‘Viva Lorena!’

By Frances O’Neill Zimmerman / March 30, 2023

A lot of Democrats have drowned in water under the bridge since Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher wrote this hopeful piece ten or so years ago. But Lorena is still standing and I personally hope she will reassess her situation and our need and carry on.

Included in the flotsam and jetsam are failed political careers of Democrats that Lorena’s essay mentions as up-and-comers — Bob Filner and Dave Roberts, who are followed by other lesser Democratic flame-outs such as Myrtle Cole, Kevin Bieser and resigned San Diego County Democratic Party chair Will Rodriguez-Kennedy.

Today Lorena’s shape-shifting spouse County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher joins the long list of fallen. Lorena Gonzalez reportedly has transferred a bunch of her own campaign cash to Fletcher’s now-abandoned State Senate bid. Maybe she can recover it. I hope she will and will use it to move on.

Governor Newsom, no fan of Lorena’s A.B. 5 that infuriated exploitive gig economy entrepreneurs, artfully side-stepped Lorena’s publicly-stated intention to run for Secretary of State when he found himself in the catbird seat of appointer-in-chief.

Kamala Harris had resigned her U.S. Senate seat ( to which Newsom earlier appointed her after Senator Barbara Boxer retired) to become Biden’s Vice President of the United States. Newsom then named CA Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill Harris’ Senate post.

Finally in this circle game, Newsom named Lorena’s Assembly colleague Shirley Weber to be Secretary of State, a tough job in a difficult time that she has performed admirably. So Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez — termed out, re-districted and recovering from cancer treatments and surgery — hired on as head of the California Federation of Labor.

Governor Newsom made two solid appointments; checked off diversity, equity and inclusion boxes for himself; got Assemblywoman Weber out of the Legislature where she’d been making trouble for him with criticism and demands from his allies, the powerful California Teachers Association; and he also seemed to have blocked rebel Lorena Gonzalez’s intended path onward and upward.

As I said at the beginning, I hope that isn’t true. People with promise and grit like Lorena should keep on keeping on in the elective arena.