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While legislative term limits prematurely ended the assembly career of Oakland area representative Wilma Chan, it has helped to immediately boost her successor, Sandré Swanson, up the leadership ladder. 

The California Assembly’s constitutional three-term limit forced Chan from the 16th Assembly District seat at the end of last year after six years in office, and after Chan rose to the post as Assembly Majority Leader. 

Chan’s forced retirement cut in half Oakland’s powerful legislative leadership team, which also included Oakland-based Don Perata as president of the state senate. 

But this week, Swanson’s office announced that only days after being sworn into office following the November elections, the Oakland Democrat has been appointed chair of the powerful Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. 

According to Swanson’s office, the Assembly Labor Committee has jurisdiction over employment discrimination, workplace health and safety, workforce development, and wages, including minimum wage, overtime pay, and the prevailing wage. 

In a prepared statement, Nuñez said that “Sandré’s extensive background and experience working with labor organizations and issues made him a natural and easy choice for the chairmanship.” 

Such an elevation would never have happened in the days before term limits, when legislators often had to wait years to even obtain positions on coveted committees. 

Swanson says that one of his priorities will be “ensuring affordable and comprehensive healthcare” for all working Californians. 

Health care has suddenly become a hot topic in California, with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposing a state program to expand insurance for presently uninsured citizens, and the mayors of both San Francisco and Oakland developing similar initiatives in their respective cities. 

In addition, Swanson said that he will use his position as committee chair to “continue the fight for livable wages that allow workers to be treated with dignity. We will work to protect pensions when workers leave the workforce, and to protect their health and safety while on the job. 

“Guaranteed retirement benefits and pensions are promises which must not be broken. One of our most important tasks is to revisit the recent worker’s compensation reforms and ensure that the promises to injured workers are being met.”