By Joe Garofoli : sfchronicle – excerpt
For decades, California politics has been dominated by Bay Area politicians, from Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi and the Browns — Willie and Jerry — to Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom.
But a new generation of rising stars in their early 40s — led by the Inland Empire’s blue-collar Rep. Pete Aguilar, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, and Hollister’s Robert Rivas, who was raised in farmworker housing and sworn in Friday as the new Assembly speaker — want to give Californians who didn’t grow up on the elite coast a louder voice.
They represent parts of California where there are fewer wealthy, white residents and more people who are struggling to survive day to day in an increasingly expensive state.
Rivas, 43, took the oath of office Friday in Sacramento just a few feet from a longtime family friend, United Farmworkers Association cofounder Dolores Huerta, in an Assembly gallery filled with a dozen farmworkers, a nod to his roots — and Pelosi, eight former Assembly speakers and top state officials, a nod to his current power…
His Democratic colleagues elected him this year to the party’s third most powerful position — Democratic Caucus chairman — making him the highest-ranking Latino ever in the House. He has also been assigned a difficult task: to win back several Republican-held House seats in California. Doing so could be key to Democrats winning back the House in 2024. In mid-July, he will launch the California House Majority Fund, a super PAC that hopes to raise millions to flip red or purple districts like his.… (more)