Torres, sen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Torres

<b>Torres</b> (born 1946) is a former United States <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Democratic_Party" title="California Democratic Party">Democratic Party</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Senate" title="California Senate" class="mw-redirect">state senator</a>. He is the Vice Chair of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Independent_Citizens_Oversight_Committee&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (page does not exist)">Independent Citizens Oversight Committee</a>, the governing Board of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Institute_for_Regenerative_Medicine" title="California Institute for Regenerative Medicine">California Institute for Regenerative Medicine</a> (CIRM). CIRM, established in 2005 following the passage of Proposition 71, is charged with allocating US$3 billion to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California" title="California">California</a> universities and research institutions to support and advance stem cell research. He is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_cancer" title="Colon cancer" class="mw-redirect">colon cancer</a> survivor and serves on the Board as a patient advocate.

<p>Torres served as the Chairman of the California Democratic Party from 1995 to 2009. He was the first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latino" title="Latino" class="mw-redirect">Latino</a> in the California Democratic Party to have been nominated for statewide office when he won the Democratic primary for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance_commissioner" title="Insurance commissioner">insurance commissioner</a> in 1994. He is openly gay. He is the father of a son and daughter.</p>

<h2>Contents</h2>

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<ul><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Torres#Early_life_and_education"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Early life and education</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Torres#Political_activity_and_public_service"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Political activity and public service</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Torres#Personal"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Personal</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Torres#References"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li></ul>

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<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Early_life_and_education">Early life and education</span></h2>

<p>Torres graduated from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montebello_High_School" title="Montebello High School">Montebello High School</a> in 1964. He holds a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Arts" title="Bachelor of Arts">Bachelor's</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_degree" title="Academic degree">degree</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,Santa_Cruz" title="University of California, Santa Cruz">UC Santa Cruz</a> and a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Doctor" title="Juris Doctor">Juris Doctor</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,Davis_School_of_Law" title="University of California, Davis School of Law" class="mw-redirect">University of California, Davis School of Law</a> (King Hall). He also served as a John F. Kennedy teaching fellow at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University" title="Harvard University">Harvard University</a>'s John F. Kennedy School of Government.</p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Political_activity_and_public_service">Political activity and public service</span></h2>

<p>In 1972, Torres was defeated in his first election for a seat in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Assembly" title="California State Assembly">California State Assembly</a> by 615 votes. Soon after the election, he became the national legislative director for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Farm_Workers" title="United Farm Workers">United Farm Workers</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFL-CIO" title="AFL-CIO" class="mw-redirect">AFL-CIO</a>, at 25 years of age.

Two years later, Torres won a seat in the California State Assembly,

where he served for the next eight years. In 1982, he was elected to the

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Senate" title="California State Senate">State Senate</a>, unseating incumbent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alex_Garcia_%28politician%29&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Alex Garcia (politician) (page does not exist)">Alex Garcia</a> after an extremely bitter Democratic primary.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Torres#cite_note-1"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup>

Torres served in the State Senate for another twelve years, from 1982

to 1994. He served as chairman of the Insurance Committee, Assembly

Health Committee, Senate Joint Committee on Science and Technology, the

Joint Committee on Refugees, the Senate Committee on the Entertainment

Industry, and he was the founding chairman of the Senate Toxics

Committee. Torres co-authored legislation that created the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Tolerance" title="Museum of Tolerance">Museum of Tolerance</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles" title="Los Angeles">Los Angeles</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=California_Clean_Water_Act&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="California Clean Water Act (page does not exist)">California Clean Water Act</a>.

In 1994, Torres was nominated for insurance commissioner, making him

the first Latino Democrat nominated for a statewide office in California

history. Torres would eventually be defeated by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_%28United_States%29" title="Republican Party (United States)">Republican</a> Assemblyman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Quackenbush" title="Chuck Quackenbush">Chuck Quackenbush</a>.

Torres found himself in the midst of controversy when on January 14, 1995, speaking at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,Riverside" title="University of California, Riverside">University of California, Riverside</a> to a group composed mainly of Latinos, Torres said that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_187%281994%29" title="California Proposition 187 (1994)" class="mw-redirect">Proposition 187</a>, passed by voters months prior, was "the last gasp of white America in California."<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Torres#cite_note-2"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Torres#cite_note-3"><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></a></sup></p>