Assemblywoman Mia Bonta (Photo: https://a18.asmdc.org) Assemblymember Mia Bonta (@AsmMiaBonta) / Twitter)
Assemblywoman Mia Bonta Wags Her Finger in Reporter’s Face When Questioned About Conflict of Interest
Bonta says there is no legal or ethical conflict in her serving as Chair of Budget Subcommittee overseeing husband’s agency
By Katy Grimes, February 20, 2023 9:01 am
In the absence of any political opposition in California, with Democrats fully enjoying their supermajority in the California Legislature, it’s satisfying to see a State Capitol journalist grill a politician on blatantly unethical behavior, and attempt to hold one accountable.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s wife, Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, was appointed by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon chairwoman of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee 5, a budget subcommittee that oversees the California Department of Justice’s budget and spending. This ethically questionable decision made a lot of eyebrows rise. The Assembly subcommittee examines how public spending is used in public safety agencies, including AG Bonta’s Department of Justice.
Speaker Rendon should know better – the optics alone of this appointed chairmanship are fishy.
KCRA’s Ashley Zavala first broke the story of the Bonta family conflict of interest, and tried for a week to get Mia Bonta to address the obvious conflict, even enduring Mia Bonta’s finger wagging in her face.
Assemblywoman Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), may have just announced that she will recuse herself as the chairwoman of the committee that oversees the budget of her husband, but she did not say who will replace her, or if she will actually step down from those hearings.
Strangely, Gov. Gavin Newsom even plead ignorance when questioned by Zavala, claiming he knew nothing about the Bonta’s conflict-of-interest situation. “‘I literally have no idea what you’re talking about,’ he said even after I explained,” Zavala reported.
I asked Gov. Gavin Newsom if it’s ethical for Assemblymember M Bonta to lead a budget committee that oversees her husband AG Bonta’s budget.
“I literally have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said even after I explained. pic.twitter.com/aLFCWotetq
— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) February 16, 2023
“But he can find time nearly every day to weigh-in on decisions of other states. #glasshouses” a Twitter user responded.
How Dare You
Apparently Mia Bonta doesn’t appreciate having her ethics questioned. Rather than talking calmly with Zavala about the decision to place her on the subcommittee, Bonta read from a very lawyerly prepared statement on camera, and still didn’t officially declare she would step down from the committee overseeing the California Department of Justice. When Zavala tried to drill down on an actual recusal, Bonta pointed her finger at Zavala’s face and said, “Choose to air my statement, it is the truth.”
Bonta issued a statement later saying that she will recuse herself from budget hearings involving the DOJ budget, but offered no details. She also said in her statement that there is no legal or ethical conflict in her serving as Chair of Budget Subcommittee 5.
The Bonta’s also have been questioned for their personal nonprofit activities. “While she led nonprofits that promote children’s literacy and he was in his third term in the Legislature, Rob Bonta in 2017 created a foundation to support community programs and give scholarships to needy students,” CalMatters reported in 2020. “The Bonta California Progress Foundation is one of a growing number of nonprofits launched by California state lawmakers in the last decade.”
The Bonta California Progress Foundation employed Mia Bonta prior to her election to the Assembly in the seat formerly held by her husband before his appointment to Attorney General.
CalMatters continued:
“In one of its first acts of charity in 2018, the assemblyman’s foundation gave $25,000 to Literacy Lab, a nonprofit where Mialisa Bonta at the time was earning a six-figure salary as CEO. The arrangement — which the Bontas say is consistent with their other philanthropy — appears to be legal, according to experts in federal tax law and California’s political ethics law.”
“This should not be allowed, and the law should be amended to prohibit it,” said Bob Stern, who was the principal co-author of California’s Political Reform Act, the landmark 1974 law that amounts to the state’s tool for preventing corruption.
“The reason there is nothing against it is because… you can’t anticipate everything. You can’t anticipate that he would take advantage of the law the way he is.”
This non-profit issue matters because if Mia Bonta chairs the budget subcommittee responsible for proposing and overseeing the funding of her husband’s agency, it will present the impression of preferential treatment. And given their dealings in the non-profit world, it should.
The behavior of the political elite and connected, when operating in a Democrat supermajority, is telling – especially the liberties taken by people who know there will be little or no accountability.
