The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Public service still drives `Mayor Pete'
Before he was the third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, he was “Mayor Pete” to the people of Redlands.
In 2006 at age 26, Pete Aguilar was the youngest person ever to be appointed to the Redlands City Council. He served eight years on the council — the last four as mayor — and credits his time there with shaping his leadership style, one which those who know him well say primed him for his new role in Congress.
“He's not afraid to take a different side than yours, but he'll listen, he'll be respectful and he'll consider what you're saying,” said Carole Beswick, CEO of the Inland Action think tank, who has known Aguilar for more than a decade. “You may not have persuaded him, but you know he's heard you.”
Bob Gardner, who served with Aguilar on the council from 2010 to 2014, agreed.
“We had a neat council in that we all pretty much got along, and a lot of that is due to Pete,” Gardner said.
But the House floor is different than the Redlands dais.
Representatives from opposing political parties regularly lob accusations and insults at one another, and in the first week of January, Republicans fought amongst themselves when electing the new speaker for the 118th U.S. Congress. The majority was stymied by far-right members of the House wanting to extract concessions from Kevin Mccarthy, who won the seat after 15 tries.
“What you saw (that week was) unfortunate: chaos, dysfunction,” Aguilar said. “That's what we're probably in store for in the next two years.”
The Republicans who rebelled against Mccarthy becoming speaker include members who “want to break government,” Aguilar said. “They don't want things to work.”
Aguilar, now 43, wants government to work.
Born in Fontana, Aguilar, a fourth-generation Inland Em
pire resident who graduated from Yucaipa High School and the University of Redlands, has spent much of his adult life in public service.
He served as deputy director for Gov.gray Davis’ Inland Empire office at age 21, four years before he won the Redlands council appointment. On his second try in 2014, Aguilar was elected to the House of Representatives, and he has cruised to reelection four times since.
“He’s terrific to work with, very easygoing,” said Rep. Ted Lieu, D-manhattan Beach, who was part of the same congressional freshman class that year. “He’s the same guy as he is back home. He doesn’t change when he’s in Congress.”
And that includes Aguilar’s willingness to collaborate with others he might disagree with on many issues.
“I think a lot of the Republicans that we’ve worked with in the past, we have disagreements on the size and scope of programs, but fundamentally, we know the role that government plays in people’s lives,” Aguilar said, a member of the moderate New Democrat Coalition.
Since arriving in Washington nearly a decade ago, Aguilar has quietly risen through the Democratic ranks and in national prominence.
His work on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol raised his profile immensely.
The work brought together a group of mostly Democratic lawmakers with conservative whistleblowers.
“Ultimately, history will be the judge,” he said in his San Bernardino office in January, reflecting on his year-and-a-half on the committee. “But I’m incredibly proud of the work that we did, the (final report) that we produced in December.”
The committee interviewed staff members for former President Donald Trump who were true believers in the conservative cause but who disagreed with his behavior after the 2020 election. Like former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, they believed in the democratic process and the peaceful transition of power between presidents.
“She’s very conservative. She felt that what the former president did was wrong,” Aguilar said of Hutchinson. “That’s exactly the point ... are we going to stay true to democracy?” He credits the committee’s work with helping to get election law changed to clarify that the vice president’s role in certifying election results is only ceremonial and directing millions of federal dollars toward helping safeguard the nation’s election system.
With Republicans now in control of the House, however, any work continuing the now-concluded committee’s work will be done informally.
“I think, as a group, some of us will get together at some points throughout the year, share our experiences, talk about what we’ve learned and use that as a forum to kind of keep this topical,” Aguilar said.
In November, House Democrats selected Aguilar as House Democratic Caucus chairman, making him the thirdranking Democrat in the House. He’s now the highest-ranking Latino in the House ever, something that’s not lost on Aguilar.
“As a Latino from Southern California, (the importance of) being able to give the first nomination speech for a Black man to be speaker is not lost on me,” he said, referring to his nomination of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-new York, for speaker of the House in January. “The role that the Democratic caucus put me in to do that is important. It’s historic, it’s significant. And it shows how far we’ve come as a country.”
Renée Van Vechten, a professor of American politics and policy at the University of Redlands, said Aguilar’s rise in the Democratic ranks is a bit unusual for one so early in his career.
“There is a kind of strategic recognition that younger, more vibrant, more energetic members are needed to invigorate the base, and this younger generation of Democrats are looking to see themselves in the leadership,” she said.
Between his new role and work on the Jan. 6 committee, coming home to visit his family in Redlands every weekend, as Aguilar once did, has become more challenging.
“The Inland Empire is always home, and it will always be home,” he said. “My parents, my grandparents, were born and raised here. I’m raising my kids in public schools here. This place is always going to be home. And I’m always going to want to come back home.”
With the coronavirus pandemic winding down, he’s looking forward to spending more time with his family in Washington.
“My wife comes out to D.C. and the White House Christmas events often,” Aguilar said. “The kids came out in July for the White House picnic. So there’s things that we can do and all still be together. And hopefully they can see a little bit of this of this job.”
Despite the demands and pressures of the job, including the looming threat of being called to testify before Congress as payback for the Jan. 6 committee subpoenas targeting his Republican counterparts, Aguilar said he has no regrets about his career in public service.
“I love this job. I love the possibility of this job — even on its worst day — and the possibility to affect people’s lives and to change things,” he said.
The public service component of his job still drives Aguilar.
“It isn’t just the big pieces of legislation. The work that the team is doing (in his San Bernardino office) answering people’s phone calls, helping thousands of Inland Empire residents resolve what might be small issues — Social Security issues, Medicare issues, things like getting money returned back to them from the IRS — those are big things in people’s lives,” he said.
“And so we deal in these big policy things, but it’s always fun when I see the report of the work that (staff) do each week, each month to just take stock of the basic things,” he added. “Because usually, when people reach out to our office, they’ve exhausted every 1-800 number, and they don’t know where to turn.”
At 43, Aguilar has plenty of time to potentially rise even higher in his congressional career.
“Speaker Aguilar? I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” Beswick said. “For him, that would just be the normal course of things.”