The first year of school can be intimidating, exciting, a new beginning. For freshman legislators, it’s no different.

They’ve got to learn to navigate a new city, a Capitol complex under construction and the ins and outs of a new legislative process. They’re working with colleagues from vastly different parts of the state and balancing the priorities of their party’s leadership with those of their constituents.

With the first year under their belts, we heard from four new legislators — Sens. Catherine Blakespear and Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and Assemblymembers Diane Dixon and Greg Wallis — about what they learned, the topics they’re beginning to champion, what they’ve discovered about Sacramento and more.

Sen. Catherine Blakespear

Before joining the legislature, Sen. Cathereine Blakespear served as the mayor of Encinitas for six years. The Democratic senator represents the 38th district in the Senate, which encompasses northern San Diego County and southern Orange County.

On something that stood out about her first year: It didn’t come as a surprise, Blakespear said, but during her first year in the statehouse, it became evident how difficult it can be to come up with successful big bill ideas.

Take homelessness, for example, an issue that Blakespear came into the legislature wanting to tackle. Solutions, especially from the government, aren’t straightforward, she said.

“The most direct path would be for the government to build a lot of housing for people to live in,” said Blakespear. “But why is the state not doing that? We don’t have a system where the state does that. The state distributes money to counties and to nonprofits and to cities, and then locally there’s a determination of how that money should be best used given all the other competing things.”

And that complexity — despite not providing what may feel like a quick and direct solution to issues — isn’t necessarily a negative, she said.

“You don’t want to have policy that’s jolting from here to there because that doesn’t create stability, and it doesn’t allow time for the current regime or systems to see if they actually do produce results.”

On what has become her core focus area: Transportation, particularly the Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo-SanDiego rail corridor, as well as gun safety, environmental commitments and housing is where Blakespear honed in.

In her first year, she chaired a subcommittee tasked with studying the LOSSAN rail corridor resiliency and championed successful legislation requiring gun sellers to post warnings about the dangers of having a firearm in the home.

And she sees potential for California to do more in the environmental waste and plastic reduction space — including with the legislature’s own footprint.

On how she’s preparing for next year: She’s calling it “billapalooza.” Ahead of next year’s session, Blakespear and her staff members are going over various bill ideas — stemming from problems she’s identified or feedback from constituents and advocacy groups — and building on that.

She said they already have more than 100 ideas logged in a spreadsheet, and throughout this process, they’re asking: “What is the existing law? What has been tried before? What are cities and counties or other states doing?”

The goal is to refine these bill ideas, she said, and conduct a political analysis of the path forward.

“It’s easy to definite a problem sometimes, but what exactly is the legislative solution?”

Asm. Diane Dixon

Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, spent time on the Newport Beach City Council before her election to the Assembly. Her district, the 72nd, includes coastal Orange County communities, from Seal Beach down to Laguna Beach, extending inland just a bit to cover Laguna Woods and Lake Forest.

On what she learned during her first year in the legislature: Coming from local government, Dixon says she is used to seeing more, or different, public participation in the legislative process.

People can participate, she said, through direct communication or letter-writing, and that is recorded and attached as part of a bill’s information. But during hearings, she said, there’s not much debate and discussion.

“There’s very little contact with constituents or people during the legislative process; it’s just the way it’s structured,” said Dixon.

On dealing with a supermajority: Democrats hold a strong majority in both houses of the legislature — not to mention the executive branch — and Dixon says that means a lack of debate and negotiation for bills.

“There’s no resistant force on any bill,” she said.

The advantage for Democrats continues, she says, when it comes to staffing. A Politico analysis earlier this year found that staffers for Assembly Republicans earned about 18% less than those on the other side of the aisle. And Democrats can also boast nearly twice the amount of staff they can employ — an average of 11 for Democrats and six for Republicans — because of financial benefits from things like chairmanship positions, Politico found.

“The consequence is: fewer Republican bills and a high turnover of Republican staff,” said Dixon. “It’s really not a fair system.”

Political parties aside, Dixon says she sees another minority in the legislature: people with business backgrounds. Many who serve in Sacramento, she said, come from the nonprofit sector or have worked in the Capitol before.

“All good people, but they don’t know how business operates,” said Dixon.

On what her legislative priorities: It probably comes as no surprise, given that her district spans Orange County’s coastline, but Dixon wants to continue to focus on beach erosion and other environmental issues in the legislature.

Her other issues include public safety, taxation and businesses.

On what she likes the most about Sacramento: Dixon has high praise for Sacramento — and she’s gotten to check out numerous restaurants while up there as she attends receptions and other events to meet with colleagues and stakeholders in various industries.

She runs every morning, around 5 a.m., and has enjoyed discovering “little secrets and gems” of the city.

Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas

With a background as an educator and labor organizer, Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas is the new senator who represents various Los Angeles communities in the 28th district, including Downtown, Del Rey, Baldwin Hills, Century City and South Los Angeles. She’s the co-founder of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center which aims to increase access to quality jobs and decrease employment discrimination.

On what she learned in the first year: Smallwood-Cuevas, before she came to Sacramento, already had some experience with government. After all, she was a journalist and has covered politics and local government in her career.

But in joining the Senate this year, it became even more apparent to Smallwood-Cuevas how much organizing and “people work” it takes to move bills in such a short amount of time.

“People give government a pretty hard time, but in truth, it’s just people and people with a lot of smart opinions and counterviews,” said Smallwood-Cuevas. “This is ‘people work,’ and we have to build agreement and alignment and have conversations that will make California better.”

On what she’s championing: With her background in labor — and more specifically, workers’ rights — it’s no surprise that Smallwood-Cuevas got multiple employment-related bills signed into law in 2023.

One that is particularly special to her is legislation that ensures proper accommodations are given to parenting, lactating and pregnant students. The idea, she has said, is to ensure these students’ needs are met so they can continue to pursue an education.

And she also wants to ensure state investments in the workforce include underrepresented populations that may not have equitable opportunities.

“As we’re working to grow our economies together — and that includes the economies of working people — we are recognizing that Black and women and immigrant and BIPOC communities need an equitable stake in that,” she said.

On what she misses most about her district while in Sacramento: Smallwood-Cuevas’ SD-28 has “no peers when it comes to the diversity and the expression of culture” — and that’s what she misses the most about it when she’s away.

“My district is truly the heart and soul of L.A. County and city,” she said. It has the “most economically and racially ethnically diverse communities that are highly organized.”

“When I see those twinkling lights out of my airplane window on Thursday evenings, I just get this thing in my stomach that comes up in my throat. I’m just so happy to be home.”

Asm. Greg Wallis

Assemblymember Greg Wallis, R-Rancho Mirage, is a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which aims to work on policy rather than focusing on partisanship. He represents the 47th district in the Assembly which includes parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

On what he learned in his first year: Wallis didn’t come into the legislature completely green. He was, after all, the district director for Inland Empire Assemblymember Chad Mayes.

Still, Wallis says, he learned a lot this first year — including what he sees as a lack of transparency in the legislative process.