SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Anthony Rendon stepped down as speaker of the California Assembly after seven years in power last Friday.
As one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, Rendon led the Assembly during the #MeToo movement, the COVID-19 pandemic and a statewide homelessness crisis.
Rendon sat down with “Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen to discuss his tenure as speaker of the Assembly.
“It’s been an incredible, incredible number of challenges. It’s been great. It’s been fantastic. It’s been rewarding, but at the same time, you know, I have a 3-1/2-year-old daughter. I lost my mom two years ago. There are a lot of aspects of my life that I need to focus on and I’m ready to see what other folks in the legislature can do,” Rendon said.
Rendon, a Los Angeles native and former nonprofit leader, was the 70th speaker of the state Assembly and held the position since March 2016, making him the fifth-longest-serving speaker in California history.
The speaker of the Assembly presides over the chamber and serves as a link between the Assembly and other leaders in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C.
They appoint the chairs of committees, which make decisions on California’s biggest issues.
Rendon was the first speaker of the Assembly to serve under new rules California voters approved in 2012. Proposition 28 extended term limits, which meant that he could have served as speaker of the Assembly through next year.
“I had a chance to fundamentally change the Assembly as an organization and the legislature as a body. So for me, a lot of it was about empowering chairs,” he said.
The former Assembly speaker created a more democratic environment, where he strived to put people in positions of power that reflected the Californians who elected them into office.
Throughout his time in office, he faced a pandemic, worsening climate change and gun violence issues. Rendon said nothing could have prepared him to tackle these crises. He simply had to learn on the job.
“I remember calling a former speaker during COVID and saying what do I do? And he said, ‘I don’t know. It changes so much that you just have to be ready,’ but it’s different for everybody.”
He noted there’s no proper advice he can give to the incoming speaker, except to expect change and new challenges ahead.
After a bitter battle over the powerful speaker position, Democratic Assembly member Robert Rivas became the new Assembly speaker on June 30.
“It was not not a smooth transition at all. Last year, a group of individuals came to me and said they had the votes to make Mr. Rivas speaker. That wasn’t the case. It led to a long night and a long caucus, and then, a good five or six months of trying to come up with a solution,” Rendon acknowledged.
After seven years in power, the former speaker noted he’s proud of the work he’s accomplished to raise the minimum wage to $15 and pass legislation to fend off climate change.
However, he said his greatest local achievement has been the revitalization of the Los Angeles river.
“You see that redevelopment starting to happen near Dodger Stadium, near Chinatown. In my neck of the woods, it’s still that white concrete,” Rendon added. “And the work that we’ve done to get a new master plan, the work we’ve done with Frank Gehry, to build a cultural arts center along the river, that’s what I’m most proud of. I’m super excited about that.”
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