Political Notebook: Laird reflects on 1st year in CA Senate
Having a mastery for how state government functions after three terms in the Assembly, and working in former governor Jerry Brown's administration as his natural resources secretary, served gay state Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) well during his first year in the Legislature's upper chamber.
Spending much of 2021 working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic wasn't as much of a shock for Laird as it was for his colleagues in their freshmen terms and completely new to the Statehouse."I felt lucky I had a 20-year history up here already and had many, many relationships.
I think I had a very successful year as a result," said Laird, who served in the Assembly for much of the 2000s and lost his first bid for a Senate seat in 2010. "I felt sorry for my colleagues who were new and never served in the Legislature before.
They were really starting from scratch."The hardest part was the lack of in-person interactions with both his staff and constituents, recalled Laird."It was really different not being able to have staff in your office and having truncated hearings," said Laird, "and not being able to meet in-person with constituents.
