Shirley Horton represents San Diego County’s 78th Assembly District, which includes portions of the City of San Diego and rural San Diego County, as well as the communities of Chula Vista, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley. She was elected in 2002 by a broad coalition of local families who support her dedicated commitment to improving our quality of life.

Assemblywoman Horton has strong local roots. She attended Robert E. Lee Elementary School in Paradise Hills. She went to O’Farrell Junior High School in Encanto, and continues to serve as a board member of the O’Farrell Community Foundation. She then graduated from Bonita Vista High School and received her Bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University. Following graduation in 1976, she started her own business and successfully ran it until closing it to devote her career to public service.

Horton proved she could make the community a better place in which to live, work, and do business as a member of the Chula Vista Planning Commission. In 1994, she was elected the first Asian American mayor of Chula Vista, then re-elected in 1998 with 72% of the vote.

As mayor, she increased the number of police on the streets, improved local roads and public transportation to ease traffic, worked with local schools to ensure that children were getting the quality education they deserved, and built one of the strongest records for environmental protection in the state. She is a longtime supporter of veterans and worked tirelessly to bring a home for aging and disabled veterans to Chula Vista, a home recognized as one of the best in California.

Assemblywoman Horton has long been active in volunteer service organizations including, Scripps Memorial Hospital Community Advisory Board, the Chamber of Commerce, and the South Bay Family YMCA. Her personal annual service project is to raise funds to assist families of domestic violence. To keep good kids from going bad, she co-founded the Police Activities League to promote after-school, gang alternative, and abuse prevention programs.

In her first year in the Assembly, Horton defined herself as a leader in bi-partisan cooperation. In the face of the worst budget crisis in state history, the Assemblywoman worked with legislators from both parties to reach a budget compromise that would stop the State from losing millions of dollars a day after missing the budget deadline. Together the Bipartisan Group authored the bill that served as a template for the Governor’s California Recovery Plan – proving that bipartisanship can and must work for the good of our State.

Top-ranked amongst freshman legislators whose bills were signed into law in 2003, Horton introduced legislation to help reduce traffic congestion, increase penalties for sex offenders, improve services for seniors, support veteran’s homes, streamline government, and to keep college fees affordable. She is a committed, independent voice for our community who puts people before politics. She has inspired many with her successful, unanimously approved legislation that benefits community residents.

During the current legislative session, Assemblywoman Horton introduced legislation to improve the efforts of the Amber Alert system, reduce wasteful government spending, and increase penalties for illegal street racing.

She serves as Vice Chair of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee and as a member of the Committees on Higher Education; Labor & Employment; Water, Parks, & Wildlife; Jobs, Economic Development, and the Select Committee on National Defense, Technology & Jobs.

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