Mendoza resigns before vote by Senate
Absence from Capitol may be temporary as he plans Senate run
Averting a public showdown over sexual misconduct sanctions, Sen. Tony Mendoza resigned abruptly on Thursday, just minutes before his state Senate colleagues were set to vote on a historic resolution that could have made him the first to be expelled from office in more than 100 years. The 46-year- old Los Angeles County Democrat for months had resisted calls for him to step aside while denying wrongdoing and complaining about an investigation that ended last week, corroborating many of the accusations
against didn’t him. He leave quietly. “I shall resign my position with immediate effect,” he wrote in a scathing letter of resignation, “as it is clear that Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León will not rest until he has my head on a platter to convince the MeToo movement of his ‘sincerity’ in supporting the MeToo cause.” Mendoza’s resignation spared lawmakers from making a politically difficult choice: setting a new precedent by expelling a colleague for inappropriate behavior toward women or meting out a lesser punishment in the midst of a powerful national reckoning over sexual misconduct in the workplace. In a summary of the investigation, released late Tuesday, i nvestigators wrote that Mendoza, a married father of four, had “more likely than not” engaged in a pattern of “sexually suggestive” behavior, subjecting six women to unwanted advances over his decade-long tenure in the Legislature. A resolution introduced late Wednesday night by de León — Mendoza’s former weekday roommate and a candidate for U. S. Senate — called for his expulsion. It would have been the first time a state legislator had been removed from office since 1905. Despite his resignation, the senator’s absence from the Capitol could be temporary. His term was set to end this year, and he plans to run for the Senate seat as planned, confirmed spokesman Robert Alaniz. One political observer said his voluntary departure, though made under pressure, could be easier for some voters to stomach than a forced removal. “It allows him to regroup with less baggage — still baggage — but less baggage than if he had been expelled from the Senate,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a veteran political analyst at the University of Southern California. Even before Mendoza’s surprise announcement, it was unclear whether de León had the votes to expel the senator. Republicans emerged from a private meeting with a different consensus about his punishment. They felt it was more appropriate to suspend the Democrat without pay this year through the end of his term, said Senate Republican Leader Patricia Bates. But GOP Sen. Andy Vidak, who has been outspoken in his criticism of Mendoza, said Thursday the resignation was “about time and really overdue.” The anti- harassment We Said Enough campaign, which has pushed for broad changes in how the Legislature investigates and handles complaints, on Thursday renewed its calls for confidential investigations, clear rules and standards, and accountability. “This is a somber moment for all of California,” organizers said in a statement. “Because the gaps within the current system have caused preda- tory and enabling behavior to thrive. As a result there have been numerous women and men hurt, lives changed, and careers threatened or lost.” Mendoza is the third state lawmaker to resign amid sexual misconduct allegations. Democratic Assemblymen Raul Bocanegra and Matt Dababneh, both of the San Fernando Valley, left office last year soon after accusations against them became public. And Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens — a champion of the MeToo movement — voluntarily took an unpaid leave of absence this month after she was accused of groping a staffer from another office. All of the lawmakers have denied wrongdoing. In their summary of the Mendoza case, investigators wrote that interviews revealed “a pattern of unwelcome flirtation and sexually suggestive behavior towards several female staff members and other women he interacted with at the Capitol” over a 10-year period beginning in 2007, when Mendoza was serving in the state Assembly. The six women at the heart of the investigation did not accuse Mendoza of being “sexually aggressive,” investigators wrote, but said that they “understood that Mendoza was suggesting sexual contact” and feared reporting his conduct would hurt them professionally. One former staffer, for example, told investigators that Mendoza asked her to share a hotel room with him during a 2007 event in Hawaii. Investigators also substantiated claims involving five other women, including a former 19-yearold intern who said that he offered her drinks and asked about her dating life in his hotel room during the 2008 California Democratic Convention. Investigators did not find evidence to support the claim that Mendoza fired three of his staffers last year in retaliation for reporting concerns about the senator’s behavior toward a young intern, as an attorney has alleged. In a letter to senators Wednesday, Mendoza called the investigation “one- sided” and complained that he had not been permitted to view the full report, only the summary. He is suing the Senate over its handling of the complaints, alleging he was denied due process. In a brief speech on the Senate floor, de León defended the investigation, asserting that “the senator from Artesia was provided ample opportunity to provide rebuttals to the allegations.” “Let me be clear,” the Senate leader said, “We won’t tolerate abuse of power and a pattern of behavior that violates our harassment standards.”
“This is a somber moment for all of California.” — Organizers of the antiharassment We Said Enough campaign, in a statement