BRIAN GOLDSMITH

Why Thrive LA endorses BRIAN

Brian Goldsmith is a Harvard and Stanford Law graduate, small business owner, media consultant, and first-time candidate running for the open State Senate District 24 seat being vacated by Sen. Ben Allen. He founded Kona Media & Message, a media consulting firm, and two tech startups. He spent over a decade as a political journalist and producer at CBS News, Yahoo News, and CNN before moving into Democratic strategy, advising Pete Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign and serving as a senior adviser to Democratic Majority for Israel. SD-24 covers some of the most consequential ground in Los Angeles County, from Santa Monica and West Hollywood to the Westside and South Bay beach cities. The next senator will shape state policy on housing production, public safety funding, and the fiscal accountability Sacramento desperately lacks. Goldsmith is the rare candidate who combines private-sector experience with a clear-eyed willingness to challenge his own party's orthodoxies. He supported Proposition 36 and actively made ads for it. He backed Nathan Hochman for LA County DA. He openly questions why the state budget ballooned from $208 billion to $349 billion without any measurable improvement in public services. That kind of intellectual honesty is exactly what Sacramento needs. Goldsmith's endorsement portfolio tells the story. He carries the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL), the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC), the California Association of Highway Patrolmen (CAHP), the Professional Peace Officers Association (PPOA), the California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA), and CAL FIRE Local 2881. On the political side, he has earned the backing of former Mayors Antonio Villaraigosa and Eric Garcetti, Rick Caruso, DA Nathan Hochman, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, and Teamsters Joint Council 42. The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles PAC also supports him, a signal of alignment with housing providers and the building community. On housing, he correctly identifies that it costs 2.5 times more per unit to build in California than Texas and calls for streamlining permitting, modernizing CEQA, enabling commercial-to-residential conversions, and pushing to exempt disaster zones from Measure ULA. He opposes expanding rent control and rejects SB 79's unfunded mandates. On fiscal policy, he wants to double the state's rainy day fund, audit education spending, root out waste and fraud in Medi-Cal, and end programs that fail to deliver measurable results. He opposes the wealth tax. Brian Goldsmith is the pro-growth, fiscally accountable senator SD-24 needs.