Xavier Becerra

[Mister Mets]

I've mentioned him.

I think he'll be on the shortlist. He's in the congressional leadership, so he's a plausible governing pick, and the inexperience argument isn't going to fly. He's a westerner, so that gives the ticket geographic diversity (especially as Clinton was born in the midwest, first lady in the South and served as Senator in the Northeast.) He's familiar with the media spotlight, so he should be less likely to make serious gaffes and should handle himself well as a sudden national surrogate for the party. I'm unaware of any major controversies and he'll be under 60 (if by a whisker.)

[Mister Mets]

He wants to be Speaker one day. He could actually be Speaker one day. He wouldn't give that up for the Vice Presidency.

Gerald Ford wanted to be Speaker. And then he got the Vice Presidency 22 years before Republicans took back the House.

Becerra's well-positioned to be the leader of the House Democrats (everyone ahead of him in seniority is older than Dole was in 1996) but it's entirely possible that the House will stay in Republican hands for generations, with Democrats needing to commit a lot of gerrymandering in order to offset the natural conservative advantage in geographic sorting.

[Mister Mets]

His name doesn't get mentioned a lot but if Clinton needs a Latino running mate he would be perfect for her.

Better qualified than Castro. About the same as Geraldine Ferraro

Ferraro had spent three terms in congress.

Becerra's currently in his 12th term. He became Vice-Chair of the Democratic conference (5th in line) in 2009, and Chairman (4th in line) in 2013, so he'll have spent four years in party leadership. He was also assistant to the Speaker when Democrats held the majority.

[Mister Mets]

His name doesn't get mentioned a lot but if Clinton needs a Latino running mate he would be perfect for her.

Better qualified than Castro. About the same as Geraldine Ferraro

Ferraro had spent three terms in congress.

Becerra's currently in his 12th term. He became Vice-Chair of the Democratic conference (5th in line) in 2009, and Chairman (4th in line) in 2013, so he'll have spent four years in party leadership. He was also assistant to the Speaker when Democrats held the majority.

Unless they are in party leadership, no one cares how many terms were served in the House.

Becerra was in party leadership since at least 2007.

with Democrats needing to commit a lot of gerrymandering in order to offset the natural conservative advantage in geographic sorting.

Haha, clever.  The Democrats need to gerrymander in order to offset the natural conservative advantage.  Got it.

The GOP has 54 Senators and 31 governors. Id call that an advantage that cannot be gerrymandered

Technically, Republicans have an advantage in smaller rural states, as well as with midterm turnout.

Of states with single-digit electotal votes, Obama won 12 and McCain won 17. Meanwhile, Obama won 16 of the 20 most populated states.

The party of the cities isn't that well-represented in the Senate, either.