Labor to Labor 2008

June Direct Primary

Phone Bank Schedule

Loni Hancock has had a remarkable public service career, spending more than three decades as a forceful advocate for open government, educational reforms, environmental protections, health care, economic development and social justice.  She has served at the local, state and federal levels, including under Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Now serving in her third term as the representative of the 14th Assembly District, Assemblywoman Hancock chairs the Committee on Natural Resources.  Assemblywoman Hancock has led the Committee to pass historic environmental legislation that protects open space, expands recycling programs and promotes healthy city-infill strategies in the state. 

Assemblywoman Hancock also chairs the Assembly Select Committee on Bridging the Achievement Gap.  Under her guidance, the Committee has tackled issues related to high dropout rates, school-to-career programs and oversight of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.  In 2006, the Governor signed legislation authored by Assemblywoman Hancock that greatly expands career technical education programs for high school students.

In addition, the Assemblywoman sits on the Committee on Rules and chairs the Subcommittee on Sexual Harassment and Violence Prevention. She is a member of the Committee on Education, the Committee on Housing and Community Development, the Budget Committee and the Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services.

As a member of the Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, she helped expand health care programs for children, increased funding for foster youth programs and fought cuts in Medi-Cal stipends and proposed cuts to programs for seniors and people with disabilities.

In addition to issues of the environment, education and health care, Assemblywoman Hancock is strongly committed to campaign finance reform, and she authored AB 583, the California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, to provide full public financing for all statewide races in California.

Recognizing the importance of communication between constituents and their elected officials, Assemblywoman Hancock was the first state Assemblymember in California to launch a Web log, or "blog." This successful blog enabled her to communicate directly with and receive input from her constituents on a variety of issues.

Before being elected to the Assembly, Assemblywoman Hancock headed the Western Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Education. Working with schools, communities, state and local governments, she helped launch many of President Clinton's education initiatives.

Prior to her position with the Clinton administration, Assemblywoman Hancock broke through the glass ceiling by her election as the first woman to serve as the Mayor of Berkeley, California. Serving as mayor for two terms, she led an urban renaissance in Berkeley, balanced seven straight city budgets, forged a historic agreement between the city and the University of California, began the revitalization of downtown Berkeley, led efforts to secure additional open space and launched a Bio-Tech Academy at Berkeley High School in partnership with the Bayer Corporation.

Assemblywoman Hancock also served as President Jimmy Carter's Regional Director for ACTION, overseeing a host of domestic volunteer programs including VISTA, Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions and Retired Senior Volunteer Program.

Assemblywoman Hancock has lived in Berkeley since 1964 and is married to Tom Bates. They have four children and seven grandchildren.

Assemblymember Loni Hancock has a strong record of supporting California’s working families. She has carried critical legislation, personally negotiated on behalf of unions, and been arrested on picket lines in support of labor organizing campaigns in her district. Below is a partial list of issues Loni has worked on in support of working people and their unions.

• Loni authored California’s exciting new law to expand hands-on learning and career technical education to lower the unacceptably high dropout rate and better prepare our young people for college and careers.

• Loni has supported all of the UC and CSU affiliated unions in contract negotiations over the years, including the on-going negotiations for AFSCME workers on several UC campuses.  Other unions she has supported in this effort include CUE and UPTE.

• In 2004, as part of the continuing fight with the UC to provide workers with good working conditions and a livable wage, Loni introduced AB 1230 that established card check recognition for employees seeking to organize a union at both UC and CSU systems. The passage of this law lead to a successful organizing effort of graduate assistants.

• In 2004, working in coalition with former Senator Richard Alarcón, Christina Vasquez of the garment workers union, UNITE HERE, SEIU, and the California Labor Federation, Loni was able to pass critical anti-sweatshop legislation. The new law requires all contractors for state procurement contracts to sign a "Sweat Free" Code of Conduct certifying that they adhere to minimum worker protections and that those products procured for the State were not made using sweatshop labor.

• Loni carried AB 2532 which was supported by the California Labor Federation, CNA, SEIU and AFSCME and would have required hospitals to provide "lift teams" to assist health care workers in lifting patients.

• When SEIU UHW was engaged in their protracted contract battle with Sutter Hospitals, Loni hosted a forum in Oakland to alert the community to licensure issues and charity care limitations on the part of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and regularly advocated for hospital staff before and during union strikes.  Loni has also supported CNA in their contract fight with Sutter.

• Loni has consistently opposed Wal-Mart stores moving into the Bay Area and supported the efforts in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties to keep "Supercenters" out of the area. 

• Over the years Loni has intervened on behalf of SEIU in their efforts to secure better contracts for long-term caregivers and IHSS workers. Recently, she intervened in stalled negotiations over contract renewals with several major nursing home operators.

• Loni intervened on behalf of Berkeley Federation of Teachers to encourage contract settlement, successfully averting a strike.

• Loni is currently working to support immigrant workers at the Woodfin Hotel in Emeryville in their fight for livable wages.  Loni advocated for the Woodfin workers and was recently arrested at a rally supporting fired workers, most of which are women housekeepers.

• During the 2007 legislative session, Loni introduced AB 524 on behalf of PEU Local One authorizing their contract with the local wastewater district.

