Primary Election Date: 06/05/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

I was born in 1965 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. My dad was career Army (since retired) and my mother was a full-time mom. I had five brothers and sisters, also all born on military bases. After my father was honorably discharged in 1969, we moved to Southern California.

I attended elementary and middle schools in Sylmar, went to Sylmar High School for two years, then transferred and graduated from Granada Hills High.

While working as a police community service officer, I pursued an undergraduate degree at several local colleges. Eventually, I completed my BA degree online from Florida's St. Leo University. I became a full-time police officer after completing police academy training.

My military upbringing had a strong tug on me. After only a short time as a police officer, I enlisted to serve my country. So I joined the U.S. Army in 1988. Two years later, I saw combat as part of Desert Storm in Iraq.

In 1992, I was honorably discharged with the rank of Sergeant. Like many other veterans at the time, I found myself struggling, looking for work, and bouncing from different businesses. Sometimes I'd be successful, and sometimes less so, just trying to find where my skills would fit the best.

After stints in insurance, financial investments, and a return to law enforcement, I eventually started my own national security guard company.

I am a divorced father of three – a daughter (age 18) and two sons (ages 21 and 16).

Why Am I Running?

I am running because I love this great country, and I want to protect and secure its future. As a military veteran and as a former law enforcement officer, I helped protect the rights and freedoms of all citizens. I cannot in good conscience stand on the sidelines and see those same rights and freedoms eroded by political in-fighting and financial gain. I am running because the dream and hopes brought in to office by this President have been attacked, eroded and belittled by self-interested, career politicians...politicians who place party ahead of country, and politicians who cater to the 1% haves instead of the 99% have-nots. I am running because I want to help others receive the same opportunities as I have had.

Vote for me and I will:

1. Push legislation that gives our children a better future by seriously investing in core school programs -- like Mathematics, Science, and English -- and where quality teachers are encouraged and compensated for educating our future workforce.

2. Push legislation that gives all Americans access to quality health care, higher education, and employment.

3. Protect fundamental voter rights of all citizens, in particular those citizens who have had their rights stripped away...voters in Ohio, citizens in Wisconsin and elsewhere where conservative voices have attempted to silence the will of the people.

4. Show you what one citizen and one candidate can do to represent the democratic ideals that our Republic was founded upon.

5. Fight the forces that wish to keep this country shackled to corporate interests and excess profits.

6. With your help, re-affirm and re-energize the agenda of change which swept into Washington DC just 3 years ago.

My campaign is about the future and hope. Three years ago, I believed that change had come to America. That change must continue. We must never go back to policies which threatened our way of life -- a broken banking system that hurt the vast majority of Americans. I firmly believe that change needs to continue and that there is nothing we can not achieve as Americans.

Hold Me Accountable!

1. Jobs...jobs...jobs. It’s painful to watch career politicians -- particularly some of our most respected Republican Congressmen -- block attempts to enact a Jobs bill. Most troubling is that a career lobbyist Grover Norquist became instrumental in holding Republicans feet to the fire. Good people in Orange County continue to suffer economically in this climate. While I don’t have all the answers to solve our economic woes, I strongly believe that sensible jobs programs are the best way to help our nation bounce back. Jobs change people, change families, and change futures. I will never forget that. I will fight with everything I have to get these jobs to the American people that want them, that need them, and that deserved them so that we can put our middle class back to work.

2. Financing. The Bush administration gave Wall Street bankers and insurance giants the biggest re-distribution of wealth in this country’s history. Now those same institutions have refused to pass on monies through loans to average Americans -- small business owners, homeowners, etc -- to show huge profits. People don’t want a hand out, they want a hand to make their dreams a reality. I will work to represent Orange County residents and business owners to get them access to their fiscal future.

3. Education. Our schools in Orange County have suffered debilitating effects in core subjects like science and math from teacher cuts and cut programs. For our kids, there is less hope in their eyes as the world we promised them is being taken from them piecemeal. I have a son and daughter college. How are you supposed to send kids to college and saddle them with $10,000 to $100,000 loans that'll take years to pay back. I recognize that California’s fiscal troubles has threatened public schools, but federal funding must support our youth, our teachers and our schools. I will continue to advocate and fight for education.

My DFA values:

I am not a politician by any stretch of the word. I am a former law enforcement officer and soldier who now is a small businessman who can no longer stand by and watch this country sink deeper into debt and despair. I believe that the protests against Wall Street greed today are akin to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. And I believe our political parties are, in part, to blame. We as a nation, and myself as a citizen, can no longer stand by and watch!

I will fight with all I have to get the money out of politics and make politics about the people , , , not corporations and not those that control one party with money and threats. I will never turn my back on the American people or the U.S. Constitution.

My campaign is focused not on special interests, but the interests of average citizens. I believe that the oath of office to protect the United States from enemies foreign and and domestic applies to special interest groups -- interests like the Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist -- that only want to buy America. My campaign will help reform the Democratic Party by giving a voice to those with less, by remembering that each vote and each voter is valuable. Reform starts with a commitment to change, and a promise to serve each constituent. That’s the Democratic party I want. That’s the America we can have together.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

I believe that my campaign is a model of grass-roots effort.

1. I am talking to anyone -- Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, Coffee Party, Independent, Progressive alike -- spreading my message. There is no one ideology or “party line”. I want to hear all views because that makes us stronger as a nation and as a campaign.

2. I make myself available at OFA meetings, and avail myself of resource groups (Orange County OFA and DFA) and other candidate groups who will listen and identify with where this country needs to go. I am getting the message out any way I can such as appearing on progressive radio shows (Randi Rhodes and Thom Hartmann, for example).

I call on all average Americans to get involved: Run for Congress, Senate, City Council, or Mayor. Run for every office that will make a difference to change America the way we want it. We must give the President the same chance that the American people repeatedly gave FDR -- re-elect him. Only then will we be able to say “Change has come to America!!!”