Candidate for
Member; California State Assembly; District 67; Democratic Party

B I O G R A P H Y

Seal Beach resident, parent and farmers market director William R. "Bill" Orton is the Democratic nominee for the 67th State Assembly district. The district includes the cities of Anaheim, Cypress, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Seal Beach, Stanton and Westminster.

A resident of Seal Beach since 1980, Orton has lived in this Assembly district since 1968.

Orton faces no opponent in the March primary and will go up against Republican Tom Harman in the November 2002 general election. Orton supports the death penalty, says there are enough gun laws on the books and that the state should not issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

In addition to working for the state Assembly for seven years, Orton helps to run a $2.5 million company that operates five farmers markets in the Long Beach area. "What makes me proudest," said Orton, "is that our market has a charity where we buy fresh fruit and produce from our own farmers and then I take that food each week to students who attend a K-to-8 school for homeless children. It's a 100%-straight-to-the-kids program."

Orton is currently a community member to the Long Beach Unified School District's "Advisory Board for the Education of Homeless Children" and served as a community member to the Los Alamitos Unified School District's "Long Range Planning Task Force" in 1993-94.

As a school district Task Force member, Orton signed a minority report opposing the sale of school site properties.

Orton has also repeatedly called for reductions in the utilities tax in Seal Beach, where the rate has been stuck at 11% since 1995.

Orton attended Lark View and Bushard elementary schools before graduating from Wardlow elementary and then from Edison High School, all of which are in Huntington Beach. He earned a bachelors degree in history from CSULB. (Orton's first college job was as a janitor with the Los Alamitos USD.)

Orton lives in Seal Beach with his wife and daughter. His daughter, Lilac, was born at Los Alamitos Medical Center.