Rob Bonta, Bay Area lawmaker, appointed California AG
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday appointed Democratic Assemblyman Rob Bonta as California attorney general, picking a leading advocate for criminal justice reform who has campaigned to abolish the death penalty and eliminate cash bail for many offenses.
If confirmed by the state Legislature, Bonta, a resident of Alameda, will be the first Filipino American to serve as California attorney general, having also set the milestone for the state Assembly when he was elected in 2012, representing a San Francisco Bay Area district that includes the cities of Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro.
Newsom’s appointment fills a vacancy left by Xavier Becerra’s departure to become U.S. Health and Human Services secretary in the Biden administration after he was confirmed Thursday by the Senate.
“Rob represents what makes California great — our desire to take on righteous fights and reverse systematic injustices,” Newsom said Wednesday. “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.”
Bonta said he was humbled by the confidence placed in him by Newsom.
“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,” Bonta said in a statement. “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.”
Bonta’s appointment comes just days after a group of Asian and Pacific Islander leaders, including Assemblyman David Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat, called on the governor to appoint an attorney general who would address incidents in which Asian Americans have been targeted for racist attacks. Chiu, who supported Bonta for the job, raised the issue as he condemned an Atlanta-area shooting last week in which a white gunman is accused of killing eight people including six women of Asian descent.
“Assembly member Bonta’s legal, legislative and lived experiences make him the best choice to represent the diversity of this state,” said state Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat and chairman of the eight-member Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, in a letter to Newsom last month that called the appointment “a major step towards the equitable representation of California’s fastest growing racial and ethnic groups, Asian Pacific Islanders.”
The governor is scheduled to make the announcement at the International Hotel Manilatown Center in San Francisco.
The appointment ends weeks of political wrangling by supporters of a dozen Democrats with interest in becoming the state’s top cop. Others with aspirations toward the job included Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, as well as county district attorneys and current and former judges.
Bonta, 49, was one of four names recommended for the job by the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus.
The attorney general job comes with an annual salary of $182,189 and the position is next up for election in 2022.
With that race already looming, Bonta has also shown himself to be a prodigious political fundraiser. His reelection committee had $2.3 million in its most recent filing.
He has also shown loyalty to the governor, emerging in recent weeks as a leading voice against the threatened recall of Newsom.
Bonta, who is married and has three children, is the Assembly assistant majority leader and serves on committees overseeing spending, communications and health issues.
In the Legislature he has led efforts to change the state’s criminal justice system, including a bill now pending that would mostly eliminate cash bail for misdemeanors and many nonviolent, low-level felonies.
It is his second attempt on the issue. In 2018, Bonta was co-author of Senate Bill 10, which would have ended the money bail system to address equity issues in the criminal justice system by reducing incarceration of low-income people before trial. But the bail industry qualified a referendum on the measure and voters rejected the changes last year.
“The jailhouse door should not swing open and closed based on how much money someone has,” Bonta said when he introduced this year’s bill. “There is no disputing the present system wrongly treats people who are rich and guilty better than those who are poor and innocent. The status quo is indefensible and disproportionately impacts low-income Californians and communities of color.”
Last year, Bonta called for prosecutors to be required to recuse themselves from the investigation and prosecution of law enforcement misconduct if their election campaigns accept financial contributions from law enforcement unions.
“This is about trust in law enforcement and trust in the independence of our elected prosecutors,” he said.
Bonta also supported Newsom’s 2019 order for a moratorium on executions in California. That same year, Bonta co-authored Assembly Constitutional Amendment 12, which would have placed a measure on the state ballot to repeal the death penalty, although the bill did not advance.
“I believe the death penalty is wrong for California and I oppose it,” Bonta said at the time. “Not only is it inhumane and uncivilized, it is broken. The death penalty is fallible and, because it’s irreversible and final, there is no recourse when a mistake is made and innocent people are put to death.”
He also said capital punishment has a disparate impact on people of color, who he said “are far more likely to be executed than white people, especially if the victim is white.”