With one exception, there's nothing remarkable about being a new member of state legislature. The crop of lawmakers being sworn in today in Sacramento is swarming with freshmen. 36 of the 80 Assembly members and 12 of 40 Senators taking the oath have that new lawmaker smell. (In the Senate, though, some of the newbies also have older odors clinging to them– several are just moving up from the Assembly.) But that one exception is still worth noting.
When Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) is sworn in, he will become the first Chinese-American to serve in the Senate, and only the second Asian-American ever elected to the Senate. (Alfred Song, elected in 1966, was the first. Four years earlier, Song, who died in 2004, had been the first Asian-American to be elected to the Assembly.) And according to the Los Angeles Daily News, Yee has quite a celebration planned to mark his swearing in.
Sen.-elect Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is expecting several hundred constituents to celebrate his election…
His celebration will include firecrackers, lion dancers, a blessing by a Buddhist monk and a Shaolin martial-arts performance.
So, for at least today, Sacramento won't be a boring town for non-lobbyists.
