that's exactly how I would have done it," Schnur told the Daily Journal. "A story like that doesn't appear in a vacuum. Someone made a very clear effort to start that speculation and to drive it into news coverage."

Schnur, who now teaches political communication at USC and UC Berkeley, argued in his piece that conservatives and moderates should "reconcile themselves to a centrist Democrat like Schiff." But it's clear that many on the left have not reconciled themselves to such a choice.

"Newsom's people are smart enough to know that a lot of progressives would not react well to Schiff," Schnur said on Tuesday. "This was a savvy way of finding out how angry this would make his base. It looks like they found out."

This was a reference to a coalition of liberal groups under the name the Reimagine Justice California Coalition sending a letter to Newsom on Feb. 1 to express "strong opposition to this appointment."

"When Adam Schiff was a member of the California Legislature, he was not only supportive of, but deeply invested in, creating our current system of incarceration," argued the letter signed by leaders of Black Lives Matter, the California Public Defenders Association and other groups. "This system of incarceration has continued to devastate communities of color and continues to take resources away from our schools, cities, and from all Californians in need."

The letter then devotes two pages to the many criminal justice bills Schiff wrote during a single term in the California Senate between 1996 and 2000, a term which included a stint as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Notably, with SB 483, Schiff created the Department of Juvenile Justice, the same agency Newsom pledged to phase out when he took office two years ago.

There are points playing in Schiff's favor. He's politically well-connected. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, backs him. A former assistant U.S. attorney, he has the type of legal experience Becerra was lacking when he was named four years ago. He's a Harvard Law School graduate who just won reelection in a safe Democratic seat by 45 percentage points.

His prospects for the job could end up hinging on a different political question: the pending GOP-backed recall campaign against Newsom. The governor's choices of Alex Padilla to the U.S. Senate and Assemblywoman Shirley Weber to replace Padilla as Secretary of State, are widely seen as helping shore up his support among Latino and Black voters, respectively. Naming Schiff might upset both progressives and conservatives who didn't like his prominent role in impeaching former President Donald Trump.

Political optics could end up favoring Bonta, an Asian-American who is popular with that community and with progressives who like his work seeking to phase out cash bail. Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza endorsed him.

Bonta, while straight, also appears to be quite popular with the LGBT community. Last week, the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance published a letter it sent to Newsom endorsing Bonta. The group's chair, Michael T. Nguyen -- who is a patent attorney and a drag queen who performs under the name Juicy Liu -- argued Bonta has been active in advancing gay rights and making the legal system more responsive.

Several other potential names remain in the mix. State Sen. Anna M. Caballero, D-Salinas; California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin H. Liu, Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton and Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen are some of the most talked about names recently.

Another prospect who appears to be gaining momentum is Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. A former president pro tempore of the California Senate, administrative law judge and attorney for the California State Employees Association, Steinberg was among those Gov. Jerry Brown interviewed to replace Harris when she was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.

Being a California attorney general under a Democratic president may be less newsmaking or stressful than Becerra's tenure, during which he filed 100 lawsuits against President Donald Trump's administration. Steinberg was reelected to a second four-year term as mayor last year, but voters rejected an initiative to give his office more power. Over the weekend, homeless activists vandalized his house while screaming the names of his children in retaliation for what they said were inadequate efforts to protect homeless people during recent extreme weather.

Whoever Newsom chooses, it won't be for weeks. He said last week he wouldn't name a successor until after Attorney General Xavier Becerra is confirmed as President Joe Biden's Health and Human Services Secretary. Republicans in the U.S. Senate have recently indicated they will fight Becerra's nomination, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, last week calling the former Congressman from LA "famously partisan."