THE BUZZ: Two months away from D.C. could put an end to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s 31 years in the Senate.

It could also throw an already competitive field of potential Democratic successors into chaos.

The 89-year-old California senator has been absent from the nation’s capital since early March, when a case of shingles resulted in a brief hospital stay and subsequent hiatus at her San Francisco home. Recent news coverage had already detailed the deepening worries of colleagues and staffers about Feinstein’s mental faculties. Now, after missing 60 votes on the Senate floor, some Democrats close to her are discussing the possibility that she may never return.

Three people who have visited with Feinstein in recent weeks or been briefed on her status say her condition appears to have taken a heavy toll, POLITICO’s Christopher Cadelago, Jennifer Haberkorn and Katherine Tully-McManus reported on Wednesday. And fellow California lawmakers are growing increasingly vocal about their feelings on the matter.

“It’s time for [Feinstein] to resign,” Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna said plainly in a tweet Wednesday. “We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties. Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.”

Feinstein late Wednesday issued a statement asking Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to temporarily replace her on the Judiciary Committee. She had intended to return to the Capitol at the end of March, she said, but that was delayed by her health. She plans to return as soon as possible.

“I remain committed to the job and will continue to work from home in San Francisco,” she said in the statement.

Feinstein in February made the decision not to seek another term in 2024, but her would-be successors were already leagues ahead of her.

Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff initially caught some flack for launching their campaigns before the senator had made a decision about her future. Rep. Barbara Lee, who made no secret of her intention to run, made a point of waiting for Feinstein to bow out before officially launching her campaign. All three Democrats have been careful to demonstrate a certain level of deference to the senator, who, by nearly every standard, is a political legend in California.

A resignation has the ability to turn that careful calculus completely on its head. Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised to appoint a Black woman to the Senate should a vacancy open up. Lee, who is Black, would likely be seen as the frontrunner in that scenario, but it’s not a given.

There’s also the question of how long an appointee would serve.

Some may want to see the governor appoint a caretaker to hold the office until the next election and keep Newsom out of the campaign fray. It’s very likely Lee, Schiff and Porter would keep campaigning in the event of a resignation, regardless of who is tapped to replace her.

An appointee would certainly have an advantage if they wanted to run next year, but 2024 is a long way away, and nothing is guaranteed.

BUENOS DÍAS, good Thursday morning. Sen. María Elena Durazo is leading a rally at the Capitol this morning in support of her bill, SB 227, which would open unemployment benefits to undocumented Californians.

Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit us up at [email protected] and [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @JeremyBWhite and @Lara_Korte.

WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The old saying ‘all politics is local,’ the opposite’s true now. All politics is national. … All due respect to the California newspapers, which I love, one story in The New York Times is worth dozens.” Top Newsom adviser Ace “Averell” Smith chatting about how politics has changed a wide-ranging interview with Carla Marinucci for Capitol Weekly.

TWEET OF THE DAY:

WE’RE HIRING — POLITICO is embarking on an exciting expansion in the Golden State and looking for another journalist to join our growing team as a California Playbook author. More in the job description here.

CLOUDY JUDGMENT — “California announces massive settlement with Juul,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Rachel Swan: “Attorneys general from six states and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday announced a $462 million settlement with electronic cigarette giant Juul that will hamper the company’s ability to market its products to children and lure them into a life of addiction.”

— “NPR quits Elon Musk’s Twitter over ‘government-funded’ label,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Matt O’Brien: “Twitter labeled NPR’s main account last week as “state-affiliated media, " a term also used to identify media outlets controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments, such as Russia and China. Twitter later changed the label to “government-funded media” and gave it to a few other organizations, such as the Public Broadcasting Service in the U.S. and the British Broadcasting Corporation in the U.K.”

— “Young activists helped elect Kenneth Mejia. Now some say he’s a ‘toxic’ boss,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Julia Wick: “They say Mejia frequently made comments about the sex lives of two young campaign workers before his election and pressured employees and former campaign staffers to move into his apartment building after the election.”

— “LAUSD pitched students an expensive experiment to get higher grades. Most turned it down,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Howard Blume: “The relatively high-cost project had been envisioned as way of reaching all students— especially the 58 percent below grade level in English Language Arts and 72 percent below grade level in math. Last week’s spring break installment pulled in fewer than 8 percent or 33,076 of the district’s 422,276 students for one or both days.”

— “Calbright’s star is rising: California’s online community college is adding, keeping more students,” by CalMatters’ Mikhail Zinshteyn: “California’s only fully online community college is no longer struggling for students as the state’s tiniest. Calbright now educates 2,300 Californians, up from about 1,000 a year ago, exceeding enrollment of four brick-and-mortar community colleges and growing at a considerable clip even as more than 40 other campuses continue to shed students and the system as a whole is just now rebounding from an enrollment collapse.”

CASE STUDY — “Stockton guaranteed income study finds pandemic dampened positive results,” by CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang: “The study of the two-year experiment that began in 2019 shows the promise and limitations of a guaranteed income, said Amy Castro, a study author and founding director of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania.”

SOUL FOOD — “Magic mushroom pastor is willing to go to jail for his new San Francisco church,” by SFGATE’s Lester Black: “Hodges is the founder of the Church of Ambrosia, a nondenominational religious organization that believes cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms are divine sacraments that give humans the ability to connect with gods. The Church of Ambrosia currently has one church in Oakland, called Zide Door. Any adult can join the church for a $5 monthly fee, which allows them to buy psilocybin mushrooms and unregulated, tax-free pot.”

— “California Democrat tries again to tax guns, ammunition. Here’s how much state would charge,” by The Sacramento Bee’s Lindsey Holden: “Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Woodland Hills, authored a bill that would levy an 11 percent excise tax on firearm dealers, manufacturers and ammunition vendors for receipts on guns, gun parts and ammunition. The measure would create the Gun Violence Prevention, Healing, and Recovery Fund at the state Treasurer’s Office, which would distribute the money to various violence prevention initiatives.”

— This Korean American Republican is trying to educate her party — in the U.S. and abroad, by POLITICO’s Olivia Beavers and Nicholas Wu: With a Democrat in the White House, Kim is not an influential voice in shaping U.S. foreign and national security policy. But she has sought out opportunities to serve as a link between America’s Conservative Party and the right-wing government in Seoul.

HEAD START — “Dianne Feinstein hasn’t voted in the Senate since February. What happens if she steps down?” by The Sacramento Bee’s David Lightman: “Newsom said in 2021 that if Feinstein steps down before her term ends in January 2025, he would appoint a Black woman to fill the seat. The instant frontrunner is likely to be Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland.”

— Appeals court keeps mifepristone on the market but sharply limits access, by POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein

— “Twitter company ‘no longer exists’; it’s now part of Musk’s X Corp,” by Bloomberg’s Low De Wei and Marika Katanuma.

— “Antioch mayor, residents overcome with emotion at council meeting following release of racist texts sent by police,” by The Mercury News’ Judith Prieve.

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