Joel Anderson

Joel Anderson (born February 11, 1960) is an American politician serving as a member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

A Republican, he is a former California state senator, assemblyperson, and board member of a municipal water district.

During his time in the Legislature, Anderson served on the board of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as California state chair.

Born and raised in Detroit, Anderson moved to San Diego County, California with his family when he was in high school.

Anderson graduated from Grossmont College with an associate's degree in business administration.

He attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and received a bachelor's degree in finance and business administration from the university.

He has served within his community as treasurer on the board of the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County, a member of the board of the Water Conservation Garden, director of proceedings of the Alpine Chamber of Commerce, and as a volunteer at River Valley Charter High School.

In 1998, Anderson campaigned for a seat in the California Assembly but lost the election.

In November 2002, he was elected to the Division 5 seat on the Padre Dam Board—representing Blossom Valley, Flinn Springs, Alpine, Crest and Harbison Canyon—with 44 percent of the vote while campaigning on the issues of fiscal responsibility and decreasing spending.

Anderson criticized incumbent members of the board for excessive travel and for putting together a customer service center that cost more than he believed was necessary.

After Anderson was elected, the Padre Dam Board voted unanimously to postpone the building project.

In August 2003, the Padre Dam Board voted to build a new office building at the Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve; Anderson voted against the spending measure, and it passed 3–2 with a cost limit of $6 million.

In 2006, Anderson was the Board President of the Padre Dam Water Board.

Anderson was elected to the California Assembly in 2006, as a representative of the 77th Assembly District in East San Diego County, California.

His campaign issues included border security, combating illegal immigration, decreasing taxes and fighting government waste, and promoting Jessica's Law in order to prevent sex offenders residing nearby educational facilities and local parks.

He received endorsements in his 2006 campaign, from Republican politicians in San Diego County including Ray Haynes, State Senator Bill Morrow, and Assemblyman Mark Wyland.

Helped by those endorsements, he narrowly won a five-candidate primary over Santee City Councilman Jack Dale by 858 votes, which was tantamount to victory in the general election.

In 2007, Anderson wrote legislation in the California Assembly which mandated that the two main pension funds in the state must divest from businesses that conduct defense or energy affairs in Iran.

The bill required the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System to divest from companies that violated federal law by doing business in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This legislation called for the divestment of more than $24 billion of our public pensions from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This proposal garnered Anderson notice on a national level.

AB 221, the California Divest Iran Act, was co-authored by fellow legislators from both main political parties.

The bill focused on the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), and ordered them to divest from businesses in Iran.

Governor Schwarzenegger spoke favorably of Anderson's legislation, and acknowledged that the state should position itself to have a "powerful stand against terrorism".

In a statement about AB 221, the Governor said, "California has a long history of leadership and doing what's right with our investment portfolio."

Governor Schwarzenegger said he would sign AB 221 on the floor of the United Nations during his speech to the General Assembly.

Sherry Reser, spokeswoman for CalSTRS said that the pension fund "will never tolerate support of terrorism", and acknowledged, "We will implement the bill."

James Hawley, co-director of the Elfenworks Center for the Study of Fiduciary Capitalism at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California, predicted that Anderson's legislation would affect other state governments, "There is political pressure out there. This is going to resonate with a lot of state legislatures."

Anderson's bill received support from both Jewish and Iranian groups in California.

Associated Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper commented, "The Iranian regime is up to no good. The only thing that is going to derail them is to hit them in the pocketbook."

Upon news that the Governor would sign the bill, Anderson stated, "This is a common sense bill. Money is the mother's milk of terrorism."

Anderson proposed legislation in 2007 to give disabled veterans a free pass to attend state parks.

The bill passed the Assembly with a 73-0 vote.

Democratic State Senator Christine Kehoe commented in favor of the legislation, "It's the public's way of saying thank you."

Vietnam War veteran and Dana Point, California resident Bill Manes noted, "It's just a nice gesture, particularly for those men and women coming back now."

Anderson put forth an amendment intended to give the same parks benefit to those that had received the Medal of Honor.

State Senator Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat and the Chairman of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, commented in favor of this amendment, "I'm certainly in favor of extending the privilege to recipients of the Medal of Honor. That makes complete sense."

On July 27, 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the legislation into law, as Senate Bill 60.

Upon signing the bill, Governor Schwarzenegger stated, "We owe our veterans a tremendous debt of gratitude for the contributions they have made to our state and for their dedicated service to our country. This bill is an important step forward in ensuring that these homes become a reality for our many veterans who need them."

In March 2008, Anderson endorsed Duncan D. Hunter, the son of Congressman Duncan Hunter, in his campaign for the United States House of Representatives.