Portantino Reflects on His First Year in the California Assembly

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sharon Kyle and Dick Price

In May 2006, our local club, the Northeast Democratic Club, endorsed Anthony Portantino as its choice for the 44th Assembly District seat being vacated by Carol Liu, who had termed out. In the June 2006 primary, Portantino was selected as the Democratic Party candidate in the general election, and in the November 2006 general election, he captured 58.3% of the vote to win his seat.

It’s been 10 months since Assemblymember Portantino was sworn in. Anyone in the 44th A.D. who is politically active has seen Anthony Portantino at countless events. Known for his boundless energy and easy accessibility, Portantino seems to be everywhere, all the time. Ever the family man, his wife Ellen and daughters Sofia and Bella Rose often accompany him as he goes out into the community. We caught up with Anthony for a telephone interview on Friday, October 5.

Portantino is easy to talk to and almost makes us forget we are interviewing him. Yes, we like this man. But what is more important is that we know he will be honest with us and we can be honest with him. We began by asking Anthony what has been most rewarding during his first Assembly session. He told us that he had campaigned heavily on the importance of education, so when he was selected to chair the education committee, he was honored. In that role, he has authored several pieces of legislation. One measure, a bill co-authored by Assemblymember Karen Bass, has gotten a lot of attention in the press.

In February 2007, after one month in office, Portantino introduced ACR21, which establishes academic partnerships between Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the University of California. Under this measure, the University of California would be strongly urged to participate in a student exchange program or other forms of academic partnership with one or more of the institutions classified as HBCUs, which include Howard, Spellman, Hampton, Tuskegee, Morehouse, and Grambling State. The partnerships would let students from the University of California benefit from a period of study at an HBCU and vice versa.

Anthony then recounted the story of his neighbor’s two-year-old son, who had leukemia and needed a treatment that required the use of stem cells, which could be harvested from umbilical cord blood. At the time, Anthony and his wife were expecting a child. When the Portantinos’ child was born, they sought to donate the umbilical cord to the blood bank. Anthony was dismayed to discover that donating umbilical cord blood was not an easy undertaking. Numerous obstacles made it difficult and costly to the donor. Although the Portantinos managed to jump through the requisite hoops and donate the blood, the experience stayed with Portantino.