The native son has returned.In January, Abel Maldonado—California’s second-ever Latino lieutenant governor and Santa Maria’s most famous politician—surrendered his position as the state’s second-in-command to Democrat Gavin Newsom after a dogged campaign effort.
Many Californians will recall that Maldonado was resolute in his path to the lieutenant governorship. In November 2009, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Maldonado—then a state senator—to fill the seat, which was left vacant when John Garamendi won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
But the broccoli farmer turned politico wasn’t sworn in until April 2010.
“My confirmation period was the longest in state history: 157 days,” Maldonado said during a weekday morning interview at one of his favorite local haunts, Pappy’s Restaurant. “I don’t wish that upon anyone. It was an experience I’ll never forget.
“‘Was the nominee fit to serve?’ was the only question [the Democrats] had,” he said. “A lot of members couldn’t fathom the notion of putting someone in the No. 2 position who was young, even though I’d been in the Capitol for so long. They thought it was going to be all political.”
Schwarzenegger faced considerable scrutiny for his pick. Many critics viewed it as a classic example of cronyism, stemming from the pair’s on-again-off-again friendship.
“The main reason Arnold made me lieutenant governor, I think, was that I was the most nonpartisan, most independent member of the House, which I demonstrated with my voting record and the way I operated in Sacramento.”
Maldonado pooh-poohed the cronyism theory, saying, “[Arnold and I] had some good times and bad times—some disagreements.”
He also recalled one of the last things the governor said to him when they were in office: “He told me, ‘I think you’ve been a problem solver, and you never let the [Republican] party get in the way of what’s good for the state.’”
Whether you agree with that statement or not, Maldonado’s record as lieutenant governor—including two brief stints as acting governor—speaks for itself.
During his tenure in Sacramento’s executive branch, Maldonado restructured the Office of the Lieutenant Governor by downsizing its IT and Human Resources departments, as well as shuttering its San Francisco office and leasing out most of the Los Angeles office.
“[The office] is running a lot more efficiently now,” Maldonado commented.
On a local level, Maldonado kept the Department of Motor Vehicles from permanently closing its Santa Maria branch, which would have forced Santa Marians to drive to Lompoc or San Luis Obispo for services.
“I was on a bus tour for my [reelection] campaign when I heard about the issue with the DMV in Santa Maria,” he recalled. “I started asking around about it … then I called the governor and said, ‘I don’t know if you know this, but you’re closing the DMV in Santa Maria, the largest city on the Central Coast.’ I told him, ‘Governor, that’s unacceptable. We need to keep it open.’”
The problem at the DMV, however, soon seemed like a paltry matter. On Sept. 9, 2010, a gas line erupted in the Bay Area city of San Bruno, leveling several city blocks and killing eight people.
“The governor left for China around 3 or 4 o’clock. Around 6:30, I got a call from someone saying an airplane had just fallen on the community of San Bruno. That’s what the initial reaction was. Within 15 minutes, they called back saying it was an explosion,” Maldonado said. “Within two hours, I was in San Bruno.
“I’ve never seen something so horrible as when I showed up at the explosion site,” he recalled. “There were burning houses and the street was all torn up. The gas line ran down the middle of the street with the sewer. It looked like a war zone.”
The acting governor went to work immediately, clearing red tape for local food banks and creating a place at the community shelter where people could get new copies of documents they lost in the fire.
“It was just amazing seeing the community come together,” he said. “When I went there I thought I was in a leadership role, but looking back I was actually a comforter. People were deathly afraid of another explosion. They were coming up to me asking, ‘What do I do now? Where do I go?’”
Also during his time as acting governor, Maldonado signed four pieces of legislation. One bill, AB 900, refunded property taxes to Bell citizens. Another bill released $2 billion in federal funds to state schools. The other two bills were geared toward improving safety and recovery protocols for offshore oil drilling, and expediting construction of an Oakland land development project.
Maldonado’s bill-signing days might be over now, but he said he still wants to be involved in the legislative process. Specifically, he said he’s working on developing a temporary workers permit program similar to the Bracero Program, which his father used in the 1960s.
“Once the job is done, the permit is done,” he said, adding that he thinks there should be a path to a Green Card.
He’s also involved in the No Labels political movement, a grassroots campaign that, according to its website, encourages politicians to put aside their party affiliations and “do what’s best for America.”
“You can be a Democrat or a Republican, but you have to think about America first,” Maldonado said. “For me, it’s very simple: It’s about my family, it’s about my country, and then we can talk politics.”
When asked how it felt to be home in Santa Maria, Maldonado said: “It feels great, actually. I think when you’re a politician—and especially when you commute—you get caught in a bubble and you forget what people are going through.”
He admitted that politics and public service are in his blood. But, for right now, he’s just enjoying life outside the bubble.
Contact Managing Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 17-24, 2011.