Assemblyman John Pérez, “an openly gay Latino Democrat from Los Angeles, made history Thursday when he was unanimously chosen by the Assembly’s Democratic Caucus to succeed Karen Bass as the lower house’s leader.”
Pérez is a freshman lawmaker. He will be formally voted in as the Assembly leader in January. Pérez is the Assembly’s “first openly gay leader. The Los Angeles-raised UC Berkeley graduate will inherit a mountain of challenges, in particular the state’s staggering projected $20.7 billion deficit through June 2011.”
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