Sacramento —

Tomorrow, it will be Rep. Robert Rivas’s (D.Hollister) turn to finally crack the gavel from House Speaker Anthony Rendon (D.Lakewood) and take the helm of the House.

It’s the moment Sacramento has been waiting for for so long.

Fierce disputes over who would lead Congress lasted for more than a year, sometimes splitting the Democratic caucus and throwing the floor into chaos.

Tomorrow morning, when Rendon resigns and Rivas becomes the 71st Speaker of the California Legislative Assembly, the anarchy may end.

Then there is Congress. Pandemonium runs in their blood.

I’m Hannah Wiley. She is a political reporter for the Sacramento Bureau, acting as a mission deputy for Laurel Rosenhall. Rendon is the only speaker I have ever interviewed in her five years as a Capitol reporter.

Let’s take a look at his legacy.

Time limit change

Mr. Rendon’s tenure began in March 2016, when he assumed power under the promise of “decentralized” speaking and leaving much of the decision-making to members and a chairman of his own choosing to lead the policy committee. I took a seat.

his Exceptional long run — He entered the state history books as the second-longest-serving Speaker of Congress, after Willie Brown, in part because voter-approved term limits for legislators allowed him to serve 12 years in one House. lined up. In the 1980s and 90s he led the Chamber. (According to calculations with the help of Alex Vasser of the California State Library, Rendon narrowly defeated former chairman Jesse Unruh to win the silver medal.)

Rendon made an early decision to abandon the more militant, authoritarian style favored by previous speakers as a means of keeping members in check. Instead, over the past seven years, he’s been able to keep a bird’s-eye view of the floor, driving more radical policy changes behind the scenes without getting bogged down in day-to-day political activity.

“He had a different vision[for the chairmanship],” said Bill Wong, a longtime ally of Mr. Rendon’s and former political director of the Congressional Democratic Caucus. “He wanted it to be a more collaborative process, one in which all members are involved.”

win after victory in Congress

Without writing the bill himself, Rendon helped the Democrats win major policies such as: raise the minimum wage; strengthen labor protection for gigs and farm worker; Established Universal Preschool; and, Programs to fight climate change.his members converted California’s police use of force law under his leadership, Expansion of lessor protection and crack down on predatory lending practices.

Rendon led the chamber, COVID-19 emergency and Trump era, an era when public health measures, abortion, and gun control became highly politicized issues in state legislatures.Despite, or perhaps because of, the political turmoil, Lendon called the Democratic impregnable supermajorityand added enough Help women and LGBTQ+ members break diversity records in Congress.

“What diversity does is bring new people to those desks and new perspectives to those desks,” Rendon said. Wednesday’s event hosted by the bipartisan California Public Policy Institute. “People pushing these buttons have gone through completely different experiences.”

But his non-interfering leadership came at a price.

checkered heritage

Rendon’s legacy will include the final night of Congress in 2020, when he was publicly denounced and ultimately forced into execution. apology Despite having Rep. Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) come to the Capitol during the COVID-19 pandemic, recently gave birth.

It needed Mr. Wickes’ help to pass the controversial housing bill. So the nursing new mom dragged her fussy baby to her floor when the proposal was put out so she could vote in person after Mr. Rendon rejected a request for remote voting.

The backlash was further heightened when the housing bill failed to pass that night. Mr. Rendon was accused of leaving the bill on the floor for hours before it was put to a vote, at which point it was too late for the Senate to complete the bill before the midnight deadline.

Mr. Rendon’s leadership approach also meant that bills he supported could be defeated at the whim of one or two lawmakers.

Last year, a bill was introduced to limit the number of acquirers. California stash permit dies on final night of session amid Democratic infightingDespite being one of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top priorities this year. That same evening, a proposal was announced to allow the legislative staff to unionize, which Rendon supported. dramatically killed The chair of the Congressional Public Employment and Retirement Committee disliked the proposal, even though it was widely supported by officials and many Democrats.

But Rendon’s biggest problem surfaced in May 2022. he swung at the speaker.

Rivas shoots

Rendon has survived many challenges before, but he usually ends up embarrassing his challengers.

So when he said there was a vote to remove Rivas as chairman, he initially ignored it. The conflict caused days of division In Congress between Rendon’s supporters and those rallying in support of Rivas.

Ultimately, Rivas and Rendon reached a tentative agreement on speaker replacement. There were months of intense negotiations before Congressional Democrats finalized the plan in a November caucus vote..

With this transaction, Rendon will Maintain your position as a speaker until June 30, 2023, at which point Rivas becomes the next leader of the floor. The agreement was codified in a December vote to kick off the 2023-2024 parliamentary start.

Rendon is prone to philosophical monologues, but does not state himself poetically or talk endlessly. But his advice for Rivas on Wednesday was simple. “Get up every day and make a game plan. It’s going to change,” he said. “But at the end of the day, let’s go back to that list and game plan and work on it tomorrow.”

Rendon moves on

Despite his success, Rendon leaves with some unfinished business. Homelessness is out of control. Despite some progress on gun control, California still has an alarmingly high rate of mass shootings. Climate change threatens the future of California and the world.

Rendon has some regrets, but not necessarily about macro-level issues.

He said Wednesday that he put up with a lot as a speaker, using another word that starts with an ‘S’. And perhaps he shouldn’t have been so “overly tolerant” of the members who spread it.

“I removed some chairs and things like that from people,” he said. “I think for the most part I wanted to forgive people and give people a chance to be saved. I’m not always sure I gave punishment as quickly as it was needed. ”

It’s unclear what Rendon will do next. In addition to opening Accounts to Run for State Treasurerhe did not mention any future ambitions.

“Career questions are so boring,” he said.

Now he is more concerned with the greater moral, ethical and political dilemmas that threaten human existence. How much climate change is left in the world, or whether democracy will disappear in the United States and other Western countries.

“I think we have to really focus on existential issues,” he said.

$310.8 billion spending plan

He threatened to veto congressional budget priorities if lawmakers didn’t approve his infrastructure plan last week, but Newsom and Democratic congressional leaders Monday agreed to a $310.8 billion spending plan. Agreed.

My colleague Taryn Luna reports that the fiscal blueprint reflects a compromise to the governor’s last-minute proposal to cut investments in fighting climate change and accelerate infrastructure projects across California. .

The 2023-24 Budget Accord, which lawmakers voted into a series of bills this week, will end weeks of Democratic infighting that began after the governor introduced infrastructure bills at the end of the budget process. to approve a highly controversial plan to build a $16 billion tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta to transport water south.

The financial plan also includes additional funding for health care providers, funding for San Quentin State Prison renovations, and increased state funding for childcare.

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