In abstract
The election of the primary lady of colour to steer the chamber got here after weeks of hypothesis about challenges to Senate President Professional Tem Mike McGuire’s management. However the pair promised an amicable transition.
Democrats in the present day elected Sen. Monique Limón as the subsequent chief of the California Senate, the primary lady of colour to carry the place.
A progressive whose main donors are California unions, Limón, from Santa Barbara, is understood for pursuing pay transparency laws, shopper protections equivalent to shielding medical debt from credit score stories and efforts to manage the oil business. She authored a 2022 legislation that requires setbacks round new oil and fuel wells and steps to guard residents at outdated wells, and pushed for an unsuccessful 2021 invoice to ban oil fracking. Gov. Gavin Newsom later ordered the ban.
Limón, 45, famous that she’s a daughter of immigrants and pointed to her election at a time when California is wrestling with an escalating showdown with the Trump administration over protests towards deportations in Los Angeles.
“On the day where we are witnessing our California values being under attack, we are electing the first woman of color ever in history to serve in this role,” she stated. “This is significant, it matters and we will move forward together.”
The Democratic lawmakers voted privately to elect her after weeks of murmurs a couple of problem to Senate President Professional Tem Mike McGuire’s management that culminated over the weekend inside Limón, the present caucus chair, securing a majority of supporters.
She’s going to take over from McGuire subsequent 12 months, he informed reporters within the Capitol with Limón and a majority of their Democratic colleagues standing beside him. They didn’t announce a proper transition date.
Notably absent was Sen. Lena Gonzalezthe Lengthy Seaside Democrat and Senate majority chief who was additionally reportedly bidding for the management place.
Typically, lawmakers could make a bid for management at any time when they’ve sufficient assist inside the occasion. McGuire, who’s termed out after 2026, had tried to go off the interior jockeying for his seat, telling Politico in late Might that he supposed to remain as chief by the top of his time period.
The handoff was in the end introduced with copious quantities of mutual reward.
McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat, stated Limón’s expertise representing a district affected by wildfires would serve the Senate nicely on fireplace security and insurance coverage points. He additionally emphasised the historic nature of her election.
Sudden timing amid Los Angeles protests
Limón acknowledged the timing of her bid was “not expected;” it got here not solely in the course of the federal showdown in Los Angeles but in addition throughout every week when lawmakers face a deadline to go a price range. She stated the choice was “a matter of the caucus.”
Limón was elected to the Meeting in 2016 and the Senate in 2020. Like McGuire, she’ll serve a comparatively quick time period as chief as a result of she’s scheduled to go away workplace on the finish of 2028.
Her district consists of Santa Barbara County and the western, closely agricultural portion of Ventura County. Like many California Democrats she’s backed closely by unions, that are amongst her prime marketing campaign contributors. She voted in alignment with the Service Workers Worldwide Union’s positions on payments 93% of the time, in accordance with the CalMatters Digital Democracy database. She took the place of the California Chamber of Commerce solely a couple of quarter of the time.
Her management might additionally result in additional questions on payments designed to chop purple tape and pace up housing development. Whereas the Meeting and Newsom have embraced these proposals, the Senate has been sharply divided on them this 12 months.
Limón’s voting report signifies some opposition. She has declined to assist a few of the state’s most high-profile pro-development payments, SB 9which permits single-family householders to show their homes into duplexes, SB 423which permits sure residence buildings to keep away from environmental assessment and this 12 months’s SB 79which is aimed toward permitting denser improvement alongside main public transit corridors.
Previous to her election to the Legislature, Limón served six years on the Santa Barbara Unified Faculty Board, was assistant director for the McNair Students Program at UC Santa Barbara and was a member of the Santa Barbara County Fee for Girls.
CalMatters reporters Ryan Sabalow and Ben Christopher contributed to this story.
