Political Career
From 1995 to 2004, Ruskin was a member of the Redwood City Council. For three of those years (1999–2001) he was the Mayor of Redwood City.
In 2004, Ruskin was elected to the California Assembly. He defeated Republican Steve Poizner in the general election. Ruskin had local government experience but initially lacked major campaign funding. The Assembly race heated up when Poizner donated $6 million to his campaign. Ruskin began a major fundraising and grassroots effort, which attracted attention from around California. With the assistance of several of California's public employee unions and massive grassroots support from people throughout the community, Ruskin was able to win the race .
In November 2006 Ruskin was re-elected to the California State Assembly by a wide margin of 75,388 votes, 67.4% to his challenger Virginia Chang Kiraly's 36,628 votes, 32.6% . He was re-elected to his third Assembly term in 2008.
Term limits in California prevented Ruskin from running for re-election in 2010. Ruskin plans to run for a State Senate seat in 2012 .
Ruskin has served on the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (as Chair), the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Water System Financing Authority, the CalFED ABAG Task Force (as Chair), the Water Management Subcommittee, the Organization of Chinese Americans, the San Mateo County Advisory Board, the Redwood City Education Foundation, the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, San Mateo County Criminal Justice Council, the San Mateo County Joint Powers Authority (for emergency medical response), and the San Mateo County Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Advisory Board.
Read more about this topic: Ira Ruskin
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