LOS ANGELES — A national reckoning on sexual harassment that got its start in Hollywood is now upending Democratic politics throughout the nation's most populous state.

Scandal-induced resignations will cost California’s Democratic Party its supermajority in the state Legislature at least temporarily next year, and the fallout is spilling into the 2018 elections. It’s scrambling calculations for some of the state’s most powerful politicians in Sacramento, and even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was caught in the fray when she defended now former-Rep. John Conyers last month as an “icon.”


“We’re in unchartered territory here,” said Garry South, a veteran Democratic strategist who advised former California Gov. Gray Davis. “This whole issue has hit a critical mass in a very short time. I’ve never seen anything like it before — and I don’t know where it ends.”

The sexual harassment firestorm prompted by revelations about producer Harvey Weinstein has since burned through careers in Washington, Silicon Valley and statehouses around the country — including Sacramento. But the accusations unfolding in California are hitting the state’s dominant Democratic Party especially hard. The state Assembly is convening hours of public hearings dedicated to sexual harassment, while the state Senate leader, Kevin de León, recently announced the hiring of two law firms to investigate accusations of misconduct.

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After more than 150 women signed a letter demanding more victim protection and accountability through a movement they dubbed #WeSaidEnough, de León quickly moved to address their concerns. The Senate established a hotline to field calls from within the Capitol about sexual harassment and assault and hired a rape crisis organization to provide assistance and counseling to victims of sexual misconduct. But some women activists say he hasn’t done enough, especially when it comes to protecting whistleblowers.

The heightened attention on disorder in the Legislature could prove a political liability for de León, who is mounting a bid to unseat the state’s senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, next year.

Among those who have been outspoken in their demands for more action is Christine Pelosi, chairwoman of the California Democratic Party Women’s Caucus and Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, who told lawmakers at the start of an Assembly hearing last month, “We have rapists in this building. We have molesters among us.”

Last month, then-Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, a Los Angeles Democrat, resigned after the Los Angeles Times published accusations of harassment from six women. Shortly after, Assemblyman Matt Dababneh, a former aide to Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman announced he will resign effective Jan. 1, after multiple women accused him of misconduct. A Sacramento lobbyist, Pamela Lopez, accused Dababneh of cornering her in a Las Vegas bathroom last year and masturbating while urging her to touch him.

Now, Los Angeles-area Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman has been caught in the glare of the Dababneh headlines. A report from McClatchy published last week featured eight former aides saying that the environment in Sherman's D.C. and California offices was “toxic” – and that the congressman was oblivious to the problem. “’Congressman Sherman showed zero interest in the personal well-being of his staffers and there's no reason to believe he would have cared or taken any action if a complaint was made,' said one former staffer,’’ McClatchy reported. Sherman insisted his staff never complained about his former aide’s sexual behavior.

Dababneh and Bocanegra both denied the accusations against them, while a third Democrat, Tony Mendoza, is clinging to his seat in the state Senate amid accusations of harassment. Mendoza has denied wrongdoing and rejected a request by de León, his ex-roommate, that he take a leave of absence.

A 'snowball effect'

Though Dababneh and Bocanegra are both likely to be replaced by fellow Democrats — restoring the party’s supermajority in the Assembly — their seats will remain vacant for several months, potentially making it more difficult for Democrats to secure the votes necessary to raise taxes. Meanwhile, the spreading accounts of wrongdoing are dominating public attention and exposing rifts within the party about how to manage a political crisis.

“It’s kind of a snowball effect, and every week seems to bring a new powerful man who is brought down by these accusations,” said Jessica Levinson, a Los Angeles-based political analyst. “And I don’t feel that we’ve totally cleaned house- and all the accusations are made and everybody else who remains in power has never conducted themselves in an inappropriate way before.”

Levinson added, “This is the story that is relatable to close to half of the population, so I don’t think it’s going away.”

Christine Pelosi, who is now general counsel of the non-profit We Said Enough Equity Project, said the only way to protect Sacramento workers is to aggressively address and investigate complaints -- and shield victims from reprisals.

