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Anthony Portantino, Jr.
Anthony Portantino, Jr. (Democratic Party) was a member of the California State Senate, representing District 25. He assumed office in 2016. He left office on December 2, 2024.
Portantino (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent California's 30th Congressional District. He lost in the primary on March 5, 2024.
Biography
Portantino's professional experience includes working in the art department and as property master with the American Playhouse. He was production designer on Grizzly Adams: The Mark of the Bear and art director on Unsolved Mysteries.[1]
Committee assignments
Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.
2023-2024
Portantino was assigned to the following committees:
- Aging and Long-Term Care Committee
- Budget Committee
- Governmental Organization Committee
- Rules Committee
- Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee
- Senate Appropriations Committee, Chair
- Banking and Financial Institutions Committee
- Senate Governmental Organization Committee
- Senate Insurance Committee
- Rules Committee
- Arts Committee
- Legislative Audit Committee
2021-2022
Portantino was assigned to the following committees:
- Senate Insurance Committee
- Legislative Budget Committee
- Senate Appropriations Committee, Chair
- Banking and Financial Institutions Committee
- Senate Governmental Organization Committee
2019-2020
Portantino was assigned to the following committees:
- Legislative Budget Committee
- Senate Appropriations Committee, Chair
- Senate Insurance Committee
- Banking and Financial Institutions Committee
- Senate Governmental Organization Committee
2017 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:
| California committee assignments, 2017 |
|---|
| • Banking and Financial Institutions |
| • Budget and Fiscal Review |
| • Governmental Organization |
| • Insurance |
| • Public Employment and Retirement |
2011-2012
In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Portantino served on these committees:
- Accountability and Administrative Review Committee, California General Assembly
- Higher Education Committee, California General Assembly
- Human Services Committee, California General Assembly
- Master Plan for Higher Education
- Transportation Committee, California General Assembly
2009-2010
In the 2009-2010 legislative session, Portantino served on these committees:
- Select Committee on Aerospace
- Governmental Organization Committee, California General Assembly
- Higher Education Committee, California General Assembly (Chair)
- Human Services Committee, California General Assembly
- Labor and Employment Committee, California General Assembly
- Select Committee on Preservation of California's Entertainment Industry
- Revenue and Taxation Committee, California General Assembly
Issues
Push for open records
On August 1, 2011, the California State Assembly stated that the public has no right to know the individual budgets of assembly members. This came about after Portantino raised an issue stating that his budget was cut after casting the only Democratic vote against the recently passed controversial budget. As a result, he and several media outlets requested that the budget information be made public so that the people could see if members were being punished or rewarded for voting a certain way. The Assembly Rules Committee claimed that such documents are exempt from the Legislative Open Records Act. As a result, Portantino has vowed to introduce legislation to improve transparency and "force the books to be opened."[2]
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2024
See also: California's 30th Congressional District election, 2024
California's 30th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 top-two primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House California District 30
Laura Friedman defeated Alex Balekian in the general election for U.S. House California District 30 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Laura Friedman (D)  | 68.4 | 213,100 |
 | Alex Balekian (R) | 31.6 | 98,559 | |
| Total votes: 311,659 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 30
The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House California District 30 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Laura Friedman (D) | 30.1 | 46,329 |
| ✔ | | Alex Balekian (R) | 17.4 | 26,826 |
 | Anthony Portantino, Jr. (D) | 13.3 | 20,459 | |
 | Mike Feuer (D) | 12.3 | 18,878 | |
 | Maebe A. Girl (D) | 10.3 | 15,791 | |
| J. Emilio Martinez (R) | 4.4 | 6,775 | ||
 | Ben Savage (D) | 4.0 | 6,147 | |
 | Nick Melvoin (D) | 2.7 | 4,134 | |
 | Jirair Ratevosian (D) | 1.9 | 2,889 | |
 | Sepi Shyne (D) | 1.4 | 2,126 | |
 | Courtney Najera (D) | 0.8 | 1,167 | |
 | Joshua Bocanegra (No party preference) | 0.5 | 780 | |
 | Steve Dunwoody (D) | 0.5 | 727 | |
 | Francesco Arreaga (D) | 0.3 | 532 | |
 | Sal Genovese (D) | 0.3 | 442 | |
| Total votes: 154,002 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Patrick Gipson (R)
- Eric Sawchuk (R)
- Sarah Idan (D)
- Mike Castellanos (D)
- Drew Britton (D)
- Michael Huckabee (R)
Endorsements
Portantino received the following endorsements.
