Assemblywoman Nell Soto, an 81-year old Democrat who has been missing from Sacramento since September due to illness, has yet to pull the necessary paperwork to run for re-election ahead of this Friday’s filing deadline, spurring plans to succeed her.
Soto, a longtime Latino activist whose political work dates back to the 1940s, has been hampered by health problems since she won election to the Assembly in 2006.
Besides missing every legislative session since September, she was absent for several months in 2007 and has not been present for a single hearing of the powerful Joint Legislative Audit Committee, an investigating arm of the Legislature, which she ostensibly chairs.
Mike Lewis, a Soto campaign spokesman, said “if you asked Nell she’d say yeah, she’s raring to go.”
But Soto’s physician is urging more caution and, perhaps, retirement, he said.
"She needs to get on the same page as her doctor,” Lewis added. “The doctor is concerned about the stress of the travel and what the stress is going to do to her.”
Pomona Mayor Norma Torres, a Democrat, is laying the groundwork for a run in preparation for Soto’s potential retirement.
“To date, she has not pulled papers. I am getting ready,” said Torres. “The primary is just around the corner.”
Torres said Soto's deteriorating health prompted her to consider running. The legislator has battled multiple bouts of pneumonia since her election in 2006, Lewis said.
“That’s one of the reasons I started exploring this and talking a little bit about what it means,” Torres said.
While absent, Soto has continued to collect her full salary, currently $116,208, and per diem during legislative sessions, as illness is considered an excused absence.
She collected $22,032 in per diem during her extended absences in the first six months of 2007, according to Assembly records. She has collected another $10,000 in per diem, money which is earmarked for “travel and living expenses,” in 2008.
Her aides have defended the practice, saying she has to continue to maintain a second residence in Sacramento, even if she hasn’t been traveling to use it.
Lewis said Soto has remained active even if not in Sacramento. “Nell doesn’t sit still, and when she’s not in Sacramento, she’s running all over the district here locally,” he said. Her active schedule caused the relapsing of illness, Lewis said Soto’s doctor told her.
Nell Soto is the wife of the late Phil Soto, one of two Latinos to win an Assembly seat in 1962, the first Latino lawmakers in the modern-era California Legislature. Nell served 12 years on the Pomona City Council before running for state office in the late 1990s.
In a 2006 Bee profile, Soto revealed her husband urged her to run for the Legislature on his deathbed in 1997. She ran and won a seat in Assembly in 1998, before serving in the Senate and then returning back to the Assembly in 2006.
In that same profile, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said of Soto, “I love her, man.”
Lewis said the leadership has been supportive of Soto’s illness. “Her health is more important than the politics of the Capitol,” he said.
But as Soto has wavered about – and indicated that she might run for re-election despite her poor health – others are stepping forward.
“Obviously we don’t want to lose this seat, but we want to be respectful of her,” said Torres.
Maurice Ayala, son of former state Sen. Ruben Ayala, has also filed paperwork to run for the seat. A losing candidate in past Southern California races, Ayala said he will run regardless of Soto’s decision, though he has yet to begin any fundraising.
“My candidacy is not based is not based on what she does,” he said.
Torres did not rule out running against Soto if she does file for re-election, though that was clearly an option of last resort.
“I support her. She’s my representative. I would have to sit down with my support group and we would have to make that decision (if Soto runs again),” she said.
She added, “I am probably going to be one of those people at the Norwalk registrar’s office at 5 pm on Friday, waiting to turn in paperwork.”
@Nyx.CommentBody@