by Karl Kurtz
Yesterday, as part of its series on the children of immigrants, NPR profiled California State Senator Abel Maldonado, who is one of the Republicans who broke with his party to cast the necessary votes to break California's budget impasse last month. The story is one of three interesting articles about this legislator that I have read in the last month.
The NPR story begins:
Maldonado was born in Santa Maria, but has stayed close to his Mexican roots. His family has a saying: "We came from beans, we can go back to beans," he says. His father never lets him forget the family's humble Mexican roots. Abel Sr. was a poor farmhand who came to central California on a World War II-era temporary worker program. The family spent years struggling.
The story goes on to discuss the price that Sen. Maldonado is likely to pay within his own party for his vote on the budget. It also references his hope that the vote might actually help him capture moderate Republican and Democratic votes if he runs for other offices. But NPR didn't provide the crucial detail (for legislative junkies at least) about how Sen. Maldonado demanded that a constitutional amendment to create a blanket primary (in which all candidates of both parties run in the same primary) be placed on the ballot in return for his vote in favor of the budget.
Continue reading ""We came from beans, we can go back to beans."" »



