The initial reason Newsom chose Butler is that she wasn’t running for the seat.

See, when Harris became the VP, Newsom appointed a white mane to replace her. This pissed off a lot of people who are really interested in identify politics.

So Newsom made a promise to appoint a black woman if he had the opportunity. (Which seemed likely)

So the obvious candidate would have been Lee. A black woman who is part of the Progressive Caucus.

There are two problems that came up. First is that Nancy Peloci. Wanted to give the seat to Adam Shift.

This is an issue that can mostly be ignored, but she put the weight of the party finances behind his campaign.

The second issue is that Lee was running for the seat, but trailing in the polls.

Put those together and you have a situation where if Newsom had appointed Lee, he would have been accused of putting his thumb on the scales of the election. So he appointed Butler, likely under the impression that she would serve out the end of the term and step aside.

That she is not, is kind of scummy.