San Bernardino city leaders still aren’t sure what to make of a recent email from the White House urging their public support for U.S. Supreme Court Judicial nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But they’ve broached the subject anyway and, on Wednesday, they decided not to respond.
After a brief discussion, the City Council voted unanimously to stay out of the coming fight over Trump’s judicial nominee.
“We have plenty to deal with here,” said Fred Shorett. “This is just not our purview.”
City leaders and political experts are still baffled that the request was made of them at all.
“We’re just council members,” said Virginia Marquez. “We’re at the local level. Although Supreme Court nominees normally do have a huge impact on our daily lives, I wonder why we were selected.”
Claremont McKenna Professor Jack Pitney wondered the same thing, given the fact that California’s senators are unlikely to support Kavanaugh regardless of what San Bernardino says or does.
“If I were working in the Trump White House, I would be focusing on the small number of senators who might tip either way. I’d be, for example, focusing on local officials in Maine or Alaska.”
White House Director of State Communications Judd Deere confirmed the request was made, saying the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs “regularly reaches out to state, mayoral and other local offices to keep them apprised of actions taken by the administration.” He could not say whether any other cities in Southern California had been contacted about supporting the nomination.