Todd Spitzer

Todd Allan Spitzer (born November 26, 1960) is a United States politician. A Republican, he currently represents the 71st district in the California State Assembly, serves in the Assembly Republican leadership as Chief Republican Whip, and is the dean of the Orange County Assembly Delegation.

Born in Whittier, California, Spitzer earned his B.A. in English at University of California, Los Angeles in 1982, his Master of Public Policy at UC Berkeley in 1989, and his J.D. at UC Hastings in 1989.

After serving as a California State Senate Fellow in the office of John F. Seymour during the 1982-1983 legislative session, Spitzer became an English teacher at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles for the 1984-1985 academic year. He became a reserve police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department in 1990 (serving until 2001) and a Deputy District Attorney in neighboring Orange County the same year, serving until his election to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

In 1992, Spitzer was elected to the Brea Olinda Unified School District Board of Education in the city of Brea. In 1996, he defeated California State Assemblyman Mickey Conroy to win election to the County Board of Supervisors (the county's governing legislative and executive body), representing the 3rd District. Spitzer ran unopposed for re-election in 2000.

In 2002, he won 73% of the vote to replace term limited State Assemblyman Bill Campbell to represent portions of Orange and Riverside Counties in the State Legislature. Campbell, in turn, won 75% of the vote in the 2003 special election to fill the vacancy on the Board of Supervisors left when Spitzer resigned to become an Assemblyman. Both men suffered criticism for their apparent job swap, which required changing Orange County from a general law county to a charter county to allow an election to fill the supervisoral vacancy under the county charter instead of having then-Governor Gray Davis appoint someone to fill the vacancy under general law. However, this controversy seemed to have little effect on the election results, as 53% of County voters approved the creation of the charter and 3/4 of the voters supported the two men in their respective districts. [http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/1011573.html] [http://occonnect.com/eltoro/archives/arch1.cgi?noframes;read=43545]

Spitzer was re-elected to the Assembly with 69% of the vote in 2004 and 72% of the vote in 2006.

He has a son (Justin) and a newborn baby girl with his wife, Jamie Morris.

External links

* [http://www.assembly.ca.gov/spitzer Official Assembly web site]
* [http://www.toddspitzer.org/ Official Campaign web site]