LEADING the CHARGE.

• Author: McCRARY, DEANNA
• Position: John Campbell Stumps

Assemblyman John Campbell Stumps for More CPAs at the Capitol

California businessman, CPA and assemblyman, John Campbell, recently wrapped up a vigorous first year in Sacramento--winning the National Freshman Legislator of the Year Award from the National Republican Legislators Association in the process.

Having earned his credential in 1979, Campbell, a Republican from Irvine, says he wants to be "the poster child of CPAs in politics." Indeed, as the first CPA in more than 20 years to occupy an Assembly seat in Sacramento's marbled halls of power, he hopes he isn't the last.

"So much of what we deal with in state government is financially and fiscally related, budget related, taxation related--all areas in which CPAs have a lot of expertise," Campbell says.

A LEGACY OF SERVICE

Although active in business for more than 20 years, Campbell says he was infected by the political bug early in life. "My grandfather and father were in the newspaper business and peripherally into politics," reminisces Campbell. "My father ran for state Senate in 1966. I was 11 years old and I always say that I got the bug at that point." His father didn't win the seat, but the seed certainly was sown for the younger Campbell.

"I have always been active in politics, ever since I was a little kid--either as a volunteer, donor or letter writer and I felt that this was an area where I could make a useful contribution," says the freshman assemblyman. "Term limits make it possible for people from the real world to come in and serve for a while and then go back to the real world." The real world for Campbell has been running a car dealership in Irvine since 1978.

Campbell follows in the political footsteps of his great-grandfather Alexander Campbell, who was elected to the California Assembly in 1860 on the same ticket as Abraham Lincoln--a fact that has inspired him to continue the family tradition. "At that time citizens voted for a party, not for individual candidates," Campbell explains.

A laminated photocopy of the 1860 ticket, the year Lincoln was finally elected to the presidency, bears his great-grandfather's name and hangs in Campbell's Sacramento office. But even more prominently displayed is his CPA certificate. In fact, it is the largest framed certificate on his wall and the focal point among an array of honors and college degrees.

After receiving a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, Campbell earned a master's in...