Bass-king in accolades

March is quite a fitting month for a woman to make history. Recognized  nationally as Womens History Month, in California the month will be  remembered as the time when the lower house of the state legislature  elected its first African American woman to serve as Speaker of the  Assembly.
Karen Bass (D-47th) was selected Wednesday, March 5, 2008  as the 67th Speaker following a quick three years in leadership  positions.
The honor also made her the first African American woman  in the nation to serve as speaker of a state legislative body, and puts  her in rare company on the national political front.
Considered part  of the Progressive movement in contemporary California politics and  first elected to office in 2004, Bass was appointed Majority Whip in her  first term and was elevated to the post of Majority Floor Leader during  her second term. She was the first woman to hold this post and the  second African American.
Bass was nominated to her new position by  current Speaker Fabian Nunez, and was seconded by Assemblyman Mervyn  Dymally, who himself is the holder of many firsts.
Both Bass and Los  Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former speaker of the Assembly,  point out the significance of this nomination.
One thing I think it  is very important to mention, especially since people like to talk about  (the black and brown conflict) is that I helped Herb Wesson become  Speaker, and Willie Brown helped me become Speaker. . . Wesson helped  Fabian become Speaker and Fabian helped Karen become Speaker. Talk about  black and brown unity, said Villaraigosa after the election.
Ive  known and worked with every speaker since Willie Brown, and see what it  takes, continued Villaraigosa of Bass. Shes got the intellect, the  innate ability to lead, added the mayor, who said his friendship with  Bass extends back more than three decades.
Bass rapid ascension to  the top leadership post in the Assembly has come about as the result of  term limits, and the Los Angeles Democrats estimate that she will have a  little less than two years in the position.
And it is an extremely  powerful position. In fact David Bositis, senior political analyst with  the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC,  said Bass may rank as high as any black woman has achieved in  contemporary politics. None of the black women who have served in  Congress have been in really high-ranking Congressional positions.  Carole Mosley Braun was a U.S. Senator, and that sounds like a lot of  power, but just being a junior U.S. Senator does not give you a lot of  power. Whereas  being Speaker of the Assembly is a lot of power.
The  Speaker determines the time Assembly sessions start, and calls the  meeting to order. According to the Assembly Rules (HR1), the Speaker  also determines the size of and appoints the members, chair, and vice  chairperson of all standing committees, subcommittees, and special  committees; allocates funds (the Assembly budget is $138.7 million),  staffing (there are 1,300 employees statewide) and other resources for  Assembly operations; has general control and direction over the  journals, papers, and bills of the Assembly; and appoints all  non-elected officers of the Assembly except the Minority Floor Leader.
Each  session there are more than 1,000 pieces of legislation proposed in the  legislature, and the Speaker is responsible for establishing what goes  where.
The Speaker also serves as the point person in negotiations  with the governor on major issues like prison reform, healthcare, and  immigration.
Despite all of this power, Bass is under no illusions  about the difficulties she faces.
My first agenda is to come to  grips with the job, and the first thing I have to face is the budget,  said Bass in an exclusive press conference with the African American  media. There is a $14 billion deficit, and I do not believe the way to  balance the budget is by closing down and cutting programs that impact  our community. We have to look for balance in the budget.
We also  have the mortgage and real estate crisis, and the two are  interconnected, pointed out the Speaker-elect, who said that because of  the real estate plunge, the state has lost badly needed revenue.
Bass  said health and welfare issues will absolutely be the core of her  agenda. That is my major motivation for being up here. I hope to use  the stature of the speakership to move that agenda forward.
She also  would like to look at some of the issues that particularly impact the  African American community such as Three Strikes, but Bass is very  pragmatic about her ability to make such large changes. One of the  things we need to change is that whole 2/3 rule. I wish I could be  Speaker long enough to effect that. . . but the terms up here are so  short, its very difficult to bring about that kind of fundamental  change.
To do the job, said Mayor Villaraigosa, Bass will have to  be practical and pragmatic. She will have to understand the need for  building consensus, and then reach out across the aisle to try to get  things done.
I am so proud of this woman. When youve known  somebody since you were kidsGilbert Cedillo, Anthony Thigpen, Mark  Ridley-Thomas (Karen and I), Maria Elena Durazo all go way back. . . .  Most of us were student leaders and activists in the community,  community leaders, and labor leaders and our paths have crossed since we  were kids. Now were grandparents, said the mayor.
Willie L. Brown  Jr., who held the California Speaker of the Assembly post for an  unprecedented 15 years, echoed Villaraigosas delight at Bass  selection.
This is spectacular. Im very pleased. She is the first  African American woman in the whole nation, in the history of the nation  to head a legislative body. And the most important legislative body in  the country. Im just ecstatic, said the veteran politician and former  San Francisco mayor.
To be successful in this role, during this  turbulent budget season, Brown said Bass will need to continue the  conduct that gained her this role. Those are her extraordinary people  skills; her ability to understand a large volume of data and facts; her  ability to assess what the membership is capable of accepting as a  plausible solutionboth Republicans and Democratsand her ability to  communicate.
As Brown ran down the list of other speakers who had the  same short period of time to do the jobVillaraigosa, Cruz Bustamante,  Bob Hertzberg, and Herb Wesson, he said he was confident Bass could  handle the job.
He advised her to: Stay the course; do what youve  always done and be the same person of your word that youve always  been.
Bass grew up in the Venice/Fairfax area with her parents,  DeWit and Wilhelmina Bass, two older brothers, and one younger brother.  She graduated from Hamilton High School and Cal State Dominguez  (bachelors in health sciences) and the University of Southern  California School of Medicine with a physicians assistant  certification.
In 1990, she helped launch the Community Coalition, a  nonprofit organization founded in response to the crack epidemic that  hit South Los Angeles in the 1980s. The organizations goals were and  still are to address the fundamental conditions of poverty, racism, and  joblessness that foster drug addiction and crime. The coalition works  with African American and Latino residents to build a prosperous and  productive South L.A. with safe neighborhoods, quality schools, a strong  social safety net, and economic development based on community need.
Among  the major campaigns the organization pushed under Bass leadership were  fighting the proliferation of liquor stores in South L.A. and seeking  equal educational opportunities for black and brown youth in the  community.
As an Assemblymember, impacting the foster care system has  been one of her key concerns, and she was responsible for securing $82  million and eight new laws to help improve the states system.