Candidate for
Mayor; City of Sacramento

Following graduation as a high school valedictorian, Mark attended college at Stanford University, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in economics with departmental honors. While in college, Mark served as a part-time public speaking instructor for the Technical Communications Program in the Stanford University School of Engineering. Mark then attended law school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received his juris doctor degree. In 1988, Mark was admitted to the State Bar of California.

Following graduation from law school, Mark served as a law clerk to a United States District Court Judge. He then briefly worked in private practice, before joining the State of California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) in Spring 1990. From May 1990 to September 1996, Mark served as an enforcement counsel at the FPPC, promoting to senior commission counsel at that time. From October 1996 to December 2001, Mark served as senior counsel and handled many of the agency's most complex and sensitive administrative and civil enforcement cases.

While at the FPPC, Mark successfully settled or prosecuted over forty campaign money laundering cases resulting in the imposition of monetary fines. He also successfully settled or prosecuted administrative or civil cases involving campaign reporting violations and/or other violations of the state's Political Reform Act against major party candidates for Governor, Attorney General, Insurance Commissioner, fifteen past or present members of the state legislature, and against past or present mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland.

In 1993, Mark received an award from the Fair Political Practices Commission for outstanding contributions to the goals of the commisison through sustained superior performance in the field of political reform.

In 2001, on the day before Mark's departure to the California Attorney General's Office, the Commission issued a resolution recognizing Mark's distinguished service, which noted Mark had "vigorously prosecuted 140 cases which resulted in . . . the highest fine total for cases prosecuted by a single attorney in the Enforcement Division's history," praising his reputation as a "vigorous, unrelenting, no-nonsense prosecutor."

In December 2001, Mark was named as a deputy attorney general in the false claims section. His responsibilities presently include all phases of investigating and litigating complex civil fraud cases. (For an article on Mark joining the Attorney General's Office, see the Sacramento Bee, December 17, 2001.)

In 2000, Mark married his wife, Leslye. The couple lives in South Natomas, where Mark has resided since 1990.

As noted by the Daily Recorder on December 14, 2001, "An active member of the local bar, Soble has served as a member of the Sacramento County Bar Association's editorial advisory board and appointments, judiciary and professional responsibilities committees. He was elected to the SCBA Bar Council in 1998 and [chaired] the association's appointments committee."

In the recent past, Mark has also been an active leader with the local alumni groups for Stanford University and the University of Michigan, having serving as president of each group in the mid-1990s. He has also been active in Toastmasters and served as a part-time volunteer small claims court judge during 1994-96. In October 1991, Mark was loaned to the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, where he successfully handled two misdemeanor jury trials, both resulting in a verdict that the defendant was guilty on all counts. In September 2003, Mark was appointed to the City of Sacramento's Animal Care Services Citizens Advisory Committee.