Haters Gonna Haight

Haight in San FranciscoLast month, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez called on the San Diego Unified School District to change the name of an elementary school named after Civil War General Robert E. Lee. In a letter, Gonzalez wrote that “Recent tragedies have revived the debate over confederate-related symbolism in our country,” and that “schools should be inclusive. If they’re named after a person, they should be named after role models.”

Now, Senate Bill 539 by Senator Glazer would prohibit the use of a name associated with the Confederate States of America to name schools, government buildings, parks, roads, and other state or local property.

One person who isn’t covered by the bill, but really should be, is California Governor Henry Haight. He has a major street in San Francisco named for him, two neighborhoods (San Francisco’s Haight-Fillmore and Haight-Ashbury) as well as an elementary school in Alameda. He did do some arguably positive things, like signing the bill creating the University of California in 1868, he was more than just a little racist. Take the following quotes from his 1867 Inaugural Address (which, amazingly for what he said, was after the Civil War).

Regarding the right way to make important decisions on national policies:

“In order to arrive at correct conclusions on this subject, there must be a disposition to lay aside preconceived opinions, and, in a spirit of candid inquiry, to aim at forming a correct judgment as to what policy will promote the highest good of the whole people.”

Haight also criticized the Reconstruction efforts in the South following the Civil War, describing it as giving “the political control to a mass of negroes just emancipated and almost as ignorant of political duties as the beasts of the field” and arguing that it would lead to “the subjection of the white population of the Southern States, men, women and children, to the domination of a mass of ignorant negroes just freed from slavery.”

Haight also went on to express his “unceasing astonishment” that “any white man could be found on this continent to sanction a policy so subversive of rational liberty, and in the end so fatal to the Union and the Government…” and described as “evils absolutely intolerable” the idea of granting the right to vote to African-Americans and Asians.

“The question is, whether it will be for the greatest good of the greatest number to confine the elective franchise to the whites, or to extend it to the negroes and Chinese. A portion of those persons in this State who favor negro suffrage hesitate to advocate Chinese suffrage, but the congressional policy makes no distinction.”

Just when you think it can’t get worse, Haight goes on to explain that not only would giving the “confessedly inferior” the right to vote be “evil”, but that it wouldn’t do them any good;

“These inferior races have their civil rights, as all good men desire they should have. They can sue and defend in the courts; acquire and possess property; they have entire freedom of person, and can pursue any lawful occupation for a livelihood; but they will never, with the consent of the people of this State, either vote or hold office.”

Of all the people in California who deserve to have their names removed from public places, Governor Henry H. Haight has my vote.

Current Legislator Tenure Rankings (End of June 2015)

Since 1849, a total of 4,416 people have served in the California State Legislature. So how do the current 120 legislators rank in terms of tenure?

In June, Senator Jim Nielsen (with 18.5 years of legislative service) moved up to become the 119th longest serving California legislator in state history, passing Don A. Allen.

Also in June, Senator Sharon Runner passed the 8-year mark in her legislative service and is now California’s 539th longest serving legislator. She started the month as the 713th.

State Senator Glazer, the legislature’s newest member, finished June with five weeks under his belt and is now the 4410th longest-serving legislator.

The complete list of current legislators ranked by their tenure;

