Brentwood News Q&A with Brad Torgan, Candidate for State Assembly

In the coming months, Brentwood News will interview all candidates for State Assembly District 50 (Mike Feuer’s current seat). Here’s our interview with Brad Torgan.
Q: For those in Brentwood who don’t know you, tell us a little about yourself.
A: I’m a native Angeleno and a product of the public school systems serving AD 50. My work background is in city planning and law and I served in Governor Schwarzenegger’s administration as Chief Counsel for the California Department of Parks and Recreation. I’m currently in private practice as a land use and environmental attorney, mostly representing landowners and community organizations. I’m active in the community as a West Hollywood Historic Preservation Commissioner, through my temple, as an activist in the Republican Party â€“ including Republicans against 8, and as a volunteer coach for a local rugby team.
Q: What is it you hope to accomplish if you are elected our assembly member?
A: As a matter of style, I hope to tone down the hyper-partisan rhetoric in Sacramento. Lobbing verbal grenades, whether from the left or the right, makes for great sound bites, but lousy governing. As a matter of substance, my goal is to restore California to sound fiscal health. We can’t do that, though, without real reforms like structural reform of our state’s tax code, reform of our public educational system, and reform of our public pension programs.
Q: What can you draw from your Republican Party or West Hollywood experience that you think will apply to the 50th District as a whole? What good ideas from your past political experience would you like to see implemented across District 50?
A: For over a decade, I’ve been an appointed Commissioner in West Hollywood, first as a Planning Commissioner and now as a Historic Preservation Commissioner, and I’ve been appointed and reappointed in a city that has never elected a Republican to its City Council. From this, my experience shows the ability to work across partisan lines to get things done. I’ve learned you get a lot more done when you look for the things on which you agree with others rather than start with what you disagree with as the default position.
Q: Sacramento strikes many as particularly dysfunctional. What can you do to help change this?
A: There is some truth to the belief that Sacramento is dysfunctional. That dysfunction is the result of a legislative status quo that believes in band-aids rather than real reform, that only pays lip service to civil liberties, and that puts the needs of a few special interests first. I’d like to go to Sacramento to change that status quo, to implement the same fiscal restraint there that we all have to practice in our daily lives, to work for real economic reform that will bring back a healthy business climate and put Californians back to work, and to bring a transparency to the process that doesn’t exist now.
Q: Anything else?
A: I’m looking forward to the opportunity to speak more with the voters of Brentwood.