Local Assemblyman Luis Alejo is considering filing an ethics complaint against a Bakersfield assemblywoman for charging at a fundraiser that he doesn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance during legislative sessions.
Alejo, D-Watsonville, says the allegation by Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, a Republican, is completely untrue and that as the son of a military veteran, he takes it very seriously.
On Wednesday, Alejo’s staff was busy sifting through video footage of Assembly sessions to prove that he regularly says the pledge. He led the pledge on Feb. 3 of last year, said spokeswoman Marva Diaz.
Diaz said Alejo and his staff are very busy doing the “work of the state” – offering and considering legislation – but felt Grove’s words, too, had to be addressed.
“He says the pledge every day,” Diaz said. She said the office was looking into his options for filing a complaint.
Alejo told The Monterey Herald that Grove’s comments were “a complete fabrication or a figment of her imagination.”
“Every single day I rise, put my hand over my heart and recite the pledge,” Alejo told the paper.
In a written statement to The Bakersfield Californian Wednesday, Grove did not deny making the accusation. Rather, she seemed to double-down on it.
“As a military veteran, it grieves my heart when I see the U.S. flag disrespected,” Grove said. “I was sharing what I’ve witnessed on several occasions over the past few months during the flag salute on the assembly floor. I was upset by what I saw and paid close attention to it.”
Grove served in the Army for three years after high school, including at Headquarters Company, 5th Corps in Frankfurt, Germany, doing administrative work.
Grove spokeswoman Kristina Brown said the assemblywoman was too busy to talk to a reporter.
“She has bills up today,” Brown said.
Grove’s comments apparently came to light in a weekly newspaper story published April 11, the Monterey County Herald reported Wednesday. It said the Monterey Bay Area News quoted Grove as saying at an April 5 fundraiser for GOP candidate Rob Bernosky of Hollister that “The person who represents you doesn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Bernosky is running against Alejo.
According to The Herald, the weekly newspaper “said Grove described Alejo as fidgeting, checking messages, shuffling papers and generally avoiding (the pledge) before ‘mumbling a few words at the end.'”
This isn’t the first time Grove has struck a nerve with her words.
In February 2011 she said lawmakers needed to focus on creating private-sector jobs “instead of raping our taxpayers,” drawing condemnation from an assembly colleague, a Los Angeles Times political columnist and an organization that provides crisis intervention services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Critics thought the word “raping” trivialized victims of sexual assault. Grove was unapologetic in a written statement at the time, saying she was “using the dictionary definition of the word.”
Grove represents the 32nd Assembly District, which includes most of Bakersfield. Because of redistricting, she’s running for re-election in the new 34th Assembly District, which has much of the same territory locally. She’s facing Democrat Mari Goodman of Tehachapi, a union organizer.