Tenure Ranking Legislator Years of Service
120 Nielsen, Jim 18.48
276 Hancock, Loni 12.58
277 Leno, Mark 12.58
278 Liu, Carol 12.58
279 Pavley, Fran 12.58
280 Wolk, Lois 12.58
389 Huff, Bob 10.58
520 Anderson, Joel 8.58
521 Beall, Jim 8.58
522 Berryhill, Tom 8.58
523 De León, Kevin 8.58
524 Fuller, Jean 8.58
525 Gaines, Ted 8.58
526 Galgiani, Cathleen 8.58
527 Hernandez, Ed 8.58
528 Jackson, Hannah-Beth 8.58
713 Runner, Sharon 8.08
752 Bates, Patricia 6.58
753 Block, Marty 6.58
754 Hertzberg, Robert M. 6.58
755 Hill, Jerry 6.58
756 Mendoza, Tony 6.58
757 Monning, Bill 6.58
759 Hall, Isadore 6.56
1188 Gatto, Mike 5.06
1199 Achadjian, Katcho 4.58
1200 Alejo, Luis 4.58
1201 Atkins, Toni G. 4.58
1202 Bonilla, Susan 4.58
1203 Campos, Nora 4.58
1204 Cannella, Anthony 4.58
1205 Gordon, Rich 4.58
1206 Grove, Shannon 4.58
1207 Hernandez, Roger 4.58
1208 Hueso, Ben 4.58
1209 Jones, Brian 4.58
1210 Lara, Ricardo 4.58
1211 Mitchell, Holly J. 4.58
1212 Morrell, Mike 4.58
1213 Olsen, Kristin 4.58
1214 Pan, Richard 4.58
1215 Perea, Henry T. 4.58
1216 Wagner, Don 4.58
1217 Wieckowski, Bob 4.58
1218 Williams, Das 4.58
1230 Gaines, Beth B. 4.15
1988 Allen, Travis 2.58
1989 Bigelow, Frank 2.58
1990 Bloom, Richard 2.58
1991 Bonta, Rob 2.58
1992 Brown, Cheryl R. 2.58
1993 Calderon, Ian 2.58
1994 Chau, Edwin 2.58
1995 Chavez, Rocky 2.58
1996 Cooley, Ken 2.58
1997 Dahle, Brian D. 2.58
1998 Daly, Tom 2.58
1999 Eggman, Susan T. 2.58
2000 Frazier, Jim 2.58
2001 Garcia, Cristina 2.58
2002 Gomez, Jimmy 2.58
2003 Gray, Adam 2.58
2004 Holden, Chris 2.58
2005 Jones-Sawyer Jr., Reginald B. 2.58
2006 Levine, Marc 2.58
2007 Linder, Eric 2.58
2008 Maienschein, Brian 2.58
2009 Medina, Jose J. 2.58
2010 Melendez, Melissa 2.58
2011 Mullin, Kevin 2.58
2012 Nazarian, Adrin 2.58
2013 Patterson, Jim 2.58
2014 Quirk, Bill 2.58
2015 Rendon, Anthony 2.58
2016 Roth, Richard 2.58
2017 Salas, Rudy 2.58
2018 Stone, Mark W. 2.58
2019 Ting, Phil 2.58
2020 Waldron, Marie 2.58
2021 Weber, Shirley N. 2.58
2022 Wilk, Scott 2.58
2042 Gonzalez, Lorena 2.12
3622 Vidak, Andy 1.94
3630 Rodriguez, Freddie 1.77
3636 Dababneh, Matt 1.62
3640 Ridley-Thomas, Sebastian 1.58
4347 Allen, Ben 0.58
4348 Baker, Catharine 0.58
4349 Brough, William 0.58
4350 Burke, Autumn 0.58
4351 Chang, Ling-Ling 0.58
4352 Chiu, David 0.58
4353 Chu, Kansen 0.58
4354 Cooper, Jim 0.58
4355 Dodd, Bill 0.58
4356 Gallagher, James 0.58
4357 Garcia, Eduardo 0.58
4358 Gipson, Mike 0.58
4359 Hadley, David 0.58
4360 Harper, Matthew 0.58
4361 Irwin, Jacqui 0.58
4362 Kim, Young 0.58
4363 Lackey, Tom 0.58
4364 Leyva, Connie 0.58
4365 Lopez, Patty 0.58
4366 Low, Evan 0.58
4367 Mathis, Devon 0.58
4368 Mayes, Chad 0.58
4369 McCarty, Kevin 0.58
4370 McGuire, Mike 0.58
4371 Nguyen, Janet 0.58
4372 Obernolte, Jay 0.58
4373 O’Donnell, Patrick 0.58
4374 Santiago, Miguel 0.58
4375 Steinorth, Marc 0.58
4376 Stone, Jeff 0.58
4377 Thurmond, Tony 0.58
4378 Wood, Jim 0.58
4397 Moorlach, John M. W. 0.29
4416 Glazer, Steve 0.10

 

“Full House” Drought Ends

The Senate and Assembly Journals for June 1, 2015

The Senate and Assembly Journals for June 1, 2015

Something interesting happened at the Capitol on June 1st that went completely unnoticed; all the legislators showed up. All hundred and twenty.

Exciting, right?

That might not sound like a notable event (that is their job, isn’t it?) but in fact, it had been quite a while… nearly eight full years.

This “Full House” drought, the longest in state history, was the result of an unprecedented number of resignations (13 in the Senate and 11 in the Assembly), long illnesses, deaths, and a year-long military deployment.

Other long historic gaps in full membership had occurred, usually the result of vacant seats that remained unfilled for the duration of the term, but these rarely lasted for longer than six months.

The final vacancy, created by the resignation of a State Senator who had been elected to Congress, was filled by Steve Glazer in a May special election.

Finally, after 7 years, 10 months, and 22 days… the people of California were again fully represented at the Capitol.