About

Our Mission

Reform California is a 527 political action committee that is dedicated to holding state and local government accountable. We fight costly and unfair taxes, mandates, and fees because working families cannot afford a higher cost of living — and state and local politicians already have enough of our money.

Given that California is currently dominated by one political party with a supermajority – and the other political party has shown itself largely ineffective in its opposition role – Reform California seeks to be the counterbalance to extreme and misguided policies that are costing taxpayers and hurting working families in our state.

Under Chairman Carl DeMaio's leadership, Reform California has become the fastest growing grassroots organization in the state. Reform California achieves its mission in three ways:

  • Launching Our Own Campaigns: Reform California has filed, qualified, and passed numerous citizen ballot initiatives to impose reform on state and local government. Reform California also organizes campaigns in opposition to bad initiatives proposed by politicians such as tax increases.
  • Supporting Campaigns of Other Reformers: Reform California provides a wide variety of direct and indirect support to organizations and candidates who are reform-minded. By working collaboratively with these partners, we can maximize limited resources in the fight against the well-funded forces behind big government.
  • Providing an Alternative to Liberal News: The liberal media in California refuses to cover the truth and deliver the news on the growing problems in California under one-party control. That's why Reform California conducts watchdog investigations and provides factual news stories and videos to the public yearning for the truth on what is really happening in our state and how to make positive change happen.

Our Supporters

Ordinary citizens from all walks of life are funders and supporters of Reform California. In fact, Reform California has grown into one of the largest grassroots advocacy organizations in the country.

  • Contributors: Reform California has built a grassroots army of over 50,000 donors who give an average of just $37 per contribution during each election cycle.
  • Volunteers: Reform California has recruited over 30,000 volunteers spread throughout each region of the state. These volunteers help collect signatures for ballot measures and volunteer for candidate and causes that Reform California endorses.
  • Subscribers: Reform California has over 500,000 subscribers to news alerts on state policy issues and politics.

This diversity and broad-based support gives Reform California true independence from the political system because our funding is not tied to any special interests with business before the state.

Our History

Reform California was founded in 2003 by government reform leader Carl DeMaio with the initial focus on uncovering the financial crisis faced at that time by the City of San Diego. That initial work led to the City of San Diego admitting to falsifying its financial statements and hiding its multi-billion pension debt crisis. After exposing this financial crisis, Reform California outlined a bold fiscal reform plan that saved the City of San Diego from bankruptcy.

Since its launch in 2003, Reform California has led over two dozen initiative campaigns – both in specific regions as well as state-wide. In 2017, Reform California led the successful recall against State Senator Josh Newman (D) who cast the deciding vote in approving the costly and unfair car and gas tax hikes. This successful Recall is only the 5th time since 1912 that a state politician was successfully removed from office through a Recall. In 2018, Reform California collected over 1 million signatures to qualify Proposition 6 – the Gas Tax Repeal Initiative and in 2022 collected over 1.4 million signatures to qualify the California Taxpayer Protection Act.

To date Reform California has defeated over 300 tax hike proposals on the ballot - saving Californians over $32 billion.

Reform California’s “Plain English Voter Guide" is the most referenced voter guide in the state - and was downloaded by more than 264,000 unique voters during the 2022 election.

Our Team

Carl DeMaio

Chairman

Konstantinos Roditis

Vice Chairman

Dave McCulloch

President

Jordan Gurnett

Campaign Manager

Dylan Martin

Communications Director

Brett Wilkins

Outreach Coordinator

Lisa Bodenburg

Field Director

Join the Team — Intern!

Interested in joining the team? We have internship opportunities available for gaining campaign experience! Click the link below to learn more and apply.

Apply for Internship

Contact Us

Use this form to send us a message. You can also write to or give us a call!
PO Box 27227 San Diego, CA 92198
(619) 786-8019

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