After serving seven years on the Glendale City Council, including a term as the Mayor of Glendale, Laura Friedman was elected to the California State Assembly in 2016.  During her first two terms in office, Laura authored a package of bills to establish landmark water efficiency standards, strengthen environmental sustainability, improve access to higher education, health care, and transportation alternatives, and create new avenues for communities to tackle the affordable housing crisis. In addition, she secured $20 million in funding for the completion of the Glendale Riverwalk Project, which for the first time will provide a safe bicycle and pedestrian connection from Glendale to Griffith Park. 

In her time in office, she has been tapped for several leadership roles in the legislature including serving as the Chair of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and as the Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.  As the Chair of the Joint Rules Subcommittee on Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response, she’s led a historic bicameral and bipartisan reform of the legislature’s response to sexual harassment that’s become a model for other states and local governments.  She currently serves as the Chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee and the Chair of the Bicameral Legislative Environmental Caucus.

Laura lives in Glendale with her husband Guillaume Lemoine, a landscape designer, and their daughter Rachel.

Laura Friedman is running for re-election to the California State Assembly, to serve the 44th District.  Laura has an extraordinary record of leadership as a local elected leader, a community volunteer and in the private sector.

 Barry Jacobsen, Candidate, California State Assembly 44th District

Barry was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, the son, grandson, and nephew of military veterans. The Iranian Hostage Crises (along with two older brothers who served in Vietnam) inspired Barry to join the US Army Special Forces, becoming an elite "Green Beret". He served throughout the Reagan Years in various special operations throughout the world, combating communist expansion.

After leaving the army Barry built a career in hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and today owns and operates a medical clinic in Beverly Hills. Father of three and grandfather of two.

Throughout his life Barry has been a parachutist, scuba diver, avid backpacker, historian and writer, and was featured in and involved with the production of the hit television series, "Deadliest Warrior". Having served his country, built a business and raised a family Barry is now prepared to serve his country again, his native California and his neighbors and friends in the 44th Assembly District as their Assemblyman. 

I consider myself Californian first-and-foremost. I was born and grew-up in the San Fernando Valley, and California is not just a place where I live: it is in my blood. I have raised a family here, built a business, and while leaving the state during my military service and for periods of time following my chosen career path, California is where I have always returned. 

I am running for the same reason I joined the Army so many years ago: I can no longer stand idly by while my state is decaying around me. I am not a politician, and have no interest in a "political career". I have just one interest: serving you, my friends and neighbors in the San Fernando Valley, and making our home a safe and beautiful place to live in again. Homelessness, rising crime, decaying infrastructure, poorly performing schools, ever-rising taxes, and anti-business policies coming out of Sacramento (and local government) that are driving jobs out of California: these are why the Golden State has become a cautionary tale of the consequences of bad governance.

I am a California conservative, which is to say an old-style Democrat who the Democratic Party left behind in it's lurch to the extreme left. I am running as a Republican and an outsider to bring sanity back to state government.