May 18, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)
May 18, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)
UPDATE: Feinstein experienced complications from shingles virus
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office sought to discourage speculation that her family pressured Sen. Dianne Feinstein to stay in the Senate after a nearly three-month absence.
Pelosi’s eldest daughter, Nancy Corinne Prowda, has been by Feinstein’s side daily as she returned to the Senate, The Chronicle first reported May 10. Prowda and Feinstein have been friends for more than three decades and Prowda has been “supporting” Feinstein in her recovery from the shingles virus, Pelosi’s spokesperson Aaron Bennett said in a statement Thursday.
“Speaker Emerita Pelosi and Senator Feinstein have been friends since long before their service in Congress — and their friendship is personal, not political,” Bennett said.
“Anyone who knows Senator Feinstein knows that her service in the Senate is entirely her own decision, and Speaker Emerita Pelosi would never suggest otherwise.”
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Some news reports said the arrangement raised questions about whether Pelosi sought to keep Feinstein in her seat as a way to boost Rep. Adam Schiff, who Pelosi has endorsed. Feinstein’s absence from the Senate led members of her own party to call on her to resign.
“Nancy Corinne is a dear friend of Senator Feinstein’s going back more than 40 years,” Feinstein’s spokesperson Adam Russell said in a statement. “She has been spending time with the senator as she continues to recover from shingles.”
Schiff, D-Burbank, is one of three candidates running in a highly contested California primary to take Feinstein’s seat in the Senate. Gov. Gavin Newsom previously said he would appoint a Black woman to fill Feinstein’s seat if it became open. That promise has gotten more politically complicated with the ultra-competitive 2024 race to replace Feinstein under way.
Only one of the top three candidates, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, is a Black woman. Sending Lee to the Senate before the 2024 election would give her the tremendous advantage of incumbency over Reps. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, and Schiff.
Reach Shira Stein: shira.stein@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @shiramstein
Shira Stein is The San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington correspondent, covering national politics and policy with a particular eye to the impacts on California. She was previously a health care reporter and received several awards for her work covering the COVID-19 pandemic for Bloomberg. She also covered the fall of Roe v. Wade, including being the first to report President Joe Biden’s consideration of a public health emergency for reproductive rights; the Trump administration’s efforts to lower prescription drug prices; and the third legal fight to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
She previously interned at the Washington Post, Bloomberg Law, and the Colorado-based Durango Herald. She is a native of the Bay Area and a graduate of American University.VIEW COMMENTS
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