- U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez Allison (D)
- U.S. Rep. Linda Sánchez (D)
- U.S. Rep. Norma Torres (D)
- State Sen. Angelique Ashby (D)
- State Sen. Toni Atkins (D)
- State Sen. Dave Cortese (D)
- State Sen. Bill Dodd (D)
- State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D)
- State Sen. Mike McGuire (D)
- State Sen. Josh Newman (D)
- State Sen. Steve Padilla (D)
- State Sen. Tom Umberg (D)
- Member, Glendale City Council Elen Asatryan (D)
- Member, Glendale City Council Ara James Najarian (Nonpartisan)
- Attorney General Rob Bonta (D)
- State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara (D)
- Frmr. state Sen. Robert Hertzberg (D)
- AFSCME California
- California Federation of Teachers
- California State Association of Letter Carriers
- Communications Workers of America
- SEIU California State Council
- Teamsters Joint Council 42
- United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council
- Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
- The Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council
2020
See also: California State Senate elections, 2020
General election
General election for California State Senate District 25
Incumbent Anthony Portantino, Jr. defeated Kathleen Torres Hazelton in the general election for California State Senate District 25 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Anthony Portantino, Jr. (D) | 64.0 | 295,432 |
 | Kathleen Torres Hazelton (R) | 36.0 | 166,529 | |
| Total votes: 461,961 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for California State Senate District 25
Incumbent Anthony Portantino, Jr. and Kathleen Torres Hazelton defeated Evan Wecksell in the primary for California State Senate District 25 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Anthony Portantino, Jr. (D) | 99.1 | 185,405 |
| ✔ | | Kathleen Torres Hazelton (R) (Write-in) | 0.5 | 952 |
 | Evan Wecksell (L) (Write-in) | 0.4 | 811 | |
| Total votes: 187,168 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2016
- See also: California State Senate elections, 2016
Elections for the California State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election was held on June 7, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was February 25, 2016, for candidates filing with signatures. The deadline for candidates using a filing fee to qualify was March 11, 2016.[3] Incumbent Carol Liu (D) did not seek re-election.
Anthony Portantino, Jr. defeated Michael D. Antonovich in the California State Senate District 25 general election.[4][5]
| California State Senate, District 25 General Election, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Anthony Portantino, Jr. |
57.85% | 218,242 | |
| Republican | Michael D. Antonovich | 42.15% | 159,014 | |
| Total Votes | 377,256 | |||
| Source: California Secretary of State | ||||
The following candidates ran in the California State Senate District 25 Blanket primary.[6][7]
| California State Senate, District 25 Blanket Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican | Michael D. Antonovich |
39.51% | 85,663 | |
| Democratic | Anthony Portantino, Jr. |
26.82% | 58,154 | |
| Democratic | Katherine Perez-Estolano | 14.37% | 31,166 | |
| Democratic | Chris Chahinian | 6.85% | 14,849 | |
| Democratic | Phlunte' Riddle | 6.72% | 14,563 | |
| Democratic | Teddy Choi | 5.73% | 12,430 | |
| Total Votes | 216,825 | |||
2012
Portantino was ineligible to run for re-election due to term limits.
