After serving seven years on the Glendale City Council, including a term as the Mayor of Glendale, Laura Friedman was elected to the California State Assembly in 2016.  During her first term in office, Laura authored a package of bills to establish landmark water efficiency standards, strengthen environmental sustainability, improve access to higher education, health care, and transportation alternatives, and create new avenues for communities to tackle the affordable housing crisis. In addition, she secured $20 million in funding for the completion of the Glendale Riverwalk Project, which for the first time will provide a safe bicycle and pedestrian connection from Glendale to Griffith Park. 

In her time in office, she has been tapped for several leadership roles in the legislature and currently serves as the Chair of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and as the Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.  As the Chair of the Joint Rules Subcommittee on Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response, she’s led a historic bicameral and bipartisan reform of the legislature’s response to sexual harassment that’s become a model for other states and local governments.  

Laura lives in Glendale with her husband Guillaume Lemoine, a landscape designer, and their daughter Rachel.

Mike Graves has lived in southern california all of his 57 years. Mike apprenticed at Littlejohn's English Toffee House in Los Angeles, learning the craft of candymaking. In 1983, Mike purchased the toffee house and has been the owner/operator since that time. Having a love for social science and politics, he prefers to read the morning paper, rather than rushing off to work.

Mike has volunteered for past office holders and candidates, usually walking neighborhoods and distributing candidate information. Mike also has served on the Republican central committee for the 43rd AD.

Once Mike's kids were running and talking, he left the central committee to spend more time with his family. He has coached park and recreation flag football and baseball in Burbank for the last ten years.

Mike's first political hero was Ronald Reagan. Philosophically, Mike was drawn to writers such as Ayn Rand and Frederick Hayek. Reading the papers,  scanning the airwaves, and getting the sense of the political preponderance of the citizens around him allows Mike to stand out. Mike is aware that his views are shared by a minority, but that does not change what he thinks. Mike thinks that details matter. He also can see that a number of political narratives sound good on the surface, but upon further review, some groups and insiders are essentially fleecing the public.

Mike believes that stacking up a debt wall the next generation to pay will result in deliterious outcomes. He believes that kids see through much of the propaganda fed to them, and that the next generation feel less obligated to a past that has left them with many good things, many lame rules, and way too much debt.

Mike understands that taxes are a slice of our money earned. That money earned is a function of time spent executing idesa, plans, or physical work for the benefit of others. The function of time is our time on this earth; it is our lives. Taking more taxes equates to taking of one's time, and is the taking of our lives. Higher taxes equate to increased servitude. Increased servitude leads to social problems.