There is an old political axiom that warns: never make a decision until you have to. Gov. Gavin Newsom ignored that doctrine when he did a double flip-flop on a replacement for Dianne Feinstein in the Senate.

The opposite of premature decision-making is, of course, procrastination. Many politicians are also guilty of this when politics becomes difficult. That’s a frustrating Newsom mistake. He has a tendency to make grand announcements about bold new agendas, then endlessly delay announcing details.

That’s called ruling by

Press

press release. You can make a splash, but sometimes you can also make a belly flop.

The bigger risk, however, is making a decision early on that you later regret, perhaps because it doesn’t hold up when circumstances change, or because you simply change your mind on reflection.

Then the best remedy is usually to not do a flip-flop again, even if it makes you look foolish. That’s what Newsom did with the Feinstein chair.

First, the governor tried to seat Black leaders and voters in 2021 who were miffed that he had not replaced Vice President Kamala Harris in the Senate with another Black woman. Harris had been the only one in the Senate. Newsom chose a longtime political ally, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, to become the state’s first Latino senator. To smooth things over, the governor promised to appoint a Black woman to fill the next Senate vacancy.

Two years later there is a competitive competition to replace the sick and retired

Sen.

Feinstein. One of the three leading candidates is a liberal black woman, Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland. She is trailing badly in the polls. An appointment with Newsom would likely give Lee’s campaign a major boost. But the governor had reservations. He announced that if there is a vacancy, he will only make an interim appointment of someone who is not running for a full term.

“I don’t want to tip the balance of the match that is already underway,” he said.

So now black women, especially Lee, are angry all over again. He would pick only one as a second-ranking senator, a seat warmer, until a real replacement could be chosen next year.

And remember: Feinstein was still alive. There was no vacancy and no need for the governor to have ever said anything about her replacement. He could have kept his mouth shut instead of putting his foot in it.

Finally, after Feinstein died Friday, Newsom practiced damage control and landed pretty much where he should have been by completing a double flip-flop. On Sunday, he appointed a black woman well-respected in Democratic circles and left it entirely up to her whether she would run for a full term next year.

The appointee, Laphonza Butler, told The Times on Monday that she was not close to deciding whether to enter the race. “I honestly have no idea,” she said.

In any case, it seems quite debatable. It’s very late in the game when a basically unknown candidate enters the race. There are only five months to go until the March primaries. That’s not a lot of time to organize a campaign, trudge across the vast state and raise money

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tens of millions of dollars to compete against the three major contenders who have been active for months: Reps. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, Katie Porter of Irvine and Lee.

It is very likely that Newsom will get what he wanted anyway: a senator who will not interfere in the race.

between

below the

existing

top three Democratic candidates.

For what it’s worth, probably two of the last three California senators appointed by a governor ultimately lost out when they ran for the seat: Republican John Seymour lost to Democrat Feinstein in 1992 and Democrat Pierre Salinger John F. Kennedy’s former Republican presidential press secretary. actor George Murphy in 1964.

Newsom’s surprise selection of Butler, 44, appears to be a winner

Nieuwsom

it. She is virtually immune to criticism from the party.

Her resume: the president of Emily’s List, a national political organization that helps elect Democratic women; a former labor organizer for Service Employees International Union; former president of SEIU California, a powerful lobby in Sacramento; a top strategist for Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign; and a former partner in the consulting firm that manages Newsom’s campaigns.

She is also a lesbian and the first LGBTQ+ senator from California. Newsom seems obsessed with firsts.

Butler has never held an elective position. But she has been embroiled in high-end politics for years. She’s not exactly a neophyte.

Regardless, several Black female elected officials said they were not interested in resigning

current

to take a job that would probably only last fifteen months, which is equivalent to fifteen minutes in politics.

Republicans are trying to make waves over Butler living in Maryland while she is president of Emily’s List. It’s a weak complaint. Washington, DC and surrounding suburbs in northern Virginia and Maryland are full of Californians who work in the nation’s capital but consider themselves rooted in the Golden State. Butler still has a home in California.

Compliments are pouring in for Butler, including from Lee.

Newsom took a deeper look more than two years ago. But on Sunday he extricated himself as best he could. And he probably learned a lesson about not rushing where he doesn’t have to.