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By Sunday evening, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom had made up his mind: He wanted to be governor, not senator. But when he tried to call the biggest obstacle to achieving his political ambitions, state Attorney General Kamala Harris, Newsom got her voice mail.
As of Monday afternoon, the two Democrats still hadn’t spoken. But Newsom, who had left a message with Harris outlining his intentions, went ahead anyway and announced on Facebook that he wouldn’t be running for Senate in 2016.
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Newsom’s withdrawal capped a furious 72 hours of discussions among the would-be candidates and their advisers over whether to jump at the state’s first open Senate seat in two decades, or hold out for a shot at leading a state that is the world’s eighth-largest economy.