Watch: ‘How Diverse is Your Government? Your vote & who holds power in California’

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This event is in partnership with Solutions Journalism Network and Report for America.

Register to vote and check your status here: https://registertovote.ca.gov

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How diverse is your government, from school board to governor?

Join us at noon on Oct. 6 for a conversation about voting rights and elected power with California State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, political consultant Luis Alvarado, Mindy Romero of USC’s Center for Inclusive Democracy, Laura Gomez of UCLA School of Law, and Robert Rubin, a civil rights attorney for over 40 years.

We’ll look at how term limits, district elections and other policies have changed the makeup of who holds power in California.

Sacramento Bee reporter Kim Bojórquez and columnist Marcos Bretón will moderate the Oct. 6 discussion.

Please join us for a live virtual event, “How Diverse is Your Government?” at Noon Oct. 6.

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What: How Diverse is Your Government? What you need to know about your vote and who holds power in California

When: Noon Oct. 6

Where: This free and virtual event will livestream on all of McClatchy’s California news sites: sacbee.com, fresnobee.com, modbee.com, sanluisobispo.com and mercedsunstar.com.

You can also watch on The Sacramento Bee’s Facebook and YouTube pages.

Maria Elena Durazo is a California state senator who represents District 24, which includes Los Angeles neighborhoods of Eagle Rock, Koreatown and East Los Angeles. In 2008, Durazo served as the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, and from 2006 through 2014, she was the first woman secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. She was born the seventh child in a family of 11 children to migrant worker parents

Mindy Romero is the founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, which is part of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy based in Sacramento. Romero is a political sociologist and her research focuses on political behavior and race/ethnicity, and seeks to explain patterns of voting and political underrepresentation, particularly among youths and communities of color.

Luis Alvarado has worked deputy press secretary for the California Republican Party, senior advisor to Meg Whitman for Governor, Mike Villines for Insurance Commissioner and several State Senate Congressional races. Alvarado is a co-founder of GROW Elect Political Action Committee, which helps Latino Republicans get elected to municipal offices. Recently, he joined The Lincoln Project’s California fundraising team.

Robert Rubin, a civil rights attorney for over 40 years, was the longstanding legal director at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco. He left the Lawyer’s Committee in 2012 in order to establish his own practice focusing primarily on voting issues. He represented California voters in a case upholding the constitutionality of the National Voter Registration Act (“motor voter” law) and secured the first injunction in the nation ordering a state to comply with that law.

Laura E. Gómez is a UCLA law professor. She is the co-founder and current faculty director of the Critical Race Studies Program. Her books include “Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism” and “Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race.” She was the first Mexican American woman in the U.S. to earn both a law degree (1992) and a Ph.D. (1994).

Moderator: Kim Bojórquez

Bojórquez joined The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Bureau as a Report for America corps member in 2020. She covers Latino communities in California.

Moderator: Marcos Bretón

Bretón writes commentary and opinion columns about the Sacramento region, California and the United States. He’s been a California newspaperman for more than 30 years. He’s a graduate of San Jose State University, a voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame and the proud son of Mexican immigrants.

This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Watch: ‘How Diverse is Your Government? Your vote & who holds power in California’."