Government

Gov. Newsom Nominates Rob Bonta as Next Attorney General

“Rob represents what makes California great – our desire to take on righteous fights and reverse systematic injustices,” said Newsom. “Growing up with parents steeped in social justice movements, Rob has become a national leader in the fight to repair our justice system and defend the rights of every Californian.”

Published

4 years ago

March 25, 2021

Kiki

After weeks of speculation, Gov. Gavin Newsom has picked Assemblymember Rob Bonta as his replacement for former California attorney Gen. Xavier Becerra.

Last December, President Biden nominated Becerra to his Cabinet as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He was recently sworn into that role.

On Wednesday, the governor’s office issued a press release announcing Newsom has submitted the nomination of Rob Andres Bonta (D-Alameda), 48, as the state’s next Attorney General.

Under California law, the legislature has 90 days to approve Bonta’s nomination.

Born in the Philippines, Bonta was elected to the California State Assembly’s 18th District in 2012, where he represents sections of Alameda County, including parts of Oakland and San Leandro. He became the first Filipino American state legislator in California’s then 160-plus-year history. He is also the state’s first Filipino American Attorney General.

Bonta’s father was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and stood with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., marching for equality and justice in Selma. His mother was and continues to be a long-time leader in the Filipino social justice movement.

Bonta thanked the governor, saying “I am humbled by the confidence you have placed in me.”

“I became a lawyer because I saw the law as the best way to make a positive difference for the most people, and it would be an honor of a lifetime to serve as the attorney for the people of this great state,” he said. “As California’s Attorney General, I will work tirelessly every day to ensure that every Californian who has been wronged can find justice and that every person is treated fairly under the law.”

Growing up in a trailer not far away from César Chávez’s home, Bonta watched closely as his parents worked for the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA) and organized Filipino and Mexican American farmworkers. This experience had a huge impact on Bonta’s life choices and pursuits, inspiring his life’s commitment to aiding people.

Bonta worked his way through college cleaning laundry rooms and, with the help of financial aid, he was able to attend college and law school. He obtained his Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School after attending Yale College and Oxford University in England. He was also a scholar-athlete and captain of the Yale Soccer team.

His legal career included work as a Deputy City Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco, where he represented the City and County and its employees. He also worked as a private attorney, fighting to protect Californians from exploitation and racial profiling. Bonta was undefeated in trial court, never losing a jury verdict for his clients.

Bonta started his political career as a publicly-elected official at the local level, first as a director of the Alameda Health Care District and later as Vice Mayor of the City of Alameda.

In the state assembly, Bonta currently serves as the assistant majority leader, serving on the appropriations, communications and conveyance, governmental organization, and health committees. Bonta has authored significant pieces of legislation that include:

Assembly Bill (AB) 1482, a landmark legislative victory for tenants in California. The 2019 legislation banned outrageous rent increases and unjust evictions and is considered the most impactful bill for tenants ever to become law.

AB 32, the historic, first-in-the-nation legislation to end the use of for-profit, private prisons and detention facilities in California.

AB 266, the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act, a set of regulations created to ensure patient and consumer safety and protect children from cannabis marketing and safeguard the environment from harmful cultivation practices.

In 2018, California passed historic bail reform, Senate Bill 10, to end an unfair, unsafe, predatory, for-profit money bail system and replace it with a system that’s safer and fairer. Bonta co-authored SB 10 with his colleague Senator Bob Hertzberg,

Bonta recently appeared in a virtual meeting with state Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), the chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus. Author and co-author, Bradford and Bonta discussed the language in SB 2, which will revoke the certification of peace officers convicted of violating a person’s civil rights.

Newsom says he can’t wait to see Bonta get to work.

“At this moment when so many communities are under attack for who they are and who they love, Rob has fought to strengthen hate crime laws and protect our communities from the forces of hate. He will be a phenomenal Attorney General, said Newsom.

Kiki

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Congresswoman Barbara Lee Reflects on Historic Moment Less Than One Week from Election Day

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm:

“As Election Day approaches, I’m reflecting on a few dates and numbers that mean something to me.

Zero: the number of Black members in Congress 56 years ago. Next Congress, we hope to swear in over 60 members in the Congressional Black Caucus.

Three: The number of Black women to ever serve in the United States Senate since the first Congress in 1789.

Two: The number of Black women that will be elected to the Senate this year alone if we do our job.

1972: The first time a Black woman, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, ran for president in one of the major political parties of the United States.

Zero: the number of Black women to ever serve as president of the United States.

IF we do the work, we can change that with President Kamala Harris.

As I reflect on what would be Congresswoman Chisholm’s 100th birthday next month, I could not help but remember that my first official involvement in U.S. politics was working for her presidential campaign in 1972.

Over 50 years later, I have been involved in every single campaign since. Shirley was my mentor — she was a bold visionary, a progressive woman who understood that working together in coalitions was the only way to make life better for everyone, to build an equitable society and democracy that lived up to the creed of “liberty and justice for all.”

