I was born in Covina and have lived most of my life in the San Gabriel/Pomona Valley area, attending public schools in West Covina and Covina. I currently live in Walnut, where I became an active voice in City affairs immediately, twice running for City Council, and continuing to advocate for protection of the last remaining open space in the city. More recently, I joined the fight to protect the city of Walnut from the adverse effects of a proposed NFL stadium in the City of Industry.

I enrolled in the University of Southern California at the age of 16, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology. I subsequently earned a master's degree in psychology from California State University, Los Angeles. I've worked for 28 years as a social worker for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

I'm also an active voice for working Californians, serving in several capacities with SEIU Local 721 and one of its predecessor unions, SEIU Local 535. As a worksite steward for the past 25 years, and for 13 years as a Local 535 statewide Executive Board delegate, I've stood up for my co-workers not only to management but also to leaders of the union itself. As a bargaining team member in contract negotiations several times since 1995, including serving as bargaining team chair in 2007, I've fought for manageable workloads for child welfare social workers. As a member political activist, I've visited the State Capitol on nearly an annual basis since 1992 to fight to protect funding for child welfare services, which are annually threatened with cuts despite State analyses that show that social worker caseloads are over twice the numbers necessary to ensure that at-risk children and families are adequately supervised.

I believe that the middle class is the backbone of the economy, working people are the backbone of business, and the consumer is the backbone of capitalism.

I believe that true democracy requires us to protect rather than restrict the right to vote. I believe that true democracy requires equal opportunity for all, and as such a democratic government must play a role in ensuring equal opportunity.

I believe that one of the hallmarks of democracy is the ability to admit and learn from mistakes, and therefore we cannot deny the mistakes we have made in our history by burying them under a cloak of false patriotism. True patriotism is not arrogance. It does not allow for us to believe that we are better than others - only that we are standing for what we believe is right for all.

I am not interested in protecting MY liberty - I'm interested in protecting EVERYONE'S liberty. We must all share our communities, our state, and our nation with others, and therefore we maximize all our liberties by caring about others as well as about ourselves.

When Mike was first elected to the West Covina School Board in 1991 at the age of 25, the district had closed schools, declared bankruptcy and was required to have a state overseer. During the next 22 years Mike served on the school board, he led the district in restoring its fiscal health, eliminated the need for state supervision, paid back the loans they had to take out not just on time but early, opened new schools, expanded school choice and charter schools for kids, raised academic performance levels for students district-wide and protected parental rights.

When Mike was elected to the West Covina City Council in 2013, his 7th election victory courtesy of the voters of West Covina, the City had cut their police force by a third, managers were leaving, lawsuits were proliferating and the financial picture was precarious. After only two years on the Council, Mike has helped to add police officers, cut city council perks, create a citizen based audit committee and demanded reforms from the bureaucracy that give more information to the public. He was also responsible for bringing in the State Controller to audit the financial mess he inherited and give the city a blueprint for change.

This is very ironic, since fifteen years earlier the city unsuccessfully sued citizen Spence over his opposition to a proposed tax increase. The City lost the lawsuit, Mike won, and the voters of West Covina subsequently agreed with Mike by rejecting the proposed tax increase.

A life long West Covina resident, Mike attended the same public schools as a boy he later led as a School Board Member.  He was Student Body President at Edgewood High School, where he excelled academically and was already an active member of the community. Mike is an Eagle Scout and has been a Boy Scout Merit Badge counselor for over 20 years. He graduated from UCLA majoring in Political Science and then served as chair of their alumni scholarship program.

While Mike had volunteered for the local Republican Party as a high school student, at UCLA he became a volunteer Republican Leader. The College Republican National Committee named him the Ronald Reagan Activist of the Year for his determined leadership at UCLA.

Mike was the youngest person ever elected to be a Vice Chairman of the California Republican Party. He has served on the Executive Board at the State and County level of the GOP. He has been elected President of two statewide volunteer organizations and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Federation of Republican Assemblies.

Professionally, Mike has been Chief of Staff to two state legislators and a partner in several small businesses. As Chief of Staff to 55th District

Assemblyman Curt Hagman from 2008-2014, Mike worked with leaders from every city in the district and hundreds of constituents in resolving problems with state government and protecting local residents.

