Mark Leno
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Mark Leno is a United States politician, representing California's 13th Assembly district, which consists of the eastern portion of San Francisco. He was first elected to the assembly in 2002, before being re-elected in 2004 and 2006. He will be termed out of the assembly in 2008.
Leno is the Chair of the Assembly's powerful Appropriations Committee, as well as the Select Committees on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LBGT) Families and on Childhood Obesity & Related Diabetes.
Prior to his election to the assembly in 2002, he for four years as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Leno was initially viewed as a moderate, and as such was opposed by many San Francisco progressives; however, he has now earned the respect of many of them. Mayor Willie Brown had originally appointed him to the Board of Supervisors in 1998, and Leno's earlier career was supportive of the Brown administration. But in 2000, Leno supported Proposition L, a progressive land-use reform measure that Brown bitterly opposed. Since voters strongly opposed what they saw as the Brown administration's policy of unbridled real estate development, Leno's support of Proposition L helped him get re-elected that year. By 2002, when Leno ran for the Assembly, Mayor Brown chose to endorse another candidate.
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[edit] Same-sex marriage
In 2005, Assemblyman Leno authored AB 849, a bill legalizing same sex marraiges that became the first bill of its kind to pass a legislative body in the United States. The bill passed both the Assembly and the State Senate, but was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
California currently allows domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.
[edit] Hemp
In 2006, Assemblyman Leno and Republican Assemblyman Charles S. DeVore co-authored a bill that would legalize the cultivation of non-hallucinogenic hemp. The bill does not conflict with the federal Controlled Substances Act, and would mandate that hemp be tested to ensure it is non-hallucinogenic.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- California State Assemblymember Mark Leno — 13th Assembly District — Assemblyman Leno's home page.
- Leno caught in conservative crosshairs / After another Capitol defeat for GOP on sex offender bill, S.F. assemblyman's alternative draws fiery attacks nationwide — from the San Francisco Chronicle, 30 January 2006.