The historic moment we are in today is not lost on me. I have had the privilege to have known Vice President Kamala Harris for over three decades. She, after all, is a daughter of the East Bay. She, like Shirley, truly is a fighter for the people.

And I know she can move our country forward in a new way. As a member of her National Advisory Board, I have campaigned across our country to help take her message, her legacy of service, and her “to-do list,” as she says, to voters who were almost starting to feel hopeless, but are now feeling hopeful once again, captured by the politics joy and the bright possibilities brought upon by a possible Harris-Walz administration.

Recently, I visited churches in North Carolina with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The chair of our CBC political action committee, Chairman Gregory Meeks from New York’s fifth district, eloquently and powerfully presented a vision of what Dr. Maya Angelou wrote in her famous poem, “And Still I Rise:” “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

Meeks remarked that on Jan. 20, 2025, we will observe the birthday of our drum major for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He also described that on Jan. 20, IF we do the work — if we knock on doors, if we make those phone calls, if we spread our message — standing on the podium at the U.S. Capitol will be the first Black speaker of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.

In the wings will be over 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Holding Frederick Douglass’ Bible will be the first African American woman appointed to the highest court of the land, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She will be swearing-in the first Black woman to serve as president, Kamala Harris, in front of the shining white dome of the United States Capitol, built by enslaved Black people.

In front of her and beyond, the tens of millions of Black men and women who voted for her. The world will witness the hope and the dreams of our ancestors ushering in a new way forward.

As I sat in front of the stage this week at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., as Vice President Harris delivered remarks with the Oval Office behind her, I could not help but feel that our country was ready for this historic moment.

We are not only voting for a Black woman as Commander in Chief of the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. We are definitively stating that we will not allow the clocks of freedom and justice to be turned back.

We are voting for our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. We are voting for the generations that will come after us, long after we are gone. We are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Let’s get this done.

Oakland Post

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Oakland Awarded $28 Million Grant from Governor Newsom to Sustain Long-Term Solutions Addressing Homelessness

Governor Gavin Newsom announced the City of Oakland has won a$28,446,565.83 grant as part of the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant program. This program provides flexible grant funding to help communities support people experiencing homelessness by creating permanent housing, rental and move-in assistance, case management services, and rental subsidies, among other eligible uses.

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Governor Gavin Newsom announced the City of Oakland has won a$28,446,565.83 grant as part of the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant program.

This program provides flexible grant funding to help communities support people experiencing homelessness by creating permanent housing, rental and move-in assistance, case management services, and rental subsidies, among other eligible uses.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and the Oakland City Administrator’s Office staff held a press conference today to discuss the grant and the City’s successful implementing of the Mayor’s Executive Order on the Encampment Management Policy.

Oakland Post

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Pamela Price Appoints Deputy D.A. Jennifer Kassan as New Director of Community Support Bureau

On Monday, District Attorney Pamela Price announced Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan as the new director of the Community Support Bureau. Kassan has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises including benefit corporations, low-profit limited liability companies, nonprofits, cooperatives, hybrid organizations, investment funds, and purpose trusts.

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

On Monday, District Attorney Pamela Price announced Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan as the new director of the Community Support Bureau.

Kassan has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises including benefit corporations, low-profit limited liability companies, nonprofits, cooperatives, hybrid organizations, investment funds, and purpose trusts.

Working in the DA’s new administration since 2023, Kassan was most recently assigned to the Organized Retail Theft Prosecution team.

Kassan has a master’s degree in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship from Yale Law School, and graduated from Yale Law School in 1995. She earned her B.A. in Psychology with a minor emphasis in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley.

Kassan’s education, extensive legal background, list of notable accomplishments and impressive resume includes helping to found and lead multiple organizations to support community wealth building including:

Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization that promotes locally-based community economic development,
the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information, training, and representation to support sustainable economies
the Force for Good Fund, a nonprofit impact investment fund
Crowdfund Main Street, a licensed portal for regulation crowdfunding
Opportunity Main Street, a place-based ecosystem building organization that supports under-represented entrepreneurs and provides education about community-based investing.

In addition, Kassan served as an elected member of the City Council of Fremont, California from 2018 to 2024, and on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies.

In 2020 she was named to the list of World-Changing Women in Conscious Business by SOCAP Global.

“We are excited to see Jenny accept the role as the new leader for the Community Support Bureau,” said Price. “She brings a wealth of talent, experience, and a vision to expand our office’s engagement with community groups and residents, that will level-up our

outreach programs and partnerships with local organizations with the aim of promoting crime prevention.

“We thank Interim CSB Director Esther Lemus, who is now assigned to our office’s

Restitution Unit, for her hard work and a great job fostering positive relationships between the DAO and the community.”