Meet Tony
About Tony
Creating Jobs in the Valley
Making Our Kids Safer
Fighting for the Valley
Protecting Democratic Values
Cracking Down on Animal Abuse
Cleaning Up Our Neighborhoods
About Tony
Tony Cardenas was elected to the State Assembly in 1996, carrying on his  shoulders the dreams of first-generation Americans like his parents who saw their son sworn into office as the first Latino representing the San Fernando Valley in California's legislature.
As chairman of the Assembly budget committee and a city tax reform panel, Cardenas used the sharp eye he honed as businessman to cut through red tape and institute reforms that made Los Angeles more business-friendly and ushered in the biggest infusion of jobs the Valley has seen in more than five years.
A problem-solver with the disciplined mind of engineer, Cardenas crafted real-world solutions to some of the state's most intractable problems over three terms in the Assembly and eight years as a Los Angeles City Councilmember, earning national acclaim for his groundbreaking gang prevention strategies.
As he seeks to become the first Latino to represent the San Fernando Valley in Congress, Cardenas approaches difficult problems with the heart of a family man who learned to build consensus growing up as one of eleven brothers and sisters.
Cardenas lives and breathes the middle-class values of the communities he represents. After graduating from UC Santa Barbara, Cardenas returned to the San Fernando Valley where he still resides with his wife, Norma, and their children. [top]
Creating Good Jobs in the Valley
Tony Cardenas has fought hard to bring new jobs to the San Fernando Valley and give small businesses the tools they need to succeed.
Cardenas' leadership was instrumental in bringing the new Mission Foods manufacturing plant to Panorama City to create four hundred new local jobs, the biggest infusion of jobs to the valley in more than five years.
As Chair of the City's Ad Hoc Committee on Business Tax Reform, Cardenas cut red tape and reduced city taxes to help local small business owners keep the doors open during these difficult times. [top]
Making Our Kids Safer
Cardenas has waged a 15-year battle to protect our children from falling prey to gang violence and to stop teens from joining gangs in the first place.
As a Councilman, Cardenas pioneered the most comprehensive anti-gang initiative in the country, a "Community-Based Gang Intervention Model" that is now the gold standard for gang prevention in cities nationwide. As Chair of the City's Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development, Cardenas identified millions of dollars overlooked by the City to help keep kids off the streets and away from gangs. These efforts reduced crime while freeing up crime-fighting resources.
As a legislator, Cardenas co-wrote the pioneering Schiff-Cardenas Crime Prevention Act that keeps at-risk youth off the street, giving them alternatives to gangs while delivering millions of dollars that enabled our communities to put more officers on the streets and prosecute gang activity. [top]
Fighting for the Valley
In his first campaign for City Council, Cardenas heard from families all over the valley who felt their neighborhoods were shortchanged by City Hall. As a City Councilman, Cardenas worked to ensure valley families received their share of City services and funding. As a Congressman, Cardenas will continue his commitment to make sure our Valley communities are never left behind.
Tony delivered the resources needed to keep Valley communities safe, helping to open new LAPD stations in Van Nuys, Mission Area, Mission Hills, and the Valley Communications Dispatch Center and the new LAPD Operations-Valley Bureau in Panorama City.
Under state lottery reforms pioneered by Cardenas, California classrooms have received $1 billion in new textbooks and classroom materials.
Cardenas secured more than $650 million for new school construction in Los Angeles to help relieve overcrowding in our kids' classrooms. His reforms brought 78,000 new classroom seats to Los Angeles and 15 universal playgrounds that are user-friendly for children with special needs. [top]
Protecting Democratic Values
For more than a decade in public office, Tony Cardenas has built a consistent record protecting working families, standing up for equal rights and equal opportunities for all Californians.
- Ensuring that all kids have access to a good public school and access to college
- Protecting workers and a safe workplace
- Stopping discrimination in the workplace and protecting a woman’s right to choose
- Protecting consumers and the environment and holding polluters accountable
- Strongly supporting US-Isreali relations
[top]
Cracking Down on Animal Abuse
Cardenas created Los Angeles' first Animal Cruelty Task Force which arrested dozens of callous animal abusers. One of the task force's first felony convictions put a known gang member away for three years for abusing a family pet.
Cardenas was the driving force behind the City's mandatory spay/neuter ordinance to reduce the number of stray and homeless dogs and cats on city streets and to decrease the number of animals euthanized in the city's shelters. [top]
Cleaning Up Our Neighborhoods
Tony Cardenas is committed to cleaning up our air, land and water. It is his law that protects kids from the toxic fumes emitted by school buses. He is also leading the city's effort to fine and shut down corporate polluters, and Cardenas established a new law requiring new industrial businesses meet tough safety standards to protect public health.
In his first two years on the city council, Cardenas orchestrated the cleanup of more than 5,000 tons of trash and bulky items from Valley streets. In 2010, he mobilized nearly 1,000 volunteers at five sites throughout the Valley to remove and dispose of a record-breaking 43,160 pounds of trash in a single day.
As Chairman of the city council's Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Cardenas was influential in the passage of the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard that established goals and timelines for the Department of Water and Power to obtain 20% of its energy from cleaner sources such as wind and solarpower. His fellow councilmembers unanimously backed his innovative plan to convert the City's taxi fleet to fuel efficient vehicles by 2015. [top] |
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