Only a day ago, Senator Abel Maldonado represented the tipping point between California passing its long overdue budget or the state remaining in financial limbo.
While the particulars of that situation changed somewhat overnight, the fact remains that Senator Maldonado is still in a white-hot spotlight. But the senator is used to hoeing difficult roads.
The eldest son of Mexican immigrant workers, Maldonado grew up picking strawberries in the field along with his parents. He went on to graduate from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in crop science. The senator garnered interested in politics in his mid-twenties after becoming disquieted by the customer service provided by his local Santa Maria government, which took months to process a building permit for the Maldonados' family farm.
At the age of 26, Maldonado was elected to the Santa Maria City Council. A mere two years later, in 1996, he was voted Santa Maria Mayor. In 1998, he was elected to the State Assembly. Maldonado was reelected in 2000 and 2002. In 2004, he ran and won the race for the State Senate Seat for the 15th district -- the Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, and Monterey combined area. In 2006, the senator ran for State Controller but lost to current leader John Chiang.
Now a seasoned representative by any measure, Maldonado is currently at the top of the news radar after he was labeled as the Republican gumming the gears. The senator refused to be the last of three conservative votes California's House of Representatives needed to pass its 100-day budget standstill.
Despite the fact that there were other Republicans who failed to vote for the bill--all but two--Democrats placed most of their hopes and blame on Maldonado due to his history of political moderation. In the summer of 2007, Maldonado broke from party lines to pass a state budget bill. Democrats were hoping history would repeat itself, but this time the Senator protested, offering his vote in exchange for the elimination of the bipartisan voting standards in the primary elections as well as a no-bonus policy for elected officials.
The spotlight has now shifted away from the 15th district senator. Republicans, distraught over any possible conclusions, have united and agreed to vote as a unit, rather than as individuals. They fired their GOP minority leader Dave Cogdill on the morning of February 18, and replaced him with Temecula representative Dennis Hollingsworth, who Republicans feel will take a tougher stance against the proposed $14.4 billion temporary tax increases.
Maldonado is now viewed as the dissenter who toppled a state budget by a hair and who distanced Republicans further from bipartisan unity. And as California slips deeper into an imbroglio of spending, a reported 10,000 state workers could be sacrificed in order to save some state funding.
While it's worth noting that the senator's demands represent a principled stand on how he believes California should be governed (as opposed, say, to being advantageous to his district), the reaction from citizens, state workers, and Sacramento elite anxious for some resolution should keep Maldonado feeling some pressure, even once the situation finally resolves itself.
UPDATE,Feb. 18, 5 p.m.: According to the L.A. Times' Web site, Maldonado has reached an agreement with Gov. Schwarzenegger, who has agreed to support the senator's proposed constitutional amendments, to vote for the budget.
