Tony Mendoza

CA Assembly

Date	Party	Office	Votes	Result
11-07-2006	Democratic	AD-56	43666	Win
11-04-2008	Democratic	AD-56	78652	Win
11-02-2010	Democratic	AD-56	56943	Win
11-04-2014	Democratic	SD-32	67593	Win

Candidate Biography:

Antonio Mendoza
Born: April 22, 1971 in South Los Angeles, CA
Married: Leticia "Letty"
Children: Samantha, Anndrea, and Annais

1997-2006: Member, Artesia City Council
2006: Member, Hubert H. Humphrey Democratic Club
2006: Member, United Teachers Los Angeles Board of Directors
2006: Representative, California Teachers Association
2010-2012: Chair, California Latino Legislative Caucus
2012: Delegate, Democratic National Convention
2012: Candidate for Central Basin Municipal Water District Board (Lost; 37.2%)
2018: Resigned from the State Senate on February 22.
2018: Special Election Candidate for SD-32 (14.5%)
2018: Primary Candidate for SD-32 (Lost; 10.0%)

• LEGISLATION: Author of SB 432 (2015), which repealed the definition of the word “alien” from the California Labor Code. Previously, the term was defined as "any person who is not a born or fully naturalized citizen of the United States."
• LEGISLATION: Coauthor of SR 39 (2015) which found that "Presidential candidates including Donald Trump have unfairly demonized and falsely blamed undocumented immigrant families for a range of problems and challenges facing the United States" and "calls upon the State of California to divest from" and "private businesses and individuals throughout California to end all business ties with" Donald Trump and his companies.
• LEGISLATIVE PUNISHMENT: On November 27, 2017, the Senate Rules Committee stripped Mendoza of his chairmanship of the Banking and Financial Institutions Committee and membership on the state Commission for Economic Development and the California Workforce Development Board.
• LEGISLATIVE PUNISHMENT: On January 3, 2018, after a four-hour Democratic caucus, Mendoza announced that he would take an involuntary "voluntary" one month leave of absence while an investigation into alleged sexual harassment was ongoing with a scheduled return date of February 1st. It was voluntary in that he did it without the Senate taking action, but involuntary in that his statement said "I am deeply disappointed that I was forced into this action without any due process" and described the situation as a "dangerous precedent." On February 1st, the Senate Rules Committee voted to involuntarily extend Mendoza's leave until the conclusion of the investigation. After the results were presented to the Rules Committee, Senator De Leon introduced SR 85 (Relative to the expulsion of Senator Tony Mendoza) on February 21st. As the Senate was preparing to take up the expulsion resolution, Mendoza submitted his letter of resignation. In his resignation letter, Mendoza said "I shall resign my position as Senator with immediate effect as it is clear that Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon will not rest until he has my head on a platter to convince the Me Too Movement of his ‘sincerity’ in supporting the Me Too cause." Also in his resignation letter, Mendoza noted that "I intend to canvass my district to determine my candidacy for the Senate this year."
• SENATE VACANCY: Following the resignation of State Senator Tony Mendoza, the special primary to fill the vacancy in the current term (which would end in November 2018) was consolidated with the regular primary election for the new full term (which would start in December 2018). During the elections on June 5th, Rita Topalian (R) took the took the top stop in both the primary and the special primary. Vanessa Delgado (D) came in second in the special election (and continued to the run-off), but came in third in the primary, meaning that she would not appear on the November ballot. Bob Archuletta(D) came in fourth place in the special election (after Topalian, Delgado and Mendoza) but second in the regular primary (meaning that he appeared on the November ballot. Mendoza came in fourth in the regular primary and third in the special election.
• LEGISLATION: After several sexual harassment allegations were made against Senator Mendoza, Senator Andy Vidak introduced Senate Resolution 69 (2018), which would expel Mendoza "from the California State Senate for violating the Senate Standards of Conduct."

Source: California Legislature Handbook (2007-08)