By Natalie Glezen, 2025 CLA Intern
There are few reasons why I’d be excited to wake up for a 7 am flight in July, but my first trip to California’s state capitol was one of them. As part of our learning about state politics, my cohort and I spent two days in Sacramento. My two goals were to 1) talk to legislative and policy staffers about working in state politics and 2) watch either the Assembly or Senate floor while votes were happening. Not only did I get to do both, but I also managed to squeeze in time after our packed first day to explore downtown with my cohort.
Watching votes on the Assembly floor and then walking through the Senate, I thought about what it is actually like for 80 elected officials to research, implement, and debate policies that affect 40 million people. These electeds work together every day, crafting legislation in committee meetings and then debating it on the floor. When people think of an elected official’s day-to-day, they usually only think about their engagement with constituents or lobbyists. Even though their chief job is to represent the voices of their district, they also have to navigate the inner politics of the building they work in.
Talking with operations and policy staffers on Thursday afternoon, I learned even more about how much happens on the “back end” of an elected’s office before they even bring a bill to the floor. We met with AANHPI staffers with a wide span of experiences and tenures; from legislative staff who have been working in the Capitol for a few years to a Chief of Staff who had been in state politics for decades, staffing multiple elected officials. What stood out to me was that everyone had very different journeys to where they are now. While some people came to the Capitol early through internship or fellowship pipelines, others tried different types of civic engagement at the district level before state politics. One of the best pieces of advice we received from the panelists was to keep an open mind; not just about which level of government we want to work for, but also which electeds and roles (communications, policy, or office operations) that we want to try. I appreciated chatting with the staffers because they answered a lot of our questions about introducing a bill, campaigning other offices to support it, and then figuring out how to implement it. Moreover, it reaffirmed for me the importance of strong relationships in the legislature, not just to pass your bill but to help you find new work opportunities.
Experiencing these two fast-paced (and admittedly, a bit sleep-deprived) days, I developed a deeper appreciation for the relationships CAUSE has built with AANHPI civic engagement groups across the state, like APAPA and APICA. It reassured me that regardless of which level of civic engagement I go to, I can build a community.