Biography

Bonnie Lowenthal was elected to the state Assembly in 2008. Her district includes California's only inhabited island, the largest port complex in the nation, and one of the most economically and ethnically diverse populations in the state.

Her entry into the Legislature follows two terms on the Long Beach City Council, and two terms on the Long Beach Unified School District. She also served on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

A Long Island native who raised two children in California, a licensed mental health professional, an early practitioner of computer programming languages, whose comfort with technology puts her at ease with today's cyber-youth, Bonnie Lowenthal emerges from the rough-and-tumble world of Long Beach politics at a time when thick skin and solid relationships are more important than ever.

She entered the Legislature as part of a freshman class thrown into the worst financial meltdown in modern state history. Within a month, she would vote for broad spending reductions, and participate in the most dramatic one-year financial course correction in California history.

Lowenthal, a leading advocate of open government and institutional reform, quickly earned the respect and support of environmentalists, consumer advocates and good-government groups.

During her first months in office, Lowenthal helped broker a deal that granted the Long Beach-centered portion of Southern California new autonomy over water quality and water conservation projects.

She delivered an impressive first-year bill package that earned seven gubernatorial signatures. She selected her legislation with an eye toward cost containment, and managed to snare more federal dollars for California with her law to grant a year of federally funded food stamps to emancipated foster youth. She was named Legislator of the Year by the California Assisted Living Association.

She completed a master's program in Community Clinical Psychology at California State University Long Beach. She used her license as a Marriage, Family and Child Therapist in both private practice and as a Mental Health Consultant for Head Start, LULAC, and agencies that served the growing and vibrant Cambodian refugee community in Long Beach.

After decades of volunteer public service, she was elected in 1994 to the Long Beach Unified School Board, where she served two terms. Voters then elected her three times to the Long Beach City Council. During her terms on the Council, she served as Vice Mayor, and on the boards of the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Bonnie Lowenthal chairs the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care, and the Select Committee on Ports. She also serves as a member of the committees on Health; Transportation; Accountability; and Water, Parks & Wildlife. She represents Long Beach, San Pedro, Signal Hill, Avalon, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates and Palos Verdes Estates. She is eligible to serve in the Assembly until 2014.