California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia is under investigation following allegations from a former staffer who said Garcia groped him in 2014. Politics Top #MeToo lawmakers donate to colleague accused of harassment

SAN FRANCISCO — Just days after taking a victory lap for successfully shepherding a landmark bill to beef up sexual harassment investigations in the California legislature, two leading female Democratic legislators in the #MeToo movement wrote generous political checks to their Democratic colleague, Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia — the subject of an ongoing sexual harassment investigation.

Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, chair of the Joint Legislative Subcommittee on Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response, and state Senator Holly Mitchell, the committee’s vice-chair, each donated $2,500 each to Garcia’s reelection campaign last week within two days of Gov. Jerry Brown‘s signing of a law they had pushed calling for the establishment of new investigative procedures for harassment victims, according to records on file with the CA secretary of state’s office.


The joint committee chaired by the two women legislators was convened in June with the goals of improving reporting and investigation of #MeToo allegations — as well as protecting victims of abuse in the state capitol. The bill advanced by the women allocates at least $1.5 million to form an investigative arm of the committee to enforce the legislature’s sexual harassment policy.

Other Democratic women legislators who have been outspoken #MeToo advocates and who also donated to Garcia’s campaign last week included Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner of Berkeley and Senator Hannah Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara, who wrote checks for $4,400, and $2,500 respectively, state records show.

Garcia — featured in Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” edition as one of the “Silence Breakers” on #MeToo issues — is under continued investigation following allegations first reported in POLITICO from a former legislative staffer, Daniel Fierro, then 25, who alleged that the assemblywoman was inebriated in 2014 when she groped him following an Assembly softball game.

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After initial findings cleared Garcia, Fierro appealed the decision — and the investigation was reopened in June. Garcia has been stripped of committee assignments and had to attend mandated sensitivity training after POLITICO reported her use of homophobic comments regarding former Assembly Speaker John Perez.

The actions by Friedman and Mitchell come in the same week the nation’s capital has been roiled by the issue of sexual harassment, and women’s groups have strongly advocated for the rights of #MeToo victims.

In Washington, Democratic legislators including California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris are standing behind California professor Christine Blasey Ford, who is expected to testify on Capitol Hill Thursday regarding her allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Reached by POLITICO Sunday, Friedman said of her campaign check to Garcia: “I donated to her because she was very helpful to me...and she asked me for a contribution.” She said understood the current #MeToo investigation of Garcia is the result of an appeal, “which I think is a little different.”

“I certainly hope the investigation clears her,’’ Friedman said. She added, “If the charges are substantiated, that would be horrible and unfortunate and until the investigation is closed, it’s really hard to say whether I would regret having donated to her. I hope she gets closure on it.”

Friedman said that she would not have donated had the first investigation found Garcia guilty of inappropriate behavior, but “at some point, the investigation has to run its course….I hope that all parties get closure soon.”

Mitchell, the legislative committee vice-chair, told POLITICO she was entirely justified in making her contribution to Garcia since the investigation surrounding the East Los Angeles assemblywoman was reopened as the procedural result of an appeal from Fierro.

She noted that the Assembly allows for such appeals, but “the Senate does not have a system of appeal,’’ the Los Angeles-area senator said. “That’s on the Assembly — and that’s not my house,’’ she said.

“From my perspective, [regarding Garcia’s] initial claim, she was cleared of all sexual harassment allegations. She is a sitting member of the legislature and she is a colleague,’’ Mitchell said of Garcia.

Moreover, she said, the original investigation surrounding Garcia came during the June primary, “and she won her primary kind of significantly,’’ Mitchell said. “So given all of those things, that’s why I made my contribution — and stand by it.”

Mitchell rejected Republican criticism that the donations smacked of hypocrisy as Democratic women demand attention to the female #MeToo accusers of Brett Kavanaugh.

“We shouldn’t fall victim to loose comparisons,’’ she said. “The women in the Kavanaugh case have not had a hearing,’’ which she said was a significant difference from the accuser in Garcia’s case.

Fierro told POLITICO Sunday that the latest actions and comments from Friedman are “incredibly disturbing” because the legislature found cause to reopen his complaint against Garcia — and witnesses are still being interviewed.

“At the end of the day, it says something to me about the institution of the legislature — that you can have the co-chairs of the committee formed to address the #MeToo problem saying, “Well, who cares?”

He said their checks are blatant evidence that the legislative investigation is already weighted in Garcia’s defense. “How can you give somebody money and say, “Well, we’re being impartial?” he said. “You can’t tell me you’re letting the process takes its course — and at the same time write a $2000 check to her.”

He added: “If money is speech in politics — then their money speaks really loudly.”

Some California Republicans have seized on the issue in the same week when Democrats in Washington are demanding respect for #MeToo victims in the Kavanaugh hearings.

Mike Simpfenderfer, the Republican candidate opposing Garcia in her East Los Angeles County-based district, said Sunday that the actions of Democratic women legislators in openly backing a fellow Democrat under scrutiny for sexual harassment smacks of “total hypocrisy” as women in the party demand Blasey Ford be heard in her allegations against Kavanaugh.

He charged Democratic women in Sacramento are apparently not as interested in hearing from a male victim who has made a credible charge against one of their own.

“It’s like the good old boys club — except it’s a good old girls club,’’ he told POLITICO. “These two politicians are #MeToo advocates when it’s convenient — and it’s another reason why it’s time for a change,’’ he said.

The latest development was also lambasted by one of the Capitol’s leading lobbyists, who told POLITICO earlier this year that he, too, was harrassed and groped by an inebriated Garcia at a Sacramento fundraiser.

“It seems like the fix is in,’’ said the lobbyist, who again spoke on the condition of anonymity fearing professional retribution. He said the legislature’s comments revealed “a sham of an investigation” of Garcia, adding “and if that’s the case, why would anyone risk coming forward — especially if their ability to make a living was what’s in the balance?’’

Asked about the donations by the women legislators, Christine Pelosi, who serves as counsel to #WeSaidEnough — the group of Sacramento women who signed a letter demanding better investigation and victim protection in #MeToo cases — said, “I don’t know what they know, or the choices they made in supporting their colleague.”

But she said, “this is a frustration of having politicians investigate themselves, and this is why these [#MeToo] investigations need to be independent” from the legislative body.

Pelosi, who chairs the California Democratic Women’s Caucus and is the daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, added: “I’m disappointed that we don’t have more reform and transparency...It’s embarrassing for everyone to try and explain the optics. And what this does is raise more questions than answers.”