Skip navigation.
Home
   Candidate & issue information

So. California Freshman Politician Gets Crash Course on Congress

Hawaii Political Info introduction: The LA Times covers a Latino newly elected U.S. Representative's crash course on Congress. Mark Takai, the only freshman congressional delegate from Hawaii, was in the same class. You can see him in this class photo, 2nd row, wearing a lei.

By Lisa Mascaro

December 22, 2014

The newly elected member of Congress arrived in the nation's capital after a red-eye flight from LAX in a government-assigned cheap seat next to the bathroom.

Sleep-deprived, Norma J. Torres busied herself during the taxi ride downtown by answering emails and texts on her phone, oblivious to the iconic Washington monuments whizzing past the window.

Minutes later, the Inland Empire politician — a Democrat elected to represent Southern California's 35th District — arrived at the Capitol Hill Hotel with dozens of other excited, angst-filled lawmakers-to-be for a Washington rite of passage: new member orientation for the House of Representatives.

Read more . . .