Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Makes A Move for Statewide Office in 2022
Nobody has ever accused Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of failing to plan ahead. Depending on your point of view, she’s either politically prescient or a controlling sod in league with the worst elements of Democratic Illuminati.
There can be no doubt where the state’s Republicans stand: she’s responsible for legislation making it easier to vote and an assortment of bills favoring humans the GOP counts as disposable. She’s been smart enough to get legislation passed the Chamber of Commerce labels as “job killers.”
While the opposition has been playing checkers, Gonzalez is playing Risk, tackling one issue at a time and amassing political capital along the way. Now she’s filed papers to run for California Secretary of State in 2022.
She’s also running for reelection in the 80th District in 2020, where she won with 75% of the vote against token Republican Lincoln Pickard this past November.
Two races at once? Nooo problem.
From her announcement on Facebook:
“Why so early?
“In California’s 169 year history, a Latina has never been elected to statewide office. Not one.
“I am the daughter of an immigrant, raised by a single mom. I was elected to office as an advocate for workers and people like me.
“To win a statewide office, I will need help. Help from people like you.”
Translation: I'm in it to win it. Send money and pay attention.
Today, I’ll look back at where she came from, what the Assemblywoman has done in the legislature, and forward to where she wants to be. To be clear, while there are good things to said about Lorena Gonzalez (and I’m going to say some of them today), she’s made her fair share of enemies along the way. This post is just a first look.
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Lorena Gonzalez hails from Oceanside, the daughter of an immigrant farm worker and a nurse. She attended public schools in San Diego County before earning a bachelor's degree from Stanford University, a master's degree from Georgetown University, and a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law.
California's Proposition 187, the ballot initiative (eventually overturned by the courts) created a statewide screening process on undocumented immigrants and limited their access to services. The racist nature of discussion around the law served as a motivator for Gonzalez and an entire generation of Latino activists.
Her first job in politics was as an adviser to former Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, also serving on the State Lands Commission and as a Coastal Commission alternate.
In 2005, she ran against Kevin Faulconer for city Council, losing in the general election by 724 votes. Gonzalez went to work for the Teamsters and was elected in 2008 as CEO and Secretary-Treasurer of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
She became the first woman and person of color to be elected to head the Labor Council since its founding in 1891, expanding the organization’s political influence throughout the strata of San Diego politics.
Following Congressman Bob Filner’s election as Mayor of San Diego, there was what some call a prearranged plan of succession. Juan Vargas moved from State Senate to the House of Representatives, Ben Hueso moved from the Assembly to the State Senate, and Lorena Gonzalez moved from the Labor Council to the Assembly.
The 80th Assembly District, covering the southside of San Diego is about as safe a seat as you can get, with registered Democrats out numbering Republicans by a three to one margin.
This kind of job security has enabled Gonzalez to aggressively promote legislation increasing healthcare access, reforming the justice system, protecting workers and a host of other progressive causes. Early criticism of her incrementalist approach has been muted thanks to her success in getting legislation passed.
Her championing of reforms for the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) may prove to be one of the most far-reaching improvements in regional governance and environmentally friendly transportation policies.
Most relevant to her Secretary of State ambitions (and controversial as far as Republicans are concerned) has been legislation relating to voter registration and election laws.
Current Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Assemblywoman Gonzalez worked together to create the Motor Voter program, the 2016 law allowing Californians to automatically register to vote through the DMV.
Because undocumented Californians are allowed to apply for and obtain a state driver’s license, the far right went bonkers, claiming “illegals” would be voting.
As multiple fact checking sites determined, the law did nothing to change the federal requirement about being a U.S. citizen to register to vote.
What the law didn’t fix, however, was the dysfunctional nature of the DMV, which launched the program prior to upgrading software needed to insure accuracy. Workers at the agency had to manually link information from various systems during transactions between April and September. And mistakes were made.
From reporting at CALmatters:
Since the program launched in April, about 1.4 million Californians have registered to vote or updated their voter registration through the motor voter process—and the DMV has acknowledged three batches of mistakes:
A software error affected 77,000 registrations, resulting, in some cases, in two registration forms indicating different party preferences being issued for one voter (reported in May).
A window-toggling error affected 23,000 registrations, resulting in changes to voters’ party preference, vote-by-mail options and language choices (reported in September).
A data-entry error resulted in 1,500 people being registered to vote even though they are not legally eligible because they are not U.S. citizens, are under 18 or are on parole for a felony conviction (reported this month).
Though the problems are serious, none indicate intentional acts of fraud or hacking. Instead, they appear to be the result of human error and glitchy technology—which officials say are being fixed with software updates and employee training. The secretary of state said erroneous registrations have been canceled and DMV leaders say they’ve put new procedures in place to prevent mistakes in the future.
Then there was the matter of what the Don’t Get Out the Vote crowd calls “ballot harvesting.” Gonzalez’ AB 1921 enabled voters to designate any person of their choosing to return a completed mail ballot to the proper drop-off location or post office.
Following the 2018 general election, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan blamed the law for GOP loses in California Congressional races. Visions of union bosses delivering truck loads of ballots filled-in by brown people danced through the Republican’s heads and there was plenty of pearl clutching in Capitol Hill cloakrooms.
As it turns out, overseeing of elections (including campaign finance reporting) is a major part of the Secretary of State’s duties, in addition to overseeing everything from business filings to preserving valuable historical documents.
Information is power, and the California Secretary of State position provides access to lots of data. The office was a stepping stone for Jerry Brown’s first campaign for Governor.
And, given the past trajectory of Lorena Gonzalez' rise in politics, it would surprise exactly nobody if she isn’t considering her options past that post.
After all, she’s already the current Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, and the first Latina to ever serve as the Chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. As the author of California’s Paid Sick Days Law, she travelled out-of-state to campaign for similar laws around the nation.
In 2015, The Atlantic called her "the California Democrat setting the national agenda. Two years ago Politico named her one of its Top 50 "thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics."
So... in 2022 it’s a campaign for Secretary of State. There are ample opportunities up the political ladder beyond that position. She’s young, progressive, and ambitious. I wonder if hubby Nathan Fletcher has given any thought to what it would be like to be First Husband?
