
California State Senate. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
Why the Senate Cover-Up of the Absent Senator?
Senator Eloise Gomez Reyes hasn’t been seen at the Capitol since the beginning of the year
By Katy Grimes, June 30, 2025 10:00 am
Friday, after 5:00pm, the Globe received an email from Senate Rules, with a letter attached and signed by Senate Secretary Erika Contreras dripping with attitude, announcing that despite their previous stonewalled response to my California Public Records Request seeking public information about the MIA Senator Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-Colton), “as a courtesy,” they decided “to provide me additional information.”
Senator Gomez Reyes she was not at the swearing-in session in December 2024, and has not shown up once since the beginning of the year – no committee hearings, no Senate floor sessions.
After my article last week questioning if Sen. Gomez Reyes is actually serving as a Senator, people came out of the woodwork with information.
Also worth noting is that Senator Reyes has a full load of bills including a resolution that got chaptered:
Elves must be moving her bills for her.
Another friend produced a document showing that Senator Gomez Reyes’ Oath of Office was administered by a San Bernardino County judge, in her home district.
It is filed after the motion to adjourn. Definitely added after the fact. Shady that Secretary didn’t just send the statement or copy of oath of office signature
California Attorney Laura Powell found a Facebook announcement from Senator Gomez Reyes announcing a State Capitol swearing in. But the Daily Journal record shows she was absent that day.
The second response letter from Senate Secretary Contreras (below) includes the Oath of Office document officiated by San Bernardino Superior Court Judge R. Glen Yaburo, but the seal is not from his court – it is from the Senate. I would have expected a seal from the judge.
Several people told me that Senator Gomez Reyes has been ill. Another found a December 23, 2024 X post where she explained she has been undergoing cancer treatment, and was responding well to it.
Since this was posted to X last December, and since the Senate has evidence of her swearing in, and since it apparently was a loosely guarded secret in the Senate that she has been ill, Senate Secretary Contreras could have just pointed to these issues as explanation for my inquiry.
However, the Senate Daily Journal on December 2, 2024 does not include what Senate Secretary Contreras included in her letter.
Here is what I saved from the Dec 2, 2024 Senate Daily Journal:
Secretary Contreras’s June 26, 2025 letter to me includes the Oath of Office document officiated by San Bernardino Superior Court Judge R. Glen Yaburo, apparently now a part of the Daily Journal record of Dec. 2, 2024. Well, good. But there are still a lot of questions, including “Why the cover-up?”
It seems to me that if I am Sen Secty Erika Contreras, and providing information in a straightforward and helpful way is my job, or at least part of it, and everything related to the long and mysterious absence of a Senator (Eloise Gomez-Reyes) is on the up-and-up, and there is a reasonable explanation for everything, then why would I create an unnecessary problem and bad optics by NOT providing all information, being miserly and disagreeable about the information I DO provide, and utterly failing to leave my “attitude” at home where it belongs?
Because it’s none of your business and how dare you even inquire!!! /s
Ha ha – that’s exactly what she (wrongly) thinks.
Any public servant voted for needs to keep their constituents informed! Jimmy, what is your problem?
You have a date typo (Dec. 2 2025) in the following paragraph:
“…Secretary Contreras’s June 26, 2025 letter to me includes the Oath of Office document officiated by San Bernardino Superior Court Judge R. Glen Yaburo, apparently now a part of the Daily Journal record of Dec. 2, 2025. Well, good. But there are still a lot of questions, including “Why the cover up?”…”
Thank you Jimmy! There are days I wish I had an editor! -Katy
Democrats; The Auto Pens & Seals Party!
It’s not surprising that Senator Reyes has a full load of bills including a resolution that got chaptered despite the fact that has she has not shown up once since the beginning of the year for any of committee hearings or Senate floor sessions. It’s standard operating procedure for the criminal Democrat thug mafia who had a demented puppet in the White House for four years.
As for Democrat Secretary of the California State Senate Erika Contreras, being a career Democrat has resulted in her having an entitled attitude of being superior and not to be questioned? No doubt she’d starve if taxpayers were supporting her?
were not
Well said. Once our lawmakers are in office, they seem to forget who they represent and why they are there.
Why did the Senate cover up Senator Reyes’ absence? Just saying she was sick would have been enough.