The race begins for Kamala Harris' Senate seat

One veteran California Democratic operative said Porter and Schiff are among the candidates with a chance to win the seat in 2022, even if they aren't tapped by Newsom."In the next three months, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff, if they know they really want to run for Senate but no one's looking at them, they're gonna go freakin' nuts and put all this extra money in their re-elect," the veteran Democratic operative said.According to the Federal Election Commission, Porter went from roughly $83,000 cash on hand at the beginning of 2019 when she was sworn into office, to more than $6.7 million at the end of June. For nearly three decades, California's Senate seats have been held by women."That might not be a tradition that (Newsom) is going to want to break with," said Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc., one of the largest election data firms in the state. It's so correct that he's going to allow these folks to run shadow campaigns," the veteran California operative said.Cendejas said Newsom's decision will say something about what he values in the pick — whether he is looking for an effective legislator in Washington "or making history here in California." The choice could affect California politics and Newsom's own legacy as a governor, especially if he appoints a current statewide office holder like Padilla or Becerra.Becerra, once one of the top Democrats in Congress, was appointed to his role as the state's attorney general in 2007 to replace Harris.