Diane Dixon, California Assembly District 72

State Capitol Office:  P.O. Box 942849; Sacramento, CA 94249-0072
Phone - 916-319-2072

District Office:  4100 MacArthur Blvd. Suite 340; Newport Beach, CA 92660
Phone - 949-798-7221

Interview date:  2/6/2026; LWVOC interviewers:  Virginia Elmore, Olivia Gaddini, Shirley Nixon

Background (from BallotPedia  https://ballotpedia.org/Diane_Dixon )

Diane Dixon, Republican of Newport Beach, CA Assembly District 72, earned a B.S. in political science from the University of Southern California in 1973. Her career experience includes owning her own consulting business, and working for Fortune 300 company Avery Dennison in various roles - including director and vice president of corporate communications, senior vice president of communications and corporate affairs, and chief communications officer.  She has served as councilmember and mayor of Newport Beach, as president of the Association of California Cities-Orange County, as a member of the regional council of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), and as a board member of the Orange County Council of Governments (OCCOG).  

Committee Assignments for 2025-2026 are:  Appropriations, Banking & Finance, Governmental Organization, Judiciary (Vice-Chair), and Privacy & Consumer Protection (Vice Chair).

1)    What major issues must the Legislature deal with in 2026?

1. Balancing the Budget & Financial issues affecting Californians & state government

• How to address decreasing revenue from gas taxes due to Electric Vehicles?  She opposes AB 1421 that calls for a study on road mileage taxes, as she feels a study is the first step toward imposing such a tax.   She opposes a road mileage tax.
• Better fiscal management and accountability. She is critical of the lack of budget funding for treatment programs & human trafficking victim programs, and a lack of focus on preventing fraud in social benefit programs and government contracting.

1. Issues arising from single-party dominance (Assembly this year is composed of 60 Democrats and 20 Republicans.) 

• Too often committee chairs refuse to schedule hearings on bills she or other R’s have introduced and that she feels deserve a public airing.
• Imbalance of political party power means disproportionate influence from lobbyists and special interests, such as unions (she gave SEIU as example).

2)    What are your personal legislative priorities?

1. Public Safety

• E-Bikes:  Building upon her success of last year’s bill to prevent higher-speed e-bikes, she is introducing a bill this session to prevent piggy-backing on e-bikes.
• Criminalizing uploading to the internet explicit or pornographic images without the subject’s permission.  Bill AB 1705 = reintroduced this year. 
• Human trafficking prevention and protections for victims of human trafficking – includes building upon her bill AB 1239 signed into law to develop a more cohesive reporting requirement for human trafficking survivors, and require the Department of Justice to include information on the OpenJustice web portal of arrests for human trafficking and the number of individuals who have been a victim of human trafficking.

1. Help for small businesses and non-profit organizations

• Exempt non-profit organizations from PAGA (Private Attorney General Action) lawsuits when the organizations are accused of law or regulatory violations.  This came to her attention when Goodwill Industries was sued in a class action over alleged wage and hour violations.  PAGA requires the defendant to pay plaintiff’s attorney fees as well as a monetary judgment if plaintiffs win; Dixon believes this encourages such suits and that PAGA suits can financially threaten the viability of non-profits.
• Explore whether the practice of administrative fines collected by agencies for rule infractions should go into the state’s general fund rather than back to the agency.  She hypothesizes that current practices incentivize state agencies to over-emphasize enforcement actions.

1. Improving the quality of life for Californians in general and her constituents in particular.

• Loosen CEQA and Coastal Commission restrictions on rebuilding following wildfires to reduce cumbersome permitting burdens and to grandfather previous uses.
• Loosen regulatory burdens on small businesses & “cut red tape”
• Work “across the aisle” with SoCal legislators to improve conditions for constituents, such as opposing the closure of an Orange County DMV office.