Lawmaker brings newborn to Capitol after being told she can’t vote by proxy
It was approaching midnight Monday night and East Bay Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks was in her Capitol office when she heard a bill that she wanted to weigh in on come up for discussion.
First, she had to scoop up her newborn daughter, Elly, and run with baby in hand to the Assembly floor.
“I was actually in the middle of feeding my daughter when this bill came up,” she said, wearing a mask and holding her fussy four-week old as she urged her colleagues to pass Senate Bill 1120, a proposal to make it easier to build duplexes.
It was one of the most unusual moments of the final night of one of Sacramento’s most unique legislative sessions: Wicks, who gave birth in late July, was told this week that maternity leave was not an acceptable reason to vote by proxy, even as Republican senators cast their votes remotely after being exposed to a colleague who tested positive for COVID-19.
Wicks’ parental predicament — which she said led to plenty of “mom guilt” on her end — has sparked widespread outrage and prompted calls for policy changes that would make it easier for parents, especially nursing new moms, to participate in the legislative process in a state that prides itself on being a leader when it comes to family leave policies.
“I felt very compelled to be there,” Wicks told this news organization Tuesday, acknowledging that her situation is not unique and that — with a husband able to care for the couple’s other young daughter, 3-year-old JoJo, and financial security — she is in a position of relative privilege. “Many working moms have been there… different context, same situation.”
So on Monday, as the clock ticked toward the midnight deadline to move bills to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Wicks loaded Elly — short for Eloise — and her gear into the car and drove to the Capitol, where lawmakers were weighing in on issues from housing to, ironically, family leave.
And while the duplex conversion bill that Wicks was so passionate about passed the lower chamber just a few minutes before the deadline, there wasn’t time for the Senate to take up the proposal, effectively killing the bill for now.
The family leave bill, which would make it easier for employees of small businesses to take paid time off to care for newborns or sick family members, narrowly squeaked by and Newsom is expected to sign it into law. Wicks cast one of the deciding votes in favor of the idea before loading her daughter into the car and heading back to the East Bay in the wee hours of the morning.
The irony of Wicks’ decisive vote was not lost on family leave advocates.
“The pandemic has exacerbated gender inequalities in the workplace and beyond, and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks is proof of that,” said Marisol Franco, director of policy programs at the Women’s Foundation California. “A parent shouldn’t have to choose between putting their newborn at risk for COVID-19 and doing their job. We need our elected leaders to make common
Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks appeared on the Assembly floor Monday with her newborn daughter Elly after being told she was not eligible for proxy voting. sense changes so that we can see ourselves and our communities represented from the halls of the state Capitol.”
Wicks said she hopes her experience will prompt a conversation not only around accommodations for new parents and other caregivers in Sacramento but about family leave more broadly. Many service workers, she pointed out, take just a couple of weeks off after having a baby before heading back to in-person jobs at shops and restaurants where they risk exposure to the coronavirus.
Earlier in the summer, with the pandemic raging, the Assembly passed rules outlining when proxy votes — meaning designating someone to vote on a member’s behalf — are allowed, specifically when a member is at high risk from COVID-19. Wicks submitted a request to vote by proxy, but Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, the person who approves or denies those requests, refused.
“This bar of eligibility was always intended to be high, to ensure the protection of our legislative process,” Rendon’s spokeswoman Katie Talbot said in an emailed statement.
Meanwhile, Republican senators in the upper chamber, which operates under different rules, were allowed to vote remotely after Brian Jones (R-Santee) tested positive for the coronavirus.
While Wicks herself might not be at higher risk, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says her baby, with an immune system that’s not fully developed, may be.
According to the agency, “some reports suggest that infants under 1 year old and those with underlying medical conditions might be at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19 than other children.”
And because Elly is nursing, which the CDC says helps provide protections for babies against many illnesses, it’s difficult for Wicks to be away from her for long.
“My daughter has been literally on my body the last four weeks,” Wicks said.
There aren’t many parents of young children in legislatures around the country, Wicks said, because the work is demanding and difficult to do with little kids, or for people caring for elderly parents or immunocompromised spouses.