Cristina Garcia (politician)
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Cristina Garcia (born August 22, 1977) is an American educator and
politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
who served in the California State Assembly. She is a
Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...
who represented the 58th Assembly District, which encompassed parts of southeastern Los Angeles County, including her home city of
Bell Gardens Bell Gardens is a city in the U.S. state of California in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Located in Los Angeles County, the city's population was 42,072 at the 2010 census, down from 44,054 at the 2000 census. Bell Gardens is part of the ...
. She had served in the Assembly since 2012. While Garcia had been involved in politics in high school, where she organized opposition to
Proposition 187 California Proposition 187 (also known as the ''Save Our State'' (SOS) initiative) was a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public ed ...
, after college she became a teacher. In the late 2000s, tired of what seemed to her to be inaction by the Bell Gardens city council, she began attending its meetings and questioning its members. A bid to get elected to council herself failed, but a friend who lived in neighboring
Bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...
asked her if she could attend that city's council meetings and help her figure out why its property taxes were so high. The investigations they did led to a municipal corruption scandal in which several city officials were found to have enriched themselves at public expense, and were imprisoned. In 2012, Garcia defeated Tom Calderon, a former assemblyman, in the primary and went on to defeat her
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
opponent in the general election for the 58th District seat. She was re-elected in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020. In December 2021, Garcia announced she was running in the primary for the newly created 42nd Congressional District that will stretch from Long Beach to Downtown Los Angeles, she lost the June 7 primary finishing in third place


Early life

Garcia was raised in
Bell Gardens, California Bell Gardens is a city in the U.S. state of California in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Located in Los Angeles County, the city's population was 42,072 at the 2010 census, down from 44,054 at the 2000 census. Bell Gardens is part of the ...
, one of a number of largely Latino working-class suburbs in Southeast Los Angeles County. Her parents, who were from Mexico, divorced when Garcia's mother was pregnant with her. Her mother worked making clothes in a sweatshop, raising her four children in a one bedroom apartment. Later, Garcia's mother started her own clothing manufacturing business and remarried. Investments in other businesses and properties followed, and though they were upwardly mobile, the family stayed in Bell Gardens.


Prop 187 opposition

While still in high school, Garcia and a friend organized opposition to
Proposition 187 California Proposition 187 (also known as the ''Save Our State'' (SOS) initiative) was a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public ed ...
, a statewide ballot measure championed by then-governor
Pete Wilson Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 36th governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as a United States senator from California betw ...
that sought to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit undocumented residents from receiving non-emergency health care, public education and other services in California. Although Prop 187 passed in November 1994, it was later found unconstitutional and never implemented.


Education

Growing up, Garcia was a self-described math nerd. She went to
Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...
, where she studied both math and politics. She spent her junior year studying in
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
as the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
, after years of
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
rule, took its first steps toward democracy in the wake of the
Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...
. Later, she earned a teaching credential and a
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
from
Claremont Graduate School The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges which includes five undergraduate ( Pomona College, Claremont McKenna C ...
, and is a doctoral candidate in public administration at USC.


Early career

After graduation, Cristina taught math and statistics for 12 years, first in a Los Angeles public high school, then at L.A. City College, and at USC where she taught statistics.


Anti-corruption advocacy

After her mother suffered a heart attack in 2009, the thirty year-old Garcia moved back to
Bell Gardens Bell Gardens is a city in the U.S. state of California in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Located in Los Angeles County, the city's population was 42,072 at the 2010 census, down from 44,054 at the 2000 census. Bell Gardens is part of the ...
to help care for her parents (her stepfather was already struggling with diabetes). She has admitted to being frustrated with the move because, like many ambitious young people from the area, she had felt success meant "leaving and never coming back."


Bell Gardens activism

She complained regularly about the city's lack of services and economic development, until she took her sister's advice to stop griping and do something about it. She became a regular at City Council meetings, turning into an agitator and a gadfly. She studied budgets, learned how to make Public Records Act requests, tracked the compensation city officials received, and demanded fiscal responsibility. In 2009, Garcia ran for Bell Gardens city council, but fell 114 votes short of getting one of the three open seats.


City of Bell corruption

At about the same time, activists in the neighboring city of Bell, California were growing concerned about rising local property taxes, and what their money was going toward. One of them asked Garcia for help, and she started digging into Bell's finances. ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' reporter Jeff Gottlieb said Garcia was one of the first people he interviewed about corruption in Bell— "Talking to Cristina and others, you got a feeling that there was something wrong in Bell".


BASTA

On Thursday, July 15, 2010, the ''Los Angeles Times'' broke its first story on the corruption in Bell. Headlined "Is A City Manager Worth $800,000?" it detailed the exorbitant salaries Robert Rizzo and other Bell city officials were paid. (For their coverage of the corruption in Bell, ''Times'' reporters Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives were awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.) That night, Garcia and local businessman Ali Saleh—with Dale Walker and Denise Rodarte joining the next day— founded a group that would come to be called BASTA—an acronym for the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse, and in Spanish, ENOUGH! Garcia became the chief spokesperson for the grassroots movement that, according to BASTA political consultant Leo Briones, did 60 press releases in a year. In a city where the electorate was known for apathy, the group drew hundreds of residents to town hall meetings, covered the city with overnight flyer blitzes, staged rallies and flooded council meetings with thousands of angry residents.


Bell recall

After the mayor and targeted council members refused to step down, BASTA organized a recall effort in August 2010 and started collecting signatures to put the measure before the voters. In March 2011, the effort succeeded in ousting Mayor Oscar Hernandez and council members Teresa Jacobo, George Mirabal, as well as Luis Artiga, who had resigned but remained on the ballot.


