Steven Bradford
Steven Bradford (born January 12, 1960) is an American politician currently serving in the California State Senate. He is a Democrat representing the 35th district, encompassing parts of Los Angeles County. Prior to his election to the state senate, he was an assemblymember for the 62nd district of the California State Assembly. Bradford was elected to represent the 51st district in a special election held on September 1, 2009, after Curren Price resigned his seat to take a seat in the California State Senate. He was re-elected in 2010 and, with 72% of the vote, was elected  once more to represent the brand new 62nd District, comprising the communities of Del Aire, Del Rey, El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lennox, Marina del Rey, West Athens, Westchester, Westmont and Venice Beach. Before his election to the Assembly, Bradford served on the Gardena City Council. Early life and career. Bradford moved to Gardena with his family at age nine. He attended Purche Avenue Elementary School, Henry Clay Junior High School and Gardena High School. Following high school, he attended San Diego State University and California State University, Dominguez Hills, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political  science and certificate in paralegal studies. Bradford was the first African American elected to the Gardena City Council, a post he held for over 12 years. He served one year as Mayor Pro Tem of the city. He also worked twelve years as a public affairs executive at Southern California Edison, seven years at IBM, and four years as a program director at the Los Angeles Conservation Corps. Assembly career. Bradford's time in the assembly has been marked by his chairmanship of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce, which has legislative jurisdiction over electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, private  water corporations and other issues related to commerce. Actions taken in this committee affect California homeowners and businesses, the economy, jobs, and the environment. In his role as chair, Bradford has garnered national attention presiding over important hearings investigating major power outages, and how federal, state, and local authorities might better respond to such events and prevent them from happening in the future. In October 2011, Bradford convened a joint legislative hearing with Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal, chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management, in San Diego to discuss the massive power outage that struck the Pacific Southwest region  in September of that year. In February 2012 Bradford and Lowenthal convened another hearing in Alhambra to investigate another major power outage that struck the Los Angeles area as a result of a massive windstorm. Early in 2013, Assembly Speaker John A. Perez named Bradford the Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color. The Select Committee is a bipartisan panel of legislators from around the state tasked with fact finding and making recommendations for addressing the issues facing young men in California, particularly black and Latino boys. In February Bradford accepted an  invitation to the White House to attend President Barack Obama's announcement of "My Brother's Keeper," a federal investment in the lives of boys and men of color. The program follows the work Bradford's Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color has done to give young men of color the tools they need to succeed, while dismantling systemic injustices that stand in the way of their success. Legislation. In addition to his management of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce, Bradford has also authored several pieces of legislation on energy and utilities. In  2012 Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 1511, which requires property sellers to inform buyers of important information about natural gas pipelines near their homes. The law was authored in response to the deadly explosion of an underground pipeline in San Bruno, California. Bradford also authored AB 2201, which increases civil penalties on pipeline operators for safety violations. Bradford's bill brings the cap on penalties under California law into line with those under federal law: $200,000 per day, and a maximum of $2,000,000. Bradford drew national attention for AB 2514, a bill requiring the California Public  Utilities Commission to conduct a study examining the costs and benefits of California's net-energy metering (NEM) program. While NEM programs have helped develop solar power industries in countries around the world, Bradford believes they may shift costs unfairly onto homes without solar panels. Bradford closed the 2013 legislative year having 11 bills signed into law by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. Among these were bills focused on public safety, solar energy, and criminal justice reform: By the close of the 2014 legislative year, Bradford had sent 15 bills to the governor's desk. As of September 21, he  had already signed AB 2634, which gives courts "greater authority to issue injunctions against police departments that have a history of civil rights violations." Still awaiting gubernatorial action are bills including: Electoral history. Steven Bradford was elected in a 2009 special election, following the resignation of Curren Price, who had recently won election to the California State Senate. He was elected to his first outright term in 2010. Following the 2010 Census, California's legislative districts were redrawn. Bradford ran for the newly drawn 62nd district, which maintained many of the cities from the previous 51st district. Bradford was endorsed  for election to the 62nd Assembly district by the local newspaper of the South Bay, the Daily Breeze. His electoral results are shown below.