“We have got to move from Twitter justice to lasting justice — and the only way to do that is to have a real system in place,’’ she told POLITICO. You can run somebody out of town on a rail — but the victim doesn’t get closure and the culture hasn’t changed,’’ she said. “So you don’t rid yourself of the real problem.”

Pelosi said her organization is considering a ballot measure to address reforms, transparency and victims’ protection.

“I think the public is very ready … they’re always far ahead of the politicians on this one,’’ she said. “The public is far ahead of us: They already think the legislators live in a separate world, a fantasy camp.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, Pelosi’s mother has come under criticism from national Democrats for her handling of accusations against Conyers. Before Conyers announced last month he was stepping down from his post as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee amid accusations of sexual harassment, Pelosi drew criticism for an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in which she called Conyers an “icon” for his record of work “to protect women.”

And outside of the California Legislature, radio executive and University of California trustee Norman Pattiz, who was first appointed by Davis and reappointed by Brown, has come under pressure to resign after tape surfaced of him asking comedian Heather McDonald if he could hold her breasts. In a separate incident last week, Craig Cheslog, a California Democratic Party regional director from the Bay Area, resigned amid accusations of sexual misconduct.

Cheslog said in his resignation letter that he was confident of the outcome of a “fair, fact-based exploration of this matter” but that he wanted to “prevent any allegations of personal misconduct against me from creating a distraction within the party at a critical moment in national and state politics.”

Harassment scandal 'transcends everything'

As in other states like Florida, the sexual harassment scandals threaten to overtake legislative agendas as well.

“It’s an election year, all members want to get a lot of things done, the governor wants to get a lot of things done, and the last thing you want is division among the ranks,” said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and former speechwriter for Gov. Pete Wilson. “I do know that they’re struggling to find a way to deal with this.”

De León said at a news conference last week that the reforms he is advancing are “unprecedented” and “just the beginning of a long road to overhaul the way the California Legislature handles complaints of sexual harassment.”

Asked about the effect of the accusations on his Senate aspirations, de León said, “This has nothing to do with politics, and for those who perhaps over-politicize this situation, they do demean and do a disservice to those who are victims of sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, sexual assault – they just do a disservice overall to this really prevailing issue in our country.”

Laura Friedman, the Democratic assemblywoman chairing the state Assembly’s committee work on sexual harassment, said this week that Democrats’ impending loss of their supermajority is “irrelevant” to her.

“If there are people who are preying on our staff members, that transcends everything,” she said.

Friedman said she worries not only about Capitol staffers, but about women who work in service industries or elsewhere who are victimized. Seemingly no workplace has been immune from scandal. Earlier this week, Judge Alex Kozinski of the San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct involving 15 women. The allegations were initially reported by The Washington Post.

“I think people are finally starting to talk about it, and it’s wonderful that they’re talking about it,” Friedman said. “California a has a pretty strong moral compass, and people are rightfully outraged about these allegations.”

Her committee is planning three hearings on sexual harassment for January and has invited Senate leaders to participate in a bicameral process. In a state where women are vastly underrepresented in the Legislature, Senate leaders announced this month that state Sen. Toni Atkins will succeed de León next year as Senate president pro tem — the first woman ever to hold the post.

“Overall, sort of in the big picture, what’s happening is for the first time women’s complaints about sexual harassment and related sexual aggression and other aggressions are coming forward and being treated seriously,” said Eric Bauman, chairman of the California Democratic Party. “Sunlight is being shined down upon this situation, and I think we will actually see real and legitimate change in both the Assembly and the Senate.”

Robin Swanson, a Democratic political consultant in Sacramento, said she anticipates that public attention on sexual harassment will likely benefit politicians who surround themselves with powerful women – and, she hopes, encourage more women to run for public office themselves.

“Hopefully something like this is not only cleaning house, it’s a clarion call for more women to run for office, too,” she said. “To me, it feels like it’s a fever breaking, it’s always kind of been a sickness that has been there, and now the fever’s breaking because we’re airing it out.”