Rizzo and corrupt officials sentenced

On April 16, 2014, former city administrator Robert Rizzo was sentenced to 12 years in state prison and ordered to pay $8.8 million in restitution to the city of Bell—in addition to the 33 month federal prison sentence he had already received for tax fraud. In all, seven officials received sentences and fines, including an 11 years and eight months prison sentence for Rizzo's assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia.


California Assembly

In 2012, Cristina won a seat in the California Assembly with an upset victory over former Assemblyman Tom Calderon in the Democratic Primary, and garnered 71.5% of the vote despite being outspent by a margin of 7 to 1 against her Republican opponent.


Calderon resignation advocacy

In 2013, Garcia was the first member of the California Legislature to call for then State Senator Ron Calderon to resign from office after an unsealed FBI affidavit and subsequent news reports surfaced of possible corruption. Calderon was the most powerful member of a political dynasty for decades in California that included his brothers, former state assembly members Tom Calderon and
Charles Calderon Charles Michael Calderon (born March 12, 1950) is an American attorney and politician who served in both chambers of the California State Legislature. Early life and education Calderon was born on March 12, 1950 in Montebello, California. H ...
, and his nephew, current state Assemblyman
Ian Calderon Ian Charles Calderon (born October 19, 1985) is an American politician serving in the California State Assembly. He is a Democrat representing the 57th Assembly District, which encompasses the Gateway Cities and portions of the San Gabriel Val ...
. In October 2016, Ron Calderon was sentenced to 42 months and admitted in a plea deal of accepting tens of thousands of dollars from undercover
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
agents and a hospital executive. Tom Calderon was sentenced to a year in federal custody for laundering bribes taken by his brother. A judge's recommendation in August 2017 that Ron Calderon be considered for early release drew outrage from Garcia who said, "Granting his request ... after only serving seven months in a white-collar facility—is an added insult to my community and a void of justice in our democracy."


#MeToo advocacy and sexual misconduct allegations

In 2017, Garcia became recognized as a strong voice in the #MeToo movement. In an interview with ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', Garcia revealed that she had been repeatedly sexually harassed by men during her legislative career, and later co-signed a letter calling for an end to workplace harassment of women. She has also said that some members of the
California Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Ass ...
are not attentive during sexual harassment training that is conducted by legislative staff. She was one of a number of people whose pictures were featured in ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine's 2017 Person of the Year issue honoring what it called "The Silence Breakers"—women (and men) who had broken their silence about experiences of sexual harassment. In January 2018, Daniel Fierro, a former staff member for Assemblyman
Ian Calderon Ian Charles Calderon (born October 19, 1985) is an American politician serving in the California State Assembly. He is a Democrat representing the 57th Assembly District, which encompasses the Gateway Cities and portions of the San Gabriel Val ...
and current head of Presidio Strategic Communications (formerly Fierro Public Affairs), a public relations and public policy consulting firm that lists Calderon as a client, claimed an intoxicated Garcia had once groped him against his will following the Assembly's annual softball game in 2014. Assembly Speaker
Anthony Rendon Anthony Michael Rendon (, ; born June 6, 1990) is an American baseball third baseman for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played for the Washington Nationals and was a member of the Nationals' 2019 World ...
removed Garcia from all her committee assignments, one of which, the Natural Resources Committee, she chaired. In November 2018, Rendon notified Garcia the second investigation found that a preponderance of evidence supported a finding that Garcia had encountered Fierro in an overly familiar way that she would not have if she were sober, but did not support his claim that the encounter was sexual in nature. It found her behavior violated the California Assembly’s Policy Against Sexual Harassment. An unnamed lobbyist also accused Garcia of sexual harassing him at a Sacramento political fundraiser in March 2017 while she was intoxicated, alleging that she had made inappropriate sexual proposals and attempted to grope him.


Committee assignments

As of January 2019, Garcia's committee assignments for the 2019-2020 legislative session, include Budget; Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials; Natural Resources; and Utilities and Energy. For the 2021-2022 session, Garcia was named chair of the Budget Subcommittee No. 5 on Public Safety and co-chair of the select committee for Corporate Board and California Workforce Diversity. Garcia's membership assignments on standing committees include Banking and Finance; Budget; Budget Committee No. 6 on Budget Process, Oversight and Program Evaluation; Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials; Natural Resources; Utilities and Energy; Water, Parks, and Wildlife. Garcia was one of eight assembly members named to the Joint legislative Budget Committee. In December 2020, Cristina Garcia was elected to again lead the bipartisan California Legislative Women's Caucus, made up of members of both the California Senate and Assembly, a body she had chaired up until the spring of 2018.


2022 run for U.S. Congress

On December 23, 2021, Cristina Garcia announced that she will run for the newly created 42nd District seat to join California's Congressional delegation in the U.S. Congress. The new district combines portions of two previous districts to create a majority Latino district that includes a swath of Long Beach along with areas Garcia currently represents in the California Assembly that include Bell and Downey. She lost the June 7 primary finishing in third behind educator John Briscoe and
Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...
Mayor Robert Garcia (no relation), who went on to win the general election


Electoral history


2012 California State Assembly


2014 California State Assembly


2016 California State Assembly


2018 California State Assembly

On June 5, 2018 Garcia finished first in the race for the 58th California Assembly seat in California's top-two primary election. In a field that included seven Democrats, Mike Simpfenderfer, the lone Republican, finished second, setting up a race between him and Garcia in the November general election.


2020 California State Assembly


References


External links

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Join California Cristina Garcia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Cristina 1977 births Living people Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly 21st-century American politicians People from Bell Gardens, California American politicians of Mexican descent Sexual harassment in the United States Pomona College alumni Anti-Asian sentiment in the United States Candidates in the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections