The planned retirement of Sen. Barbara Boxer and rare opportunity to pursue an open U.S. Senate seat in California has produced an avalanche of speculation and enough what-ifs to stretch from Eureka in the far north to Yucaipa in the south.
Most of that conjecture has centered on Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who share, along with relative youth, good looks and irrepressible ambition, the same geographic and donor base in the San Francisco Bay Area. …
It makes perfect sense, though, for one to stand aside in the Senate race, lest each seek the office and, in a crowded field, thwart the efforts of both by splintering the Northern California vote. … But it’s a tricky business divvying up public offices, as if they were a baton than can be willfully passed back and forth between contestants. CONT.
Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times