Candidate for
Attorney General; State of California

Biography

Born and raised in Fresno, Senator Chuck Poochigian is a third generation resident of Central California. Chuck and his wife, Debbie, were married in 1977 and have three grown children. He received his degree in Business Administration from California State University, Fresno, in 1972 and his law degree from the Santa Clara University School of Law in 1975. He served for six years as a member of the California Air National Guard. Chuck practiced general civil and business law from 1975 until November, 1988.

Chuck Poochigian got his start in politics in 1978 working on the campaign of then-State Senator George Deukmejian, who was running for Attorney General. While practicing law, Chuck served as a county chairman for President Reagan's 1984 campaign and a number of other political campaigns. In 1988, he was chosen to serve on the senior staff of Governor George Deukmejian and then was named Appointments Secretary to Governor Pete Wilson, whom he assisted in the selection of common sense judges.

Chuck was elected to the California State Assembly in 1994, and to the State Senate in 1998. He has served in various leadership positions throughout his tenure in the Legislature, and has received numerous awards and recognition for outstanding public service.

His legislative accomplishments include making permanent the Citizens Option for Public Safety (COPS) program, creating and expanding rural crime prevention programs, authoring laws to improve training at crime laboratories in their use of DNA forensics, and requiring notification of victims upon the release of inmates convicted of a violent felony. In 2004, he authored landmark legislation to reform California's broken workers' compensation system which has reduced workers' comp costs by $15 billion.

As Vice-Chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, Chuck has led the fight against identity theft, worked to protect children from dangerous sexual predators, and authored bills to increase penalties for repeat auto thieves, and incarcerate felons with firearms before they become cop killers. He also co-authored a law that closed a loophole that had allowed child molesters who target family members to avoid harsh penalties by pleading down to an incest charge. Chuck has fought against efforts to impose a moratorium on the death penalty, and consistently supported laws like Three Strikes that have contributed to a significant reduction in our crime rate -- serving as a Central California Co-Chair of the 2005 campaign that defeated Proposition 66. He has also advocated tougher laws concerning gang violence and was state Co-Chair of Prop 21 in 2000.

Senator Poochigian is running to be California's next Attorney General on a decades-long record that has been unwavering in its support of tough criminal justice policies that put public safety first. He has won the endorsement of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, two former Governors, dozens of elected district attorneys and sheriffs, every Republican legislator in the state Assembly and Senate, numerous police chiefs, the California State Sheriffs' Association, California Peace Officers' Association, California Organization of Police and Sheriffs (COPS), and dozens of other prominent political, community and law enforcement leaders and organizations from across California.