At 23, CSUDH junior Ricardo Ortega Martinez Jr. is already a veteran in California politics. “My advocacy and community organizing started at the age of 17,” says Martinez, a political science major whose early experience with foster care growing up in Huntington Park helped shape the focus of his current advocacy work. Martinez serves as youth commissioner for California’s 5th District, which encompasses much of Antelope Valley and northeastern Los Angeles County. The Youth Commission was established in September 2021 by the Board of Supervisors to promote involvement by young people in public policy decisions. Youth commission members have direct experience with foster care, juvenile ... Read More
politics
Daily Breeze: With Karen Bass, Rex Richardson Mayor-Elects, CSUDH Counts 5 LA County Mayors as Alumni
Source: Daily Breeze When Karen Bass and Rex Richardson are sworn in as the mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach, respectively, Cal State Dominguez Hills, near Carson, will have something particularly special to boast about: Five alumni will serve as mayors in LA County. Bass will soon make history as the first female mayor of America’s second-largest city and Richardson will pave the way as Long Beach’s first Black mayor. They join the ranks of fellow alumni – affectionately known as the ‘Toros’ – Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes, Hawthorne Mayor Alex Vargas and Compton Mayor Emma Sharif. If that wasn’t impressive enough, the state senator and assemblymember for the districts ... Read More
Toros Take Local Mayoral Races
After days of vote counting, CSUDH alumni Karen Bass and Rex Richardson have scored major victories in a pair of closely-watched mayoral races in Los Angeles and Long Beach, respectively. Their wins clearly demonstrate how Toros have become important players in Southern California politics—when they take office, CSUDH alumni will hold mayorships in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Carson, Compton, and Hawthorne. Bass (BS, Health Science, ’90) defeated billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso to win the Los Angeles mayor’s race, and had built an “insurmountable lead” of 47,000 votes when the race was called in her favor on Wednesday, Nov. 16. When sworn into office, she will become Los ... Read More
War in Ukraine: Hamoud Salhi Explains the Context, and What the Future Holds
CSUDH Associate Dean of International Education and Senior International Officer Hamoud Salhi discusses the underlying geopolitical causes that have led to the current Russia-Ukraine conflict. Salhi specializes in international politics and comparative politics with an emphasis on the Middle East and Northern Africa, terrorism and counterterrorism, and political change in the Third World. Russia calls the situation in Ukraine a “military operation,” the U.S. calls it an “invasion,” and the public at large and media refer to it as a “war.” What’s in a name? Why are there such differences? If you watch State Department daily briefings or White House press conferences, you get the ... Read More
