Steve Glazer

Steven Mitchell Glazer (born August 10, 1957) is an American politician and former political advisor serving as a member of the California State Senate from the 7th Senate District, which includes most of Contra Costa County and eastern portions of Alameda County in the East Bay.

Glazer first worked for Brown in 1978, when he was in charge of the campaign activities at 20 colleges for Brown's re-election as Governor.

Glazer served as deputy campaign manager for Brown's unsuccessful bid for the United States Senate in 1982.

Glazer was born in Sacramento, California.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from San Diego State University. While attending SDSU, he served as president of Associated Students, the university's student governing group and chair of the California State Student Association.

Glazer was the press secretary for Assemblyman Gray Davis in 1983 and ran his re-election campaign in 1984.

Glazer persuaded Davis to promote the idea of placing the pictures of missing children on milk cartons, grocery bags, bus stops and billboards.

That campaign was credited with finding more than one dozen children and won Davis widespread publicity and eventually helped him win his first statewide office on his way to becoming governor.

Glazer was spokesperson for the first female Chief Justice of California Supreme Court, Rose Bird, during her failed retention campaign from 1985 to 1986.

Glazer served as press secretary for State Senate Pro Tem David Roberti from 1987 to 1993.

In 1989, Glazer formed his own public relations, media, and political consulting firm, Glazer & Associates.

As press secretary for Roberti, Glazer ran a media campaign to boost legislation that became the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989, a California law that bans the ownership and transfer of over 50 specific brands and models of semi-automatic firearms, which were classified as assault weapons.

Glazer was senior advisor to Kathleen Brown in her 1990 campaign for California State Treasurer.

Glazer ran the campaign for the 1990 Los Angeles ballot measure, Measure H, which instituted ethics reform of Los Angeles city election campaigns.

Glazer led campaigns in the 1990s to protect old growth redwood forests, the San Francisco Bay, parks, and open spaces.

Working with The Trust for Public Land, Glazer helped pass measures in more than 25 states that protect clean water and thousands of acres of open space.

Glazer organized campaigns that provided billions of dollars for homeless shelters and affordable housing, as well as residences for abused women and foster children.

Glazer served as a political strategist for the historic 1992 Los Angeles City Charter Amendment F, which aimed to dramatically alter the power structure of the Los Angeles Police Department and make it more accountable to the community.

This amendment, which was spearheaded by former United States Secretary of State Warren Christopher, implemented several changes, including limiting a police chief to two five-year terms, granting the mayor the authority to select a chief with the City Council's approval, and introducing civilian oversight of officer misconduct through the addition of a civilian member to disciplinary panels.

Glazer was an advisor to the 1994 campaign of Democratic former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo in his primary race for Secretary of State.

Glazer served on the Orinda Park and Recreation Commission from 1997 to 1999.

Glazer ran the campaign for two bond measures in the March 7, 2000, ballot propositions, Proposition 12 & 13, which California voters approved.

They provided a total of $4.1 billion to go to a variety of state, local, and nonprofit agencies to implement a broad range of activities to protect and enhance resources.

In 2002, Glazer managed the successful statewide campaign for Proposition 46, created a trust fund to: provide shelters for battered women; clean and safe housing for low-income senior citizens; emergency shelters for homeless families with children; housing with social services for homeless and mentally ill; repairs/accessibility improvements to apartments for families and handicapped citizens; military veteran home-ownership assistance; and security improvements/repairs to existing emergency shelters.

Glazer was elected to the City Council of Orinda in 2004, 2008, and 2012.

Glazer also served as mayor of the City of Orinda.

In 2006, Glazer served as campaign manager for Proposition 1C, which funded new and existing housing and development programs.

The programs would be aimed at increasing development in urban areas, transportation, homeless shelters, and construction and renovation of rental housing projects.

The measure would also provide funds to low-income home buyers.

He was elected to that post in 2007, 2012 and 2015.

Glazer ran Jerry Brown's campaign for governor in 2010.

Glazer was appointed by Jerry Brown in 2011 to serve as a member of the California State University Board of Trustees until 2015, when he was elected to the State Senate.

Glazer was also Brown's lead political strategist.

Glazer aided Governor Brown's campaign to gain voter approval of Proposition 30 in 2012, which prevented billions of dollars in additional cuts to our public schools and universities.

Glazer ran Governor Jerry Brown's tax measure campaign in 2012.

Glazer was a 2014 Democratic candidate for District 16 of the California State Assembly.

His campaign focused on prohibiting strikes by public transit workers; an SFGate article called his campaign "a near single-issue campaign of banning public transit strikes."

Glazer came in third in the primary and did not make it to the general election.

Glazer won a May 2015 special election to succeed Mark DeSaulnier, who was elected to Congress in 2014.

Glazer was a coauthor of the 2020 California Proposition 13, a bond measure to fund capital improvements at schools.