SD-24: Romero Endorses Garcia As Her Successor

Some news was made at the 45th Assembly District elections on Sunday January 11th where MadProfessah was elected to the California Democratic State Central Committee. State Senator Gloria Romero who last week announced that she would not run for Hilda Solis' soon-to-be-vacant seat in the 31st Congressional district was present at Arco Iris Restaurant in Highland Park and while there she endorsed current LA Unified School District Board President Monica Garcia as her immediate successor to the 24th State Senate district. This must have been something of a surprise to Assemblymember Kevin De León, whose chief of staff was in the room and running the DSCC elections. De León is termed out in 2012, but surely he was hoping to be promoted to the upper chamber and would have considered running for the 24th District seat in 2010.

Since I live in both AD-45 and SD-24 as well as Garcia's Los Angeles school district (#2) I will be keeping close tabs on this race.

Monica Garcia has a lesbian sister and was very outspoken in her opposition to Proposition 8. I know that she is very close to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and has been seen as his strongest surrogate on the school board. De León is also a favorite of the Mayor's, and is often described as "the BFF" of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez.