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Mike Brownrigg

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Mike Brownrigg
Image of Mike Brownrigg

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments
Last election

March 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

Williams College, 1983

Personal
Birthplace
Palo Alto, Calif.
Contact

Campaign website

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Mike Brownrigg (Democratic Party) ran for election to the California State Senate to represent District 13. He lost in the primary on March 3, 2020.

Brownrigg completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Mike Brownrigg was born in Palo Alto, California. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics and German from Williams College in 1983. Brownrigg's career experience includes working as a congressional aide, diplomat, and member of the Burlingame planning commission and city council.[1]

Elections

2020

See also: California State Senate elections, 2020

General election

General election for California State Senate District 13

Josh Becker defeated Alex Glew in the general election for California State Senate District 13 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Josh Becker
Josh Becker (D) Candidate Connection
 
75.4
 
348,005
Image of Alex Glew
Alex Glew (R)
 
24.6
 
113,315

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 461,320
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for California State Senate District 13

The following candidates ran in the primary for California State Senate District 13 on March 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Josh Becker
Josh Becker (D) Candidate Connection
 
23.8
 
66,428
✔
Image of Alex Glew
Alex Glew (R)
 
17.3
 
48,378
Image of Sally Lieber
Sally Lieber (D)
 
17.1
 
47,773
Image of Shelly Masur
Shelly Masur (D) Candidate Connection
 
16.2
 
45,211
Image of Annie Oliva
Annie Oliva (D) Candidate Connection
 
11.9
 
33,311
Image of Mike Brownrigg
Mike Brownrigg (D) Candidate Connection
 
11.6
 
32,481
Image of John Webster
John Webster (L) Candidate Connection
 
2.1
 
5,910

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 279,492
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Watch the Candidate Conversation for this race!

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Mike Brownrigg completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Brownrigg's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am Michael Brownrigg and I'm running for State Senate because the issues we confront as a District, as a State, and as a planet are absolutely vital and urgent. They are in brief Affordability, Climate and Education, my ACE agenda. By 2030, I want to ensure we have 20% more housing in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties; achieve Zero Carbon energy statewide; and increase our education budget significantly, especially for early childhood.

No one in this race has more experience than I do to take on these tasks in Sacramento. That's why I earned the Daily Journal's endorsement for State Senate. They wrote: "We can trust Mike to represent us in Sacramento...he is simply our best choice."

I have over 30 years in public service, including 12 years as a US diplomat and 18 years in local government, solving real problems and delivering pragmatic solutions. Over ten years on Burlingame City Council, twice serving as mayor, I have pushed to build affordable housing, to expand our housing stock by 25% over ten years, to open two new schools and expand our parks, to balance our budgets while paying down pension debt, and on a regional basis, to remove organic waste from landfill to make biogas; banning non-recyclable plastics is next on my to-do list.

