DRIVING THE DAY: Laphonza Butler will be sworn in on Capitol Hill today as California's newest senator. She is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pick to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died last week. Butler, who is a lesbian, will make history as the first out LGBTQ person of color to serve in the U.S. Senate (more on that below). Vice President Kamala Harris, whose presidential campaign Butler advised, will preside over the ceremony. It's set for noon PST on the Senate floor. THE BUZZ — Newsom has spent his career navigating conflicting relationships between labor and business — so has his pick to replace Feinstein. The governor’s decision to tap Butler for the Senate seat means bypassing a cohort of Black female electeds in favor of a longtime California political consultant who’s served corporate clients. While it’s not the preference of many progressives, who wanted him to choose Rep. Barbara Lee, Newsom’s appointee mirrors his own values on labor and business issues, which tend to favor results over ideology. Newsom on Monday praised Butler as someone who has “the ability to create a dynamic on the outside that moves the needle on the inside.” The governor has been known to lean more moderate on certain economic issues. That approach has often frustrated liberal allies. As for Butler, no one would mistake her for a centrist. She’s spent the bulk of her career in the labor movement and has been one of the loudest pro-abortion rights voices since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Still, she has shown a knack for the type of deal-making that jibes with Newsom’s balancing act. Butler’s appointment comes at a rocky point in Newsom’s relationship with labor. He faces fierce criticism for vetoing high-profile labor priorities, including unemployment benefits for striking workers and limits on driverless trucks. Despite brief stints working with adversaries of organized labor such as Uber and Airbnb, Butler’s appointment has been largely well-received by union officials, who have praised her working-class background and history as a movement leader. “She’s a true change-maker and a strong champion of labor unions and public schools,” said David Goldberg, president of the formidable California Teachers Association. Butler came up very differently than Newsom, a winery entrepreneur connected to the upper echelons of San Francisco society. Born in Mississippi, Butler grew up in a working-class family, with her mother struggling to hold down multiple jobs while caring for her ailing father, who died when she was 16. She got her start in labor organizing nurses, janitors and hospital workers across the northeast. She spent a decade as the head of California’s largest union, SEIU Local 2015, which represents 400,000 long-term caregivers. It was Butler’s time at SCRB Strategies, working alongside top Newsom advisers Sean Clegg and Ace Smith, that has served as fodder for critics on the left. In that role, she advised rideshare company Uber about how to work with unions as it negotiated Assembly Bill 5, a hotly-contested law that sought to limit businesses’ ability to use contractors. She then went on to serve as director of public policy and Campaigns in North America at Airbnb for a year before she took over as the head of EMILY’s List in 2021. Social media chatter aside, the state’s key labor actors aren’t criticizing Butler for her corporate ties in the same way they might attack the governor. Shortly after congratulating Butler on Twitter, California Labor Federation head Lorena Gonzalez warned followers not to “get distracted,” reminding them that Newsom had rejected three high-profile labor bills. Gonzalez later declined to discuss Butler’s relationship with labor. GOOD MORNING. It’s Tuesday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook.
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