42 Facts About Carl DeMaio

Carl David DeMaio was born on September 14,1974 and is an American politician from San Diego, California who is serving in the California State Assemblymember.

Carl DeMaio served a single term as a member of the San Diego City Council, representing District 5 from 2008 to 2012.

Carl DeMaio is the first openly gay Republican elected to the California State Legislature.

Carl DeMaio attended St Catherine's Military Academy, a Catholic school in Anaheim, through eighth grade.

Carl DeMaio's mother died of breast cancer in 1990 when he was 15 years old; his abusive father abandoned the family two weeks prior to her death.

Carl DeMaio became separated from his brother and sister and began attending Georgetown Prep.

Carl DeMaio graduated in 1993, then attended Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, where he received a degree in international politics and business in 1996.

In 2003 Carl DeMaio founded a second company, the American Strategic Management Institute, which provided financial and management training to corporations.

Carl DeMaio sold both companies to the Thompson Publishing Group in late 2007.

Carl DeMaio is married to Jonathan Hale, owner of Hale Media which publishes San Diego Gay and Lesbian News and SDPix.

Between 1994 and 1999, Carl DeMaio worked for the Congressional Institute, serving as the Institute's Director of Planning.

In 2000, Carl DeMaio joined the Reason Foundation to lead a project to develop a bipartisan management improvement plan for the incoming Presidential Administration.

Carl DeMaio later alleged this award was based on "false and misleading" financial data provided to him by the city.

Carl DeMaio serves as Chairman and principal officer for Reform California.

In 2015 Carl DeMaio, warning that unfunded government pension liabilities were growing too large, announced Reform California would partner with former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed to propose and pass a statewide Pension Reform Initiative.

In 2017 Carl DeMaio announced a recall against Democratic state senator Josh Newman citing Newman's vote for the car and gas tax increases.

Carl DeMaio led a coalition to collect more than 65,000 signatures to force a recall onto the June 2018 ballot.

In 2018 Carl DeMaio led the effort to qualify the Gas Tax Repeal Initiative and his group successfully collected almost 1 million signatures and got the initiative qualified for the November 2018 ballot.

Carl DeMaio later proposed a followup ballot measure to the Gas Tax Repeal campaign.

In January 2018 Carl DeMaio signed a new five-year contract with KOGO.

Carl DeMaio returned to KOGO after the March 2020 Primary Election.

In December 2023, Carl DeMaio again took a leave from KOGO to launch his 2024 Assembly race, but continued his Podcast as a way to stay connected with his followers.

Carl DeMaio ran for the termed-out Brian Maienschein's District 5 San Diego City Council seat in the nonpartisan 2008 election.

Carl DeMaio was the first openly gay man to be elected to the council, and the first Italian American elected to office in the city of San Diego since the 1930s.

Carl DeMaio opposed a proposal to build a new San Diego central library, saying the city could not afford it.

Carl DeMaio proposed a Sunshine Act, which passed the City Council with unanimous support.

Carl DeMaio was the primary author of San Diego's June 2012 Proposition B, titled "Amendments to the San Diego City Charter Affecting Retirement Benefits," and he led the drive to put it on the ballot.

In 2010, Carl DeMaio supported the addition of a citizen initiative called "Competition and Transparency in City Contracts", which would require the city to seek competitive bids for some services and allow the city to outsource without the involvement of unions.

However, the measure was rejected by the county registrar of voters after a random sample concluded that Carl DeMaio had not gathered enough valid signatures.

Carl DeMaio campaigned against a proposal to boost the city's sales tax by a half-a-billion dollars over five years.

Carl DeMaio argued instead to reduce the budget deficit through spending cuts and pension reform.

In 2011, Carl DeMaio filed papers declaring his intention to run for mayor of San Diego in 2012, when mayor Jerry Sanders would be retiring due to term limits.

Carl DeMaio was endorsed by the San Diego County Republican Party in March 2012.

On September 25,2012, Sanders endorsed Carl DeMaio to be his successor.

On May 30,2013, Carl DeMaio announced his intention to run for Congress in 2014 against incumbent Scott Peters.

Carl DeMaio was one of three openly gay Republican candidates for Congress in the 2014 elections.

The month before the primary election, the campaign office of Carl DeMaio was broken into; an affidavit signed by a San Diego Police Department detective, unsealed after the November 2014 election, stated the belief that Todd Bosnich was the culprit of the campaign office burglary.

Carl DeMaio denied the allegations, saying they were made after Bosnich had been terminated for plagiarism and subsequently vandalized campaign headquarters.

Carl DeMaio denied the accusations, noting that Harper's girlfriend-at-the-time had been terminated by the campaign and that Harper had quit several weeks later.

Carl DeMaio ran for the District 75 seat against another Republican, Lakeside School Board Trustee Andrew Hayes.

Carl DeMaio has stated his intent to propose a "No Budget, No Pay" law that would permanently penalize the pay of Members of Congress and political appointees in the White House when they fail to pass a budget on time.

Carl DeMaio proposed a "Freedomcare" health insurance system to replace Obamacare, allowing individuals to buy health insurance across state lines and putting the government exchanges under private management.