With courage and tenacity, and putting the interests of our District and State above special interests, we can improve quality of life for everyone. I would be honored to have your vote. For more info see www.votebrownrigg.com.
  • Affordability is crucial, otherwise the peninsula risks becoming a de facto gated community. We need more housing of all sorts - especially for teachers, essential service providers and seniors - a world class transit system to expand the housing envelope, and affordable and accessible childcare.
  • Climate is the second ultrahigh priority - we have to get carbon out of our energy stream by 2030 - not 2045 the way the State currently plans - meaning no more fossil fuels. I have a plan and it won't be easy, but once we make the transition, we will have clean energy that is ubiquitous and cheap.
  • Education needs more resources, plain and simple. I am a peninsula kid, born and raised. When I went to grade school, California was 11th in the nation in per-pupil spending. Today it is in the low 30s. That's just not fair to this generation of kids, who by the way, become our next generation of leaders. We have to fix that.
Self evident from answers so far: making sure there is a home for everyone, not just the wealthy. Making sure we have a world class transit system. Making sure we begin to really take the hard decisions on climate change that ONLY California can - as the 5th largest economy in the world - and improving our education system for early childhood, k-12 and higher ed. I also think we have to spend more time focused on the needs of our seniors, since we are a rapidly aging county, and that means better long term care insurance, better mobility options, and more affordable senior housing and health care options.
I have a deep respect for political courage and politicians with intellectual honesty. I have a very high regard, therefore, for President Obama, and in an earlier age, President Lyndon Johnson. We would not have civil rights without Johnson's courage and conviction in the face of significant opposition, not least from his own friends and relatives. No president is perfect, of course, but watching (or reading about) how these two men took on entrenched interests to move our country forward is deeply inspiring.
Robert Caro's biographies of Lyndon Johnson. It does not so much describe my philosophy as the challenges of being a great leader and working on hard issues that do not make everyone happy. For similar reasons I like Profiles in Courage by then Senator John F Kennedy.
It is on my website under my values, my Four Cs of public service: courage, compassion, civility and common sense.
Ability to listen, process, find common ground, then have the guts to lead
Intellectual honesty, financial literacy, a willingness to hear from all sides more than once, the ability to find or construct common ground between parties to create win-win outcomes, and the courage to lead even if the decision is not universally popular (the hard ones never are).
Carbon free energy stream, which will then show the path to the rest of the country and the rest of the world, really bending our climate arc in the 100 year time frame

25% increase in housing for all and a concomitant focus on addressing homelessness

a world class transit system in the bay area

A robust, evergreen funded early childhood education system
The moon landing, I was 7. I also vaguely remember the Cuban missile crisis because we were taught to duck under our desks in the event of a nuclear war - like that would have helped!
My very first job was in the mailroom of a large financial services company and I held it for one year, before college. It allowed me to move in with my grandfather and help care for him so he would not have to be relocated to a nursing home, and I stayed with him for the last year of his life.
Remembering to tell my wife how much I love her.
I am not sure about other legislative bodies, but in California, there are 40 senators and 80 assemblyman, so the relative power is much closer than in the federal example. The main difference is that Senators only have to run for re-election every 4 years, so they OUGHT to be more courageous and visionary and be ready to take more risk in order to make the changes we need, for example on climate.
Absolutely. 100%. I have spent 30 years in public service AND 20 years in the private sector, and the two realms are completely different.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING

CLIMATE CHANGE, ESPECIALLY GETTING TO ZERO CARBON ENERGY BY 2030
CLEAN AND ADEQUATE FRESH WATER
HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL, ESPECIALLY PRESCHOOL
BALANCING THE BUDGET IN A DOWNTURN
PAYING DOWN INHERITED PENSION LIABILITIES
SEA LEVEL RISE DEFENSE

BANNING PLASTICS THAT CANNOT BE RECYCLED
Partnership. I worked at the Federal level and was at one point part of the Executive Office of the President (way back), and more recently have spent 10 years as an elected councilman and mayor, so I think I have a pretty healthy view and much more experience than most of how the Executive and the Legislature can most productively work together.
Of course, the best and most sustainable legislation - just like the best treaties and the best ordinances - are ones that create win-win outcomes across multiple communities or interest groups. I am put in mind of two maxims that foreign negotiators shared with me over my career. A trade diplomat from the EU once said to me, if you want to get things done, keep an open door and an open mind. And a Japanese negotiator shared his favorite advice, which is, when things get heated, "fix the problem and not the blame." It is amazing how much I have been able to get done in my city of Burlingame bearing those maxims in mind and coupled with a clear vision of what I think we need to do to keep our city the special, inclusive place it has always been.
Budget, Environment, Housing
Not sure.
Senator Joe Simitian.
No.
Many. As part of this campaign, we have held over 105 house parties up and down our District, from Sunnyvale to South San Francisco. I have spoken to - and listened to - more than 1000 voters face to face over kitchen sinks and coffee tables. I have heard numerous stories that make me ache to get to Sacramento and get to work.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 10, 2020


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