Volume 30 · Number 1 · Fall 2012
Double duty
As lawmaker and Navy reserve officer, alum Jeff Gorell excels on land and at sea.
Jeff Gorell in Afghanistan
As a UC Davis student, Jeff Gorell ’92 studied history. Now the California assemblyman and Navy Reserve lieutenant commander holds a special place in it — the first California lawmaker since World War II to be called to active military duty overseas.
After serving a year as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan, Gorell is back representing the 37th Assembly District, which includes about half of Ventura County and a sliver of Los Angeles County. The freshman Camarillo Republican easily won the Assembly seat in November 2010 even though he announced shortly before the election that the Navy was calling him back to active duty.
Once sworn into office, Gorell spent just a few months in Sacramento before he was sent to Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan’s dangerous Helmand Province. During his unpaid leave from the Assembly, from March 2011 through March 2012, Gorell could not vote on any legislation. But he introduced 14 bills — a number of them aimed at helping veterans and military personnel — and found both Republican and Democrat colleagues to co-author and shepherd them through the Legislature while he was away.
It was his second tour in the Middle East. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he was deployed for a year in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan; he was decorated for leadership and meritorious actions for guiding camera crews into the Afghani mountains to embed with special forces fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Gorell, a third-generation Navy officer, said he could have deferred his service this time, but not for his full two-year Assembly term — so he chose not to delay. “That’s why I’m in the military — I’m ready to serve when called. And they called.”
He considered resigning from the Legislature, but decided against that because it would have left the position vacant for about six months and cost district taxpayers about $750,000 for a special election.
Gorell got his start at the Capitol while he was still attending UC Davis. An aspiring journalist, he requested an interview in 1991 with then-Gov. Pete Wilson and got one instead with Wilson’s media spokesman, Dan Schnur. After reading Gorell’s write-up, Schnur offered him an internship in the governor’s communications office and, after Gorell graduated, a job.
“You could definitely tell that Jeff was going some place, said Schnur, who is now director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. “Most interns tell you they’re going to run for office someday. Jeff was just the opposite, very understated and very hard working, and he did everything very well.”
Gorell, who turns 42 this coming Election Day, is widely viewed as a rising star within the state GOP, Schnur said. “Jeff can go as far as he wants to in politics and public service. His greatest challenge is going to be to resist the pressure to bring him up too quickly. There’s quite a vacuum in the top of the Republican Party in California. ”
After three years in the Wilson administration, Gorell worked as communications director for the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, earned a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, spent 10 years as a Ventura County prosecutor, co-owned a public relations firm and became an adjunct faculty member at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.
In the Assembly, Gorell has also earned the respect of Democratic colleagues. “He is thoughtful, open to hearing all sides of an issue. He is interested in trying to find consensus when he can,” said Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, and chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
Gorell is currently running for re-election to the Assembly. He faces Democrat Eileen MacEnery, an educator from Newbury Park, in the Nov. 6 election.
He and his wife, Laura, have a daughter, Ashley, 9, and a son, Jack, 3.
UC Davis Magazine caught up with Gorell this summer at the Capitol.
Jeff Gorell, back in the California Assembly
(Karin Higgins/UC Davis)
Q: What can you tell us about your time in Afghanistan?
A: I was there as a Navy intelligence officer, 11 months at Helmand Province at Camp Leatherneck, supporting the Marines on the ground in the southern-most province bordering Pakistan and Iran. That part of Afghanistan is known for two things — opium, it grows 90 percent of the opium sold in Europe, a revenue source for the Taliban insurgency. It’s also the conduit of weapons between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It’s a safe haven for the Taliban.
Q: How’s the transition back to the Capitol?
A: I anticipated the transition so much, and hit the ground quickly, with so much to do, that I fell right back into being a legislator, arguing for my bills. Oddly enough, it felt like I was never gone. I would read articles a month later about what was going on in Helmand, involving military units that I know personally, but it felt like ancient history. I kind of put that chapter behind me.
Q: What got you interested in holding a public office?
A: When I was about a year shy of graduating from McGeorge [law school], I was witness to a very violent crime late at night in a downtown Sacramento parking garage. The victim was a security guard. A 300-pound man was kicking him on the ground, stomping on his skull. … I decided that was an epiphany, and that I was going to use my law degree to become a prosecutor. … The exposure of being a deputy district attorney made me start thinking about being an elected public official, where I could affect policy.
Q: What are your top legislative priorities?
A: Public safety and education. I really do believe in having strong and fully funded systems of education — K-12 and higher education. … Right now the greatest threat to both of those is lack of revenue.”
Q: Who are your mentors?
A: My father [Fred Gorell] who is a retired Naval officer. He continues today to work for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He’s in their ocean exploration division, doing media and public relations. … He’s just a great guy, and he’s as levelheaded a thinker and deep thinker as I have ever met.
Former Assembly member and Sen. Chuck Poochigan [now a state appeals court justice], swore me in on the floor of the Senate when I became an attorney. In many ways I emulate his style as a lawmaker. He was very conservative, from Fresno, but very well liked and very well respected on both sides of the aisle because he was a consensus builder and because he was a behind-the-scenes policy person.
I learned a lot from my old boss, Pete Wilson, and he’s a really thoughtful person. He’s constantly asking how he could help me.
Q: How do you feel about UC Davis?
A: My cousin just graduated, and I was glad it gave me an opportunity to go back, and to hang out around campus. I’m hoping that one of my younger cousins goes there so I have another excuse to go back. I’m very proud of how the campus has grown. I don’t recognize it when I drive by on [Interstate] 80 anymore. And I’m proud of so many of the graduates and the alumni who come out of there. … I feel very close and affectionate toward my alma mater.
My mom really wanted me to go to UC Berkeley. We lived in Alameda, which is driving distance. … I don’t think I ever applied — only because I didn’t want to have to live at home, not because I had any issue with the campus. But I really wanted to go to UC Davis. I had taken a tour of UC Davis as a high school student. … It was just far enough away from home that I could live there and not have to live at home, but close enough that I could go back and visit my family.
Q. Were you involved in the College Republicans?
A: No, I wasn’t. I always felt like they played an important role on campus, but I always wanted to be involved in policy arguments in the state Capitol. Some of my friends who were active on campus continue to be active today. And they still have some of the same mentality — lets get out there and barnstorm and shake up a crowd. … I’m better at policy development and behind-the-scenes consensus building than I am on the podium pounding political things.