• Last year she introduced legislation to lift the 24-hour visitation cap for post surgical physical therapy, occupational therapy and chiropractic care in worker compensation cases. This bill will help to undo the damage caused by the Governor’s workers compensation reforms that Loni opposed.

• When Bayer threatened to contract out to a non-union security firm, Loni intervened on behalf of SEIU to ensure that union jobs were not lost.

• This past year, Loni intervened on behalf of IBT after they were locked out, writing letters and making calls urging Waste Management to settle its labor dispute. She introduced legislation that would have allowed the City of Oakland to declare a public health crisis and authorize the City to immediately hire union workers to perform the services when Waste Management stalled in settling their labor dispute.

• Loni attended rallies and wrote letters to support the striking Operating Engineers in their protracted efforts to fight back against contract modifications at Valley Power.

• Recently, Loni joined Assemblymember Sandre Swanson to hold a hearing and send letters expressing concerns about the heavy dependence on independent truckers and health and safety issues at the Port of Oakland, including the health impacts of idling trucks used by contractors at the port.

• Loni co-authored SB 840, a comprehensive solution to our healthcare crisis that lowers healthcare insurance premiums.

• Loni supports living wage ordinances, working most recently to pass Measure C in Emeryville.

• Loni supported the Engineers and Scientists of IFPTE it their efforts to get PG&E to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair contract.

• Loni worked along side of Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union UNITE HERE to get just contracts and the right to organize for restaurant and spa workers at the Claremont Hotel and Resort.  During the protracted organizing effort, Loni honored the boycott and encouraged others to do the same, including advocating with UCB to remove most of its business from the hotel, and meeting with hotel management in support of workers. 

As Mayor of Berkeley, head of President Clinton’s Western Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Education and a member of the Assembly Education Committee, Loni Hancock has devoted much of her career to developing public policies that support and improve public schools in the East Bay and throughout California.

• As head of the Western Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Education, Loni launched after-school, early reading preparation, college preparedness, and other initiatives. She helped schools in California receive millions of dollars in federal education funding.

• As Mayor of Berkeley, Loni Hancock led the effort to open Berkeley High School’s first biotechnology academy in partnership with a major Berkeley company.

• As a member of the Assembly Committee on Education, Loni fought against tuition increases, elimination of outreach programs, and deep cuts to community college, CSU and UC budgets.

• Loni successfully fought for legislation to reduce the interest rate West Contra Costa Unified School District must pay the state in its repayment of a bailout loan. The reduction saves WCCUSD about $500,000 that now can serve children.

• Introduced legislation to more closely align California's standardized testing requirements with federal requirements to lessen the burden on our teachers and students.

• Understanding that a quality education requires access to quality resources, Loni authored a bill that would provide all California K-12 students with access to high quality online research databases and magazines.

• To help prepare our young people for the jobs of the future, Loni authored California’s exciting new law to expand hands-on learning and career technical education so that we can better prepare our young people for college and careers and lower the unacceptably high dropout rate.

• Loni has served five years as the Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Bridging the Achievement Gap. 

• Introduced a bill to streamline attendance reporting requirements for school-based after school programs to help get programs up and running faster.

• As Mayor of Berkeley, Loni brought city funding to open a health clinic at Berkeley High School, to provide all students with access to healthcare.

• In order to keep our children safe at school, Loni authored a bill to increase funding to ensure that California’s schools are seismically safe.

• Introduced legislation, which was ultimately incorporated in the state school bond measure passed in 2006, to encourage "green schools."

• Introduced legislation to expand the free and reduced school breakfast program to a universal program so that all elementary school students would have a healthy breakfast each morning. 

• Won passage of a bill that requires labeling or notification of families if irradiated meats are served to children at school.

As Chair of the Natural Resources Committee for the past 3 years, Loni has helped create innovative solutions, improve standards, expand protections and adopt smarter policies that tackle the complex issues facing California’s environment. Loni:

• Named Assemblywoman of the Year by the California Association of Local Conservation Corps in 2006.

• Named Legislator of the Year by Californians Against Waste in 2005.

• Authored committee legislation expanding recycling of glass and plastic.

• Authored legislation encouraging building green schools, and secured funding in the 2006 statewide school bond to provide $100 million to school districts to finance building schools meeting CHIPS (Collaborative for High Performance Schools) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards.

• Helped secure millions of dollars for East Shore State Park improvements.

• In concert with Save the Bay, secured money in the state budget for a beach pollution monitoring program of bayside beaches around the San Francisco Bay.

• Passed legislation expanding State loans to companies that invest in recycled product development and waste reduction technologies.

• Led the fight to stop a housing development project slated for a former chemical manufacturing site that had not been adequately cleaned up, and followed up by passing legislation that will keep similar situations from happening in other places.

• Understanding the importance of building housing near transit hubs, authored legislation that expanded opportunities for cities with transit-oriented development to take advantage of transit village incentives.

• Working with the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), carried legislation requiring government agencies to adopt transportation plans that accurately reflect the impacts of sprawl and infill development and transit opportunity to get information leading to improved planning to reduce air pollution and global warming emissions.

• Helped secure $850 million in the Housing Bond for infill housing incentives and brownfield cleanup.

• Has introduced legislation expanding incentives for solar power installation.

• Authored legislation to address the global warming problems associated with urban heat islands by requiring the use of advanced technologies like cool roofs, pavement and paints.