In 2002 Assemblymember John Laird was elected to represent the 27th Assembly District, which includes portions of Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Clara Counties.  He was re-elected in 2004 and 2006, when he received over 70% of the vote.

In his first Assembly term, Mr. Laird was one of only five first-term members to chair a major policy committee, the Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee.  He also served as chair of the Special Committee on State Mandates and chair of the Select Committee on California Water Needs and Climate Change.

At the start of his second term in 2004, Mr. Laird was named by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez to join the Assembly leadership team as chair of the Budget Committee, a position to which Speaker Bass reappointed him in 2008.

As Budget Committee Chair in 2006, Mr. Laird helped deliver the first on-time budget since 2000, a budget that reduced community college fees, restored funding for transportation and K-12 education, dramatically increased funding for deferred park maintenance and foster care, and increased the budget reserve while reducing the so-called “out year” deficit.  

During his tenure as Budget Committee Chair, Mr. Laird has earned a reputation as the Assembly’s budget expert, a key resource during annual budget negotiations, a proponent of investing in California’s future and a critic of both excessive borrowing and the two-thirds vote requirement for budget passage.

Mr. Laird also serves as a member the Labor and Employment, Judiciary, and Natural Resources Committees.

During Mr. Laird’s tenure, he has authored a wide range of bills signed into law—to establish the landmark Sierra Nevada Conservancy, restore community college health services, expand and clarify state civil rights protections, reform the state mandates system and significantly expand water conservation. 

Specific to the 27th Assembly district, Mr. Laird successfully authored bills to provide new protections for sea otters, help build a new veterans cemetery at the former Fort Ord, provide pay increases for park rangers and fish and game wardens, and assistance programs for first-time homebuyers in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. 

In his current term, he has authored and championed legislation to provide health care coverage for all children, implement far-reaching water conservation and recycling, expand development of renewable energy by local government, develop advanced planning for invasive pests, and create a long-term funding solution for state parks.
 
Raised in Vallejo and educated in Vallejo public schools, Mr. Laird's parents both were educators. He graduated from UCSC's Adlai Stevenson College.  He served on the congressional district staff of U. S. Representative Jerome Waldie, was an analyst for the Santa Cruz County Administrative Officer, was Executive Director of the Santa Cruz AIDS Project, and anchored a public affairs radio program on Central Coast Public Radio.

In 1981, Mr. Laird was elected to a seat on the Santa Cruz City Council and served nine years until term limits ended his council service in 1990. He was elected by the City Council to one-year mayor's terms in 1983 and 1987, becoming one of the first openly gay mayors in the United States.  He served as an elected member of the Cabrillo College Board of Trustees from 1994 to his election to the Assembly in 2002.

Updated: August 7, 2008