Leland Yee

Leland Yee
Member of the California State Senate from the 8th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  2007
Preceded by	Jackie Speier
Member of the California State Assembly from the 12th district
In office 2003 – 2007
Preceded by	Kevin Shelley
Succeeded by	Fiona Ma
Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from District 4
In office 1997 – 2002
Preceded by	district created in 2000; prior terms were for city-wide seat
Succeeded by	Fiona Ma
Born	November 20, 1948 (1948-11-20) (age 59) Guangdong, China
Nationality	United States
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Maxine Yee
Residence	San Francisco, California
Alma mater	UC Berkeley San Francisco State University University of Hawaii
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Child psychologist
Website	http://dist08.casen.govoffice.com/

Leland Yee (Chinese: 余胤良; pinyin: Yú Yìnliáng, born November 20, 1948 in China) is a California State Senator in District 8 which includes the western half of San Francisco and most of San Mateo County. Prior to becoming state senator, Yee was a California State Assemblyman, Supervisor of San Francisco's Sunset District, and was a member of the San Francisco School Board. In 2004 Yee became the first Asian American to be appointed Speaker pro Tempore, making him the second highest ranking Democrat of the California State Assembly.

Early life

Leland Yee immigrated to San Francisco from Taishan^[1], Guangdong, China when he was three years old and later became a naturalized United States citizen. His father served in the U.S. Army.^[2] Yee attended San Francisco's Mission High School and earned a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley a master's from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the University of Hawaii. Leland Yee met and married his wife Maxine in 1972 and together they raised four children who attended SF public schools. He currently lives in San Francisco's Sunset District.

Political career

School Board

Yee was elected to the San Francisco school board in 1988 and served two four-year terms on the School Board including one as Board President.

District 4 Supervisor

Leland Yee became Sunset Supervisor in 1996. As District 4 supervisor Yee was appointed to chair of the Finance Committee where he helped establish the "Rainy Day" budget reserve and introduced General Obligation Bond Accountability Act. He was re-elected to the board of Supervisors in 2002. Yee also hired Ed Jew, who later became a supervisor, as his volunteer community liaison in 1996.

District 12 Assemblyman

Leland was elected to the California State Assemblyman in November 2002 to represent the 12th Assembly District.

In his first year in the Legislature, he was appointed to the Speaker’s leadership team as the Assistant Speaker pro Tempore. In 2004 Yee became the first Asian Pacific American to be appointed Speaker pro Tempore in the California State Assembly and was elected President of the National Asian Pacific American Caucus of State Legislators.

State Senator

On June 6, 2006, Yee defeated his opponents Mike Nevin and Lou Papan to win the Democratic nomination for the California State Senate, representing the 8th District.. In the final vote tally to be certified on June 27, 2006 by San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer Warren Slocum,^[3]

Yee gathered 51.9 percent, Nevin received 35.4 percent and Papan took 12.7 percent of the vote. Since Jan. 1, Nevin spent $887,562.80 of campaign contributions, Yee spent $673,372.59 and Papan ran a modest campaign, spending just $289,862.64. He was elected to the California State Senate in the November 7 2006 election by a landslide of 77.5% of votes cast[3]. With San Francisco and San Mateo County having a high Democratic base Yee was elected as Senator for the 8th District on November 7, 2006[4]. This was a notable election making him the first Chinese-American elected to the California State Senate in 156 years. Yee replaced Jackie Speier, who left office due to term limits[5]. As State Senator, Yee passed 11 bills chaptered into law.

In 2008, in a surprising twist of events in the LPGA English language controversy, Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco and Assemblyman Ted Lieu of Los Angeles were able to help rescind the LPGA Tour Commission’s suspension-penalty policy. Both officials publicly challenged the legality and galvanized community attention to the LPGA’s policy in August 2008 when it was released, which resulted in revision of policy by the end of 2008. ^[4]

Awards and Honors

He has been named “Legislator of the Year” by the California Association of School Psychologists; California School Nutrition Association; California Psychiatric Association; Faculty Association of California Community Colleges; California Independent Grocers; California Mental Health Directors Association; Associated Students of UC Davis; and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. In addition, he was named “Person of the Year” by GamePolitics.com, a leading video game news site.^[5]