2010
Anthony won re-election to the 44th District seat in 2010. He had no opposition in the June 8 primary. He defeated Alvaro G. Day and Eytan Kollin in the November 2 general election.[8]
| California State Assembly, District 44 General Election (2010) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | |||
| Anthony Portantino, Jr. (D)
|
81,347 | |||
| Alvaro G. Day (R) | 41,571 | |||
| Eytan Kollin (L) | 4,613 | |||
2008
In 2008, Portantino was re-elected to the California State Assembly District 44. Portantino (D) finished with 102,896 votes and was followed by Brian Fuller (R) with 49,246 votes and Thomas Logan (L) with 9,446 votes.[9]
| California State Assembly District 44 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | |||
| Anthony Protantino, Jr. (D)
|
102,896 | |||
| Brian Fuller (R) | 49,246 | |||
| Thomas Logan (L) | 9,446 | |||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Anthony Portantino, Jr. did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Anthony Portantino, Jr. did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of California scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2024
In 2024, the California State Legislature was in session from January 3 to August 31. A special session in the Assembly was from August 31, 2024 to October 14, 2024 and another special session started on December 2, 2024.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills supported or opposed by the chamber.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on environmental issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on environmental issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on issues related to the interests of health care consumers.
- Legislators are scored on how they voted on taxpayer-related issues.
- Legislators are scored on issues related to sexual and reproductive health.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Legislators are scored on issues related to sexual and reproductive health.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental policy.
2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the California State Legislature was in session from January 1 to September 14.
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2022
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show]. |
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In 2022, the California State Legislature was in session from January 3 to August 31.
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2021
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
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In 2021, the California State Legislature was in session from December 7 to September 10.
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2020
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show]. |
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In 2020, the California State Legislature was in session from January 6 to August 31.
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2019
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show]. |
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In 2019, the California State Legislature was in session from January 7 through September 13.
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2018
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show]. |
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In 2018, the California State Legislature was in session from January 3, 2018 through August 31, 2018.
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2017
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2017, click [show]. |
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In 2017, the California State Legislature was in session from December 5, 2016 through September 15, 2017.
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2016
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2016, click [show]. |
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In 2016, the California State Legislature was in session from January 4 through August 31. The formal session ended on August 31, but constitutionally the session adjourned sine die on November 30.
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Capitol Weekly, California's major weekly periodical covering the state legislature, publishes an annual legislative scorecard to pin down the political or ideological leanings of every member of the legislature based on how they voted on an assortment of bills in the most recent legislative session. The 2009 scores were based on votes on 19 bills, but did not include how legislators voted on the Proposition 1A (2009). On the scorecard, "100" is a perfect liberal score and "0" is a perfect conservative score.[10][11]
On the 2009 Capitol Weekly legislative scorecard, Portantino ranked as a 94.[12]
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Project Vote Smart, "Biography," accessed December 9, 2014
- ↑ investmentwatchblog.com, "California Assembly refuses to make public its members’ budgets," accessed April 21, 2015
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Key Dates and Deadlines," accessed April 18, 2017
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Certified List of Candidates for the November 8, 2016, General Election," accessed September 7, 2016
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "2016 General Election results," accessed December 23, 2016
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Certified List of Candidates for Voter-Nominated Offices," accessed April 4, 2016
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Statement of Vote," accessed August 22, 2016
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Official 2010 General election results," accessed March 13, 2014
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Official 2008 General election results," accessed March 13, 2014
- ↑ Capitol Weekly, "Capitol Weekly's Legislative Scorecard," December 17, 2009
- ↑ Fox and Hounds Daily, "Random Thoughts on the Political Scene," December 18, 2009
- ↑ Capitol Weekly, "2009 Capitol Weekly State Legislative Scorecard (Archived)," accessed March 13, 2014
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
California State Senate District 25 2016-2024 |
Succeeded by Sasha Renée Pérez (D) |
| Preceded by - |
California State Assembly District 44 2006-2012 |
Succeeded by - |
| Preceded by - |
La Canada Flintridge City Council At-large 1999-2006 |
Succeeded by - |
