Today on State of Affairs:
- Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia has been at the forefront of Sacramento's #MeToo movement. But she now faces new allegations of sexual misconduct.
- Four-inch heels, eight-hour speech. What's next for Nancy Pelosi in the fight for DACA?
- The Public Policy Institute has some new numbers on the California governor's race — and a familiar face from L.A. has closed in on once-front-runner Gavin Newsom.
Cal State L.A.'s Raphael Sonenshein on how the recent allegations against Cristina Garcia could affect the #MeToo movement in Sacramento:
I don't think it affects the momentum; I think it gets the point across that this is about the misuse of power.
This should not only be about men, although, honestly, the overwhelming evidence is that the great share of this misconduct is by men against women.
It certainly is eye opening. It just shows how complicated this is getting. This has come upon us as a society rather quickly, even though the issue has been around forever. It's going off in unforeseeable and unforeseen directions.
Christina Bellantoni, LA Times: I think the transparency is very important. For years, we had no way of knowing what allegations had been made, what settlements had been filed with taxpayer money, what investigations had been launched with taxpayer money, and the L.A. Times sort of made some legal threats to get more documents than the legislature was providing and last week they actually gave us a giant document.
You can read the actual cases. It's really important for the state to know that.