Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said he is looking for opportunities to work on education issues after he terms out of office in 2014.
"I would love to stay in the Legislature. That is what I would love to do. I'm just not allowed to do it under the law," Pérez said in a public conversation Thursday with Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California.
He went on to say that enacting term limits is "one of the most negative decisions the voters have made. ... "It has hurt us as a state."
Pérez said he "may very well not run for another office for a while" because he is termed out of the Assembly, and the Senate seat representing his Los Angeles district is filled. "There's nothing that's really out there," he said.
"I want to do something where I can still be engaged in public policy discussions ... The greatest enjoyment I get is working with students, whether K-12 students or university students. So I want to do something where I can interact with students."
As Assembly speaker, Pérez holds seats on the governing boards of both of California's university systems. His signature bill last year to raise taxes on out-of-state corporations to fund scholarships failed to get out of the Legislature.
– Laurel Rosenhall
CAPITOL WATCH
Ben Hueso was sworn in Thursday morning to the state Senate, restoring the two-thirds supermajority in the 40-seat upper house that its Democrats temporarily lost. Hueso, who is moving up from the Assembly, won the 40th Senate District seat last week that fellow San Diego Democrat Juan Vargas resigned after he was elected to Congress in November.
– Jeremy B. White
WORTH REPEATING
"For me, Nick (Petris) was one of those people who show why term limits was a bad idea."
SEN. LONI HANCOCK, praising the fellow Bay Area Democratic senator as a role model who exemplified public service at its best. He died Wednesday at the age of 90.
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