Gay Men On List Of New CA Legislators To Watch

There are twenty five newly elected members of the California Assembly that is being sworn in this week. MadProfessah fave John Perez is on the Sacramento Bee's list of five new members to watch.

AD 13 – Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco
San Francisco supervisor. Replaces Mark Leno, D-San Francisco
District: Part of San Francisco County
Main city: San Francisco

Tom Ammiano has been a fixture in San Francisco politics, serving on the Board of Supervisors since 1994, including a stint as president.
An unabashed liberal in an unabashedly liberal city, Ammiano faced only token Republican opposition in November.
Ammiano, who worked on San Francisco's universal health care law, said health care reform would be among his top priorities in Sacramento. A local priority, he said, is installing a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Politically, he is best known for the surprising strength of his write-in campaign for mayor when he challenged incumbent Mayor Willie Brown in 1999.
Ammiano could bring a lighter side to Assembly floor debates. A stand-up comedian since 1980, his nickname – which he proudly touts on his Web site – is "The Mother of Gay Comedy."

AD 27 – Bill Monning, D-Carmel
Professor, Monterey Institute of International Studies and Monterey College of Law. Replaces John Laird, D-Santa Cruz
District: Parts of Monterey, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties
Main cities: Carmel by the Sea, Monterey, Morgan Hill, Santa Cruz

It only took Bill Monning 14 years to win this seat. He first ran in 1994. He was more successful this time around, besting Emily Reilly, a Santa Cruz City Council member, and Barbara Sprenger, a former trustee of the San Lorenzo Valley School Board.
Monning comes to Sacramento – no kidding – as an expert in conflict mediation. It's a skill he fully expects to put to use.
"Coming in to Sacramento with a good idea gets you nowhere. You need to build consensus and coalitions, and that's where I believe I'm road-tested," he told the Santa Cruz Sentinel during the primary.
As a student at UC Berkeley during the 1960s, he went on to work as a lawyer for the United Farm Workers.

AD 75 – Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego
Businessman, Iraq veteran. Replaces George Plescia, R-La Jolla
District: Part of San Diego County
Main cities: Escondido, La Jolla, Poway, San Diego

It takes a certain something to appear in your first political TV ad in skin-tight biker shorts.
But that is exactly what Nathan Fletcher did. An avid triathlete and decorated former Marine who served in Iraq and Africa, Fletcher has a sterling résumé for a young GOP officeholder.
He can also bend the ear of his wife – Mindy Tucker Fletcher, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – any time he's looking for political advice. Mindy Fletcher also served on President Bush's two presidential campaigns.
The assemblyman-elect has signed a no-new-taxes pledge.
"We need to create a true spending cap and rainy day fund to ensure budget stability and the full and recurring funding of our most vital services and programs," Fletcher says on his campaign site.

AD 46 – John Pérez, D-Los Angeles
Former member, Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. Replaces Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles
District: Part of Los Angeles County
Main cities: Huntington Park, Los Angeles

John Pérez looked to be locked in a tough, three-way slugfest for the Assembly.
Then something happened. The other two candidates dropped out.
That cleared the field for Pérez, who is a cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Some say the fix was in – especially after one of those would-have-been challengers was named to a plum post on the Los Angeles planning commission by Villaraigosa.
Pérez, a former member of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, will join a new, smaller lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender caucus when he arrives in Sacramento.
He also has ties to labor, as a political director for the United Food and Commercial Workers.
And though he is just arriving in the Capitol, he's already been the subject of his fair share of speakership buzz.

AD 34 – Connie Conway, R-Tulare
Tulare County supervisor. Replaces Bill Maze, R-Visalia
District: Inyo County, parts of Kern, San Bernardino and Tulare counties
Main cities: Barstow, Bishop, Porterville, Twentynine Palms, Visalia, Tulare, Needles

Connie Conway is one of the few freshman members to arrive with a previous relationship with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
She served as the president of the California State Association of Counties in 2006, and Schwarzenegger appointed her as chair of the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.
A Tulare County supervisor like her father before her, Conway bested the wife of Assemblyman Bill Maze in the primary, as well as Bob Smith, a retired sheriff's deputy.
Her old colleagues in Tulare wish her luck in Sacramento: "Unfortunately, you're going to be going from the frying pan and into the bonfire," Supervisor Steve Worthley said at her departure.
Her top priority: "Cutting taxes and balancing the state's budget by ending wasteful spending."

Interesting that two of the five are openly gay men! They are only the third and fourth openly gay men EVER to be elected to the State Assembly. (John Laird and Mark Leno were the first). Interestingly, the new California LGBT Legislative Caucus is now consisting of 3 openly gay men (Pérez, Ammiano and State Senator Mark Leno) plus State Senator Christine Kehoe.