The messaging is a smart use of California’s political tilt for Newsom, said Matt Barreto, a professor at UCLA and a top adviser to “Building Back Together,” the outside political group aligned with Biden. “California is even more Democratic in national politics than it is in state politics. It is a smart move to remind people that there are national implications. Nobody knows what the tea leaves are but there could be another Senate appointment,” he said, nodding to a possible Feinstein replacement.