In the eyes of Julie Su's supporters, President Joe Biden's pick to be the next Labor secretary personifies the promise of California: A daughter of immigrants who made groundbreaking advances in protecting workers rights.
Her detractors also paint Su as an embodiment of California. In their telling, though, she would replicate the state's over-regulation of business, bloated bureaucracy and coziness with organized labor on a national level.
The increasingly contentious Senate confirmation, which begins on Thursday, mirrors many of the partisan fights in Washington, with the fate hinging on votes of a handful of conservative Democrats. But underlying that battle is a referendum on California itself and the unique place it holds in the national psyche, a state that is at once a liberal beacon and conservative bogeyman.
