Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez will step down from the Legislature for a new position as chief executive of the California Labor Federation.
She will lead the group as its executive secretary-treasurer starting in July but resigns from the Assembly at the close of business Wednesday, her spokesperson Evan McLaughlin said in a statement Monday.
Gonzalez, D-San Diego, is the powerful chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. She has served for eight years in the Legislature, representing the 80th Assembly District in southern San Diego.
State redistricting changes approved last month zoned her out of that area and in the 79th Assembly District, currently represented by Assemblymember Akilah Weber, D-La Mesa. That presented Gonzalez with the choice of moving to the new area, challenging Weber or seeking other options.
Late last year, the Labor Federation endorsed her as its potential new leader, but Gonzalez’s spokesman said as late as last week there was no job offer on the table. On Monday, however, she announced her new position in a statement to her Assembly colleagues.
“As a legislator and as a labor leader, my top priority has been to create opportunities that lead to more jobs, better jobs, and better lives for working people,” Gonzalez said in the statement. “It’s been an honor to serve the people of San Diego County and the entire state as a lawmaker who tried to accomplish the most amount of good for the most amount of people.”
The California Labor Federation represents 2.1 million members of 1,200 manufacturing, transportation, construction, service and public sector unions in electoral campaigns, legislative advocacy, and grassroots organizing, McLaughlin stated.
Gonzalez was elected to office after years of work as a labor leader, attorney, and organizer, including a position as CEO and secretary-treasurer for the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
Gonzalez made the announcement during the opening floor session of the year, marking a major shift at the state Capitol as one of labor’s most formidable allies inside the Legislature steps away to lead the movement statewide.
“An opportunity to serve in this capacity doesn’t come up but every few decades, and as I think you all know, serving working Californians is my singular priority,” Gonzalez said. “I’m very excited about this opportunity.”
San Diego Democratic Party Chair Will Rodriguez-Kennedy said Gonzalez opened the door for other Latino lawmakers, working as former chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus to get more Latinos elected, and setting an example of how to withstand the pressures of political office.
“She has demonstrated how someone who comes from the working class and is a woman and is Latina can go into elected office and make major change,” he said. “She has been the subject of major attacks and racism and sexism, and she has overcome that to become one of California’s most powerful legislators and one of the most influential progressive leaders in the country.”
During her time in the Assembly, she passed legislation requiring paid sick leave, overtime pay for farm workers, sexual assault protections for janitorial workers, and labor rights for professional cheerleaders. Recently, she helped pass laws criminalizing wage theft and limiting production quotas for warehouse workers.
Other bills she authored resulted in subsidies for diapers for low-income parents, increases in voter registration and measures that made voting by mail easier. Her bills required the state to transition to clean energy and mandated lead testing for school water fountains.
Gonzalez may best be known for efforts to expand worker rights, most notably her 2019 law to revamp California’s independent contractor rules. That legislation, Assembly Bill 5, led many workers to be reclassified as employees — a fight that sparked widespread criticism of the San Diego Democrat on social media.
The nation’s most prominent ride-hailing companies subsequently qualified Proposition 22 for the 2020 ballot to allow their drivers to be exempted from provisions of AB 5. The ballot measure was approved by voters but was later blocked in court.
Rodriguez-Kennedy said Gonzalez is known not only for the number of bills she championed but also for the range of issues she tackled.
“The thing about Assemblymember Gonzalez is that she’s willing to take on some issues that are both big in scope, like worker issues, and she’s able to engage in important issues like the availability of diapers, bread and butter issues,” he said. “She has a broad scope of accomplishments, and I believe she has been one of our more effective legislators.”
He said Gonzalez also stepped up as a liaison for San Diegans struggling to access unemployment aid and other services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Her office of constituent services was stellar when it came to the pandemic and getting people connected with the Employment Development Department,” Rodriguez-Kennedy said.
County Supervisor Nora Vargas described Gonzalez’s resignation as “bittersweet because she has been a true partner and champion for our region.”
“I have never met anyone with more passion and dedication for working families,” Vargas said in an e-mail. “I have no doubt she will do the same for working Californians and we will continue to benefit from her leadership in her new role at the California Labor Federation.”
The shift back into the labor movement comes after Gonzalez’s plans to run for secretary of state were thwarted when Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed former Assemblymember Shirley Weber to the job last year.
Gonzalez will take over at the federation after Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski’s retirement in July.
Her resignation this Wednesday gives her several months before she resumes her new job. Gonzalez recently underwent a bilateral mastectomy and follow-up procedures for breast cancer, so the hiatus may provide a respite during her treatment and recovery.
After Labor Federation officials took a nonbinding vote endorsing Gonzalez as their new leader, some conservatives cried foul.
Reform California, led by conservative radio host and former San Diego City Councilmember Carl DeMaio, filed an ethics complaint accusing Gonzalez of using her office to get the job.
“Despite her resignation, Lorena Gonzalez still needs to be held accountable for violating state ethics rules by negotiating a lucrative new job with a powerful special interest group while voting on matters that benefited that special interest group,” DeMaio said in an email.
It is unclear how and when the 80th Assembly seat would be filled, but the San Diego Registrar of Voters said the governor’s office would decide whether to hold a special election.
Meanwhile, some political contenders, including former San Diego City Council members David Alvarez and Georgette Gómez, have already announced bids for the 80th Assembly seat if Gonzalez left.
Alvarez announced his planned candidacy on a Twitter video on Dec. 21. Gómez signaled her intent to run in a tweet to Gonzalez last month, asking Gonzalez to endorse her as a successor.
Minutes after Gonzalez announced her resignation Monday, Gómez issued a statement officially announcing her candidacy.
Taryn Luna and John Myers of the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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