Former California state
assembly member and senator Nell Soto, who championed
environmental causes and also voted against a proposed law that
would have protected gay students from harassment, died
Thursday at the age of 82, reports the
Los Angeles Times.
Soto, who died of
complications from a stroke suffered in December, was
one of the first Latino women elected to state office from
California's Inland Empire area, east of Los Angeles. She
was elected to the assembly in 1998, then won a special
election to the state senate the following year and served
there until retiring last year. She worked tirelessly against
air pollution, while fighting for clean water within her
district.
Soto's son Tom is a
gay Democratic activist, so it came as a surprise to many when
in 1999, as a member of the assembly, she voted against the
antiharassment bill -- consequently, the measure failed by one
vote. According to the
Times,
Soto's decision may have stemmed from attacks by
conservative groups.
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