The death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia heightened the importance, not just of the presidential race, but of the contest for U.S. Senate from California. If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., keeps his promise to delay confirmation hearings until the next president picks a nominee, retiring Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer would not get a say on confirmation. That task would go to her successor.
The confirmation process has become much more ideological than it was in 1986, when Scalia, a conservative, received unanimous approval by the Senate. Republicans are hoping to elect a president who will appoint a justice much like Scalia. Democrats hope their candidate wins and will nominate people ideologically similar to President Obama's picks, Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
For the Senate campaign, the California hopefuls are breaking sharply on ideological lines, as shown in questions posed to them by the Sacramento Bee. The Democratic candidates, Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Anaheim and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, both insisted that the Senate should take action on the president's nominee. And both said they would have voted to confirm Kagan and Sotomayor, while voting nay on Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, both nominated by former President George W. Bush.
It is "the U.S. Senate's constitutional responsibility to act on the president's judicial nominations and to fill vacancies on the court without undue delay," Sanchez said.
Republicans Duf Sundheim and Tom Del Beccaro both said they supported the Roberts and Alito nominations, but have been disappointed by Roberts' decisions. Del Beccaro said he would have opposed the Kagan and Sotomayor nominations, while Sundheim said, "I haven't done a deep-enough dive into what information was available at the time to say how I would have voted."
Sundheim believes "the nominee should be submitted to the Senate. And the Senate should commence the process." While Del Beccaro favors delay in the Senate "until the voters choose the next president."
REPRINTED FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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