California Assembly District 17

Assembly District 17

This fall, California’s lower legislative chamber will again be filling all 80 of its elected member positions.

Working conditions will depend on the partisan breakdown of all new hires. With the current composition of the Assembly—55 Democrats and 25 Republicans—Democrats are holding on to their two-thirds supermajority by only one seat. A supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate would allow Democrats, if united, to raise taxes, override vetoes, place constitutional amendments on the ballot, and largely ignore their Republican colleagues.

Job duties include:

• Spend months drafting, discussing, and haggling over bills that will affect the lives of all Californians
• Retain the option of waiting until the very last week of session before passing or dumping most of said bills in a flurry
• Spend months drafting, discussing, and haggling over resolutions that will affect the lives of virtually no Californians
• Help craft a multi-billion-dollar budget for the state
• Strive to represent the interests of 500,000 constituents, most of them strangers