Thankfully a real California reporter was there to ask the right questions.
The first hearing of Assembly Budget Subcommittee 5 is Monday February 27 at 2:30pm in State Capitol, Room 437.
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Mia Bonta needs to resign from that position, period, full stop, as Gov Gav likes to always say😉
She not only waived a finger at the reporter, Bonta and another assembly person body blocked the reporter from stepping into the elevator. Politics is now a fully body contact sport at the state capitol.
Bonta also pulled the racist sexist card on a hispanic, female reporter as well, which I find humorous and sad at the same time. Deflection and pure corruption is the name of the game for these political grifters!
The Newsoms have shown the Bontas the playbook and they will take full advantage of it!
Lie, cheat and steal!
Oh, this is so GREAT! YESSSS! – to KCRA’s Ashley Zavala, the rare CA journalist who takes her job seriously (to join the ranks of Katy Grimes and Martha Telles, of local affiliate Fox11LA, who relentlessly grills Fake Doctor Barbara Ferrer in an empty press room, and a few others). As we’ve seen, even two or three excellent reporters can make SUCH a difference in a corrupt, dysfunctional environment like California. CA residents are hanging in there because of serious reporters like you.
Mia Bonta looked plenty rattled to have her feet held to the fire, even as she finger-wagged the reporter (whatever!). Her voice was shaking and she seemed rocked and SHOCKED to be challenged. WONDERFUL to see it. The proof is in the pudding with Mia Bonta’s self-recusal and oh, how we would LOVE to see an army of bold and brave Capitol and other reporters emerge and follow the very rare role model reporters we already have.
Correction: The courageous Fox11LA reporter’s name is actually MARLA TELLEZ.
P.S. That Gavin answer to Ashley Zavala’s question was CLASSIC Gov Gav. “‘I literally have no idea what you are talking about,’ he said, even after I [Zavala] explained.” On the very rare occasions Newsom receives a legitimate question from a reporter that he doesn’t want to answer but that EVERYONE wants to know the answer to, Mr. Thin-Skin Gavin tries to mock and isolate the reporter this way and corral the other reporters in to join in. Then he will ignore the reporter’s questions in the future. It’s a bullying trick we’ve seen from him before, and it is disgusting and unacceptable.
Pretty shocking how UNAWARE “Governor” Newsom is of what’s going on AROUND and BENEATH his “leadership”, right???
We need to do EVERYTHING in our power to prevent this grifter from ever seeing The White House and also to REMOVE BOTH BONTA’s from any vestiges of POWER in California legislation as they have CONSISTENTLY shown that they are ULTIMATELY CORRUPT and in politics to ENRICH THEMSELVES at YOUR expense…
Everyone -except the first enabler-knows what’s going on under Newsom- they’re called ‘interns’. And what is going on with first partner in crimes meds? Spaced out facial expression, dress a.skew? Go to rehab, lady.
All Mia can do is either read from or refer to her prepared statement which was written by her lawyers, who are on the payroll of the taxpayers of California.
Mia Bonta, like her husband Rob, is a dim bulb who has not an original thought rattling around in her mostly empty cranium. A genuine profile in mediocrity.
That is the “don’t you know I am entitled to everything I want” finger. Once again a leftist gives us the finger and dares people to do something about it.
One of the two Bonta’s should resign from their public service at the State Capitol. it doesn’t look good, and is not right to have the two members of the family working so close to each other. They know is not ethical what they’re doing but they prefer to violate the ethics in order to achieve their personal goals. They both can serve at the State Capital on whatever they want but not at the same time.
Thank you for publishing this article. Truth must be told. Good news is I am running again in 2024 as Republican candidate for AD18. As you pointed out Mia would not debate me in the last election. I would love to debate her now. We can not wait till 2024 to make the needed changes. We need a state legislator that will put the credit into building nuclear power and desalination plants, fusion research. If we start funding these projects and shut down the drug cartels, we could solve the homelessness and crime. All our problems can be solved, if the intention is there to solve them. This is also why Donald J. Trump must be our President in 2024. Mindy Pechenuk, Republican Candidate for State Assembly 18 in 2024
Great news, Mindy Pechenuk!
She and her wonderful husband are poster children for all that’s failing in this once great state.