Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 70; Republican Party

Don Wagner has lived in Irvine since 1991 with Megan, his wife of 19 years. The Wagners have three children, Kate, 16, Paul, 14, and Stephanie, 10. All three Wagner children have attended Irvine public schools and been active in local youth athletics. When not working or performing his public duties, Don can usually be found on a sideline somewhere coaching baseball or cheering on the kids in soccer, football, or swimming.

Don was educated at UCLA and the University of California, Hastings College of Law. While in law school, he served on the editorial board as senior technical editor for the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly and, fifteen years before the terror attacks of September 11, authored a scholarly article concerning the President's constitutional authority to respond to international terrorism.

Don is the only candidate in the race to serve in public office. He was elected in 1998, re-elected in 2002, and continues to serve as a member of the Board of Trustees of the South Orange County Community College District. He is currently the President of the Board, having three times been unanimously elected to the presidency by his fellow trustees. When Don was first elected to guide a troubled college district, its finances were under State scrutiny, enrollment was flat, accreditation was in jeopardy, and campus dissension was widespread. Today, all that is past. The district's finances are robust. Don and his elected colleagues are building new facilities without tax increases or incurring bond debt. Accreditation has been reaffirmed. Enrollment is up. Hard work, a commitment to educational excellence, and fiscally conservative leadership have led to a district renaissance.

In addition to his public work, Don has volunteered for the GOP for years, walked precincts for national, state, and local Republican candidates, manned phone banks, served on a legal committee to stop liberal election day shenanigans, and was president of Republican Associates in the mid-'90s. Don founded and served as first president of the Orange County Chapter of the Federalist Society, a nationwide organization of lawyers, law professors, and judges. The Federalist Society has now replaced the leftist American Bar Association as chief outside advisor to the Bush Administration in its nomination of federal judges.

Don Wagner is also quite active beyond the Orange County political community. He served on the board and for two terms as president of the Orange County chapter of the American Lung Association and has coached youth sports for a decade. He was a recent finalist for Irvine Citizen of the Year and was designated by the CWLA as a 2002 "Hero in Education." Don has served on the board of directors of two for-profit corporations and regularly publishes articles on legal, political, and cultural topics in the Orange County Register, the Orange County Lawyer Magazine, and other publications. Finally, he serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Orange County Superior Court.

Don seeks the open 70th Assembly District seat in order to promote in Sacramento the family friendly, low tax, pro-entrepreneur, and robust education policies needed to rescue this State. He brings to the race a record of success in business, in charitable community work, and as an elected official within the 70th Assembly District, that no other candidate can match.