For his legislative and community efforts, Senator Yee has also been honored with the Distinguished Service to Journalism Education Award by the Journalism Association of Community Colleges; Profile in Courage Award by the California Psychiatric Association; Special Friend of Children Award by the National Association of School Psychologists; Building a State of Equality Award by Equality California; Coastal Steward by Vote the Coast; Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Neighborhoods by the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods; Legislative Superstar by AFSCME; Moscone Award by the California School Nutrition Association; Advocacy Award by the California Association for Bilingual Education; Champion of Journalism Education Award by California Journalism Education Coalition; Cornucopia Award by California Women for Agriculture; Norman Hill Award by A. Philip Randolph Institute; and Environmental Champion by Environment California.^[5]

Controversies

Allegations of theft and prostitution

On December 19, 1992 Per County of Hawaii Police Lt. Ed Tanaka caught Leland Yee as he walked out of the KTA Superstore in Kona's Keauhow Shopping Village with a small bottle of "Tropical Blend Tan Magnifier oil" in his front short pocket.^[6] He was subsequently stopped by a store security officer who summoned the local police. Yee was booked on suspicion of petty misdemeanor shoplifting but the case was closed in 1993 without prejudice. However, the case was publicized by the San Francisco Chronicle which published Yee's mug shot.

Yee has also been pulled over by SFPD Three times under the suspicion that he was cruising for prostitutes in the Mission District of San Francisco. All three times, he was questioned by police and let go with no charges filed.^[7]

Video game controversies

In 2005, Yee criticized Rockstar North for the Hot Coffee Mod in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and claimed that the ESRB knew about it in advance and criticized them for not rating it "adults only".^[8] The controversy resulted from the Hot Coffee mod created by PC users of the game using hacking tools to create a mod to play a mini game which was otherwise inaccessible to players.^[9] In response, to the Rockstar removed the content used for the mod. That same year, Yee passed California Assembly Bills 1792 & 1793, a video game bill that criminalizes sale of videogames rated M to children under 18 and require retailers to place M-rated games separate from other games intended for children. Yee's bills passed in part to mass media concentration on the speculative link between video game violence and real world violence, as well as several support of concerned parent groups. The bill was signed into law on October 7th, 2005 and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) filed a lawsuit 10 days later. After the bill passed, it was ruled to be unconstitutional by Judge Ronald Whyte.^[10] The adverse ruling required the state to pay $324,840 to the ESA in legal fees.^[11] The ruling was then appealed by Governor Schwarzenegger in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court.

On April 12, 2007 Yee criticized the US Army’s program to will spend $2 million in tax dollars to sponsor the Global Gaming League. Yee claims the military individuals on the site who are "desensitized to real-life violence through the online violent video games."^[12]

On August 29, 2007 Leland Yee criticized the ESRB for not disclosing what content was removed from Manhunt 2 to re-rate the game from an AO rating for violence to the ESRB Mature rating.^[13] Yee asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the change in rating. In response, ESRB president Patricia Vance stated the details for a product that has not yet been released will not be disclosed.^[14]

Editing Wikipedia

On September 4, 2007 it was revealed using WikiScanner that IP addresses registered to computers in the California Senate office had made changes to its Wikipedia entry favoring Leland Yee.^[15] It was reported that they removed the 1992 shoplifting allegations and the video game controversies sections.

Opposition to Schwarzenegger healthcare plan

On January 23, 2008 during a committee meeting, Leland Yee announced his opposition to the health care plan sponsored by Governor Schwarzenegger and supported by a majority of Democrats in the California State House and Senate, while opposed by a majority of Republicans. Yee's opposition along with the opposition of Democratic Senator and Health Committee Chair Sheila Kuehl led the NY Times to predict that California's healthcare bill would be effectively killed.^[16]

See also

• California State Senate elections, 2006

References

External links

• Leland Y. Yee (Official California Senate Site)
• State Senate Campaign Site
• Leland Yee Political History
• San Mateo County Votes Tally Complete
• Yee’s biography on Asian Americans.net