Mark Stone represents the people of California’s 29th Assembly District, which includes portions of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, and Monterey Counties.   In his second term as a state legislator, Mark emerged as a leader on environmental protection, child welfare, and public safety.

As an environmental champion, Mark has fought to curb illegal coastal development, reduce plastic pollution, and clean up drinking water supplies.  In his capacity as Chair of the Select Committee on Coastal Protection, he has held hearings investigating threats to the Pacific Ocean, oil spill prevention efforts, plastic garbage effects on the coastal environment, and offshore fracking.

Mark serves as Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which reviews legislation on a broad range of issues, including family law, product and tort liability and immunity, immigration, commercial contracts, court and jury procedures, civil practice and procedure.  In his first term, Mark served as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Human Services, where he led policy decisions on child welfare, foster care, developmental disability services, temporary cash assistance, and CalFresh food benefits.  He wrote laws to make it easier for foster youth to graduate from high school and access special benefits, assist low-income pregnant women better prepare for the arrival of their babies, and help people released from prison reintegrate into the community.  He also held several key oversight hearings to discuss ways to address childhood poverty and improve information sharing in the foster care system. 

In addition to serving as Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Mark is a member of the Natural Resources Committee, Human Services Committee and Banking and Finance.  He is the Chair of the Select Committee on Coastal Protection and Chair of the Select Committee on Expanding Access to California's Natural Resources.

Before his service in the Assembly, Mark represented the Central Coast in various capacities. He was elected twice to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, where he worked on health care, education, youth issues and the environment.  Mark led an overhaul of the Santa Cruz County child welfare system, and fought to halt discrimination of LGBT youth. As an environmental defender, he spearheaded the successful effort to ban single-use plastic bags in unincorporated areas of the county.

In addition to his duties as a County Supervisor, Mark served the entire coast as Vice Chair of the California Coastal Commission. During his time on the Commission, he earned the reputation as a principled leader who protected the cherished California coastline for generations to come.

Prior to his work at the County, Mark was a trustee of the Scotts Valley Unified School District, eventually being elected President. Before entering public service, Mark worked as an attorney in the tech industry and as a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Mark lives in Scotts Valley with his wife Kathy.  They have two adult children. Stone is an avid open water swimmer.

At a time when the media focus is all about state-wide crises in California, it is easy to forget that the most important decisions affecting our lives are made locally. Local issues impact our communities, our neighborhoods, our quality of life, and even our jobs. I believe in local government and I believe that the State should support and empower local government.

I am committed to working with local counties, cities, school districts and special districts to ensure that the State of California sets appropriate standards, provides resources and then allows the local jurisdictions to perform at their best. The State must provide leadership to significantly improve public education for all children, improve the health of all Californians, protect our fragile environment, address crumbling infrastructure needs, reduce crime in all communities, and reduce poverty everywhere it exists.

It has been an honor to take our shared values to the State level, ensuring that California is responsive to the needs of the Central Coast, and to our children and families.  Having served on a local school board, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, the California Coastal Commission and now as State Assemblymember I am honored to represent you in Sacramento, working together to take California into the future.