Mike knows the 55th Assembly District better than any other candidate, is the only candidate to have executive experience at the state legislative level, and is particularly proud to have earned the endorsement of both Curt Hagman and Senator Joel Anderson, the two leaders he served as Chief of Staff.

A sought after political pundit, Mike has appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, the Laura Ingram Show, John and Ken Show, Roger Hedgecock Show, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Business Journal, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and many other media outlets.

No more taxes, period. How much more can taxpayers handle? We’ve reached a breaking point. Businesses flee the state. Job creators and some of our best and brightest are leaving. And Sacramento wants to double down on dumb by pushing more and more taxes.

California already has the highest state income tax, highest gas taxes, second-highest auto sales tax, and the ninth-highest state sales tax rate.  Yet there have been a slew of looney new tax ideas pushed by Democrats this year:

• A whopping 416% increase in the taxes paid on real estate transactions;

• A new tax on all residential and commercial property insurance policies estimated to be over half a billion dollars a year in new taxes;

• A plan to expand sales tax to services which are currently not taxed. A State Board of Equalization study suggests that could cumulatively amount to a tax increase of over ahundred billion dollars;

• And then there is the per mile driving tax being tested right now that would allow the government to monitor how much you drive, and possibly snoop much more into your personal driving habits.

We need fighters in Sacramento who will stop this nonsense. I’ve fought against unfair taxation for 30 years. In 1998, I was even sued by the city of West Covina because I opposed a multi-million dollar tax increase. I won and the tax proposal failed.

I’ve got a proven record as a tax fighter, and in Sacramento I’ll continue to fight to protect taxpayers.

Proposition 13 limits annual property tax increases and requires voter approval of any new local taxes.  These are important safeguards.  By limiting property tax increases to no more than 2% per year, homeowners aren’t surprised by sudden massive increases.

Prior to the passage of Prop 13, some homeowners were being forced from their homes by rapidly increasing property taxes.

Now, there are many that are pushing to change or repeal Prop 13.  I won’t stand for that.

I will fight to protect Proposition 13 and the tax savings it brings to all homeowners.

Others talk about fighting illegal immigration, I have actually been in the fight. When Governor Gray Davis signed the bill giving driver’s licenses to illegals, I led the charge with the Save Our License campaign that ultimately forced the legislature to repeal the law. As a member of the West Covina School Board, I fought for the implementation of e-verify in our school district’s hiring practices.

The cost to taxpayers of illegal immigration in California is astounding. A recent study concluded that taxpayers are on the hook for more than $25 billion per year. That’s a little more than $2,700 per household. Think about that! You and your household pay $2,700 more each and every year directly because of illegal immigration.

• Justice and law enforcement costs alone, which include policing, court and incarceration, are more than $4.4 billion.

• Medical services cost taxpayers around $4 billion per year. That includes approximately $388 million associated with the 68,000 births to illegal immigrant mothers.

• Public assistance for illegal aliens has a $792 million price tag each year.

We cannot afford to turn a blind eye. As your Assemblymen, I’ll fight to end the handout of taxpayer benefits to illegal aliens. For more than two decades, I’ve carried the conservative banner on this issue, and I will continue to lead the fight.

Crime is on the rise. Since passage of Proposition 47 there has been an average 10% increase in property crime such as burglaries and motor vehicle thefts in California cities. In the city of Los Angeles, not only have property crimes risen, but violent crime has jumped by over 20%.

Californians were sold a bill of goods by liberal do-gooders, and the result is that we are less safe today.

Not only that, but we’re seeing the consequences in areas such as drug rehabilitation programs. Because of changes in the sentencing guidelines, there is very little incentive for a drug offender to take a court-ordered treatment program that could be 18 to 24 months long. They know they’re only facing a maximum 6-month stint in county jail. In reality, these jail sentences are only a few days (or sometimes even a few hours). Our jails are overcrowded because felons are being transferred to the county jails from state prisons, and one result is that addicts are not getting the treatment they need. Enrollment in programs in L.A. County, for instance, is currently down 60%.

We need to stop the criminals, not coddle them. I’ll fight to protect Californians; to stop criminals before they strike and make sure they do the time (all of it!) for committing the crime.