‘Never forget where you came from’: CA state senator Anthony Portantino seeks 30th congressional district seat

Sometimes, criticism comes not from advocacy groups but from grumpy public comments. Like at one meeting in August, when a caller phoned in to complain that lawmakers were “rearranging the lawn chairs while the Titanic sinks.”

“Thank you,” Portantino said as lawmakers hung up on the caller. But the cranky constituent kept calling back. She said she opposed lawmakers’ “laundry list of nonsense.” She urged lawmakers to “just fix the state and do your jobs” and complained that “playing trivia on our tax dollars is shameful and pathetic.”

Portantino stayed respectful throughout the calls. “Thank you,” he said again as lawmakers hung up for the final time. Regardless of someone’s political views, Portantino says he stays polite. Still, he tries to keep things moving.

Not all of Portantino’s interactions with the public are filtered through the governmental sieve of a committee meeting or bound by the strict rules found in the halls of government. Linda Roth, a resident of La Cañada Flintridge in northern Los Angeles County, encountered the senator through a community organization.

Roth was told that Portantino truly listens to his constituents. She told him about her son, who has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Roth said that conversation eventually led to Senate Bill 1016, which made children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder eligible for special education and other services.

The bill was signed into law last year. Roth was thrilled. “I was overwhelmed when it got to that point,” Roth said. “He worked very tirelessly to make this happen.”

Carol Kocivar, former president of the California State Parent Teacher Association, has also worked with Portantino on bills.

One such bill was SB 691, which would require local educational agencies to screen kindergarten through second-grade students for dyslexia unless the parent or guardian objected. The bill remains held in committee, though Governor Gavin Newsom included funding for it in the 2023-24 budget.

Another issue they worked on was school start times. The resulting legislation, signed into law in 2019 with an implementation date in 2022, mandates that high school classes can’t start before 8:30 a.m. and middle school classes before 8 a.m.

“I know that early school start time is very tough for kids,” Kocivar said. With later times, "kids do better and they’re happier and they’re less car accidents. It’s a health issue.” (Since she’s still a member of the state PTA, Kocivar stressed she wasn’t making any endorsements.)

Portantino said it took him three years to push that legislation through. It required building consensus, as the chairs of both the Senate and Assembly Education committees were initially opposed.

Ultimately, Portantino won them over. “Long term, suicides in California are going to go down and test scores are going to go up,” he explained. The issue is personal to Portantino: He lost an older brother to suicide. “I don’t want to read in the newspaper that another family had to deal with this.”

Politics was not something Portantino ever thought he’d get into. His first foray into elected office began several years ago, when, as the father of a young girl, he found himself in a town where the school board and city council didn’t get along. That inspired him to run for the La Cañada Flintridge City Council. 

Once elected, he got those involved with local parent-teacher associations talking to city commissioners. A partnership agreement followed, resulting in a new public library and skate park. It’s those types of results that drive Portantino. “It’s not the name on the parking spot that matters,” he said: “It’s what you do in that parking spot.”

Portantino says his brother’s suicide has played a large role in his policy decisions — leading him to become a strong advocate on behavioral health issues. He currently has a bill pending that, if enacted, would help train school employees to recognize the signs of suicidal behavior. He’s also authored legislation to put a suicide hotline number of student IDs. “I want to bring this issue out of the shadows so people can get help,” he said.

As for his general philosophy towards governance, Portantino says he draws on lessons he learned at home as a child. His father died when he was young. His mother instilled in him the value of hard work, integrity and decorum. “I think that’s what drives me as an elected official,” he said, and it's led him to a simple mantra: “Never forget where you came from.”

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