Jan Goldsmith

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American politician

title: "Jan Goldsmith" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1951-births", "living-people", "republican-party-members-of-the-california-state-assembly", "university-of-san-diego-school-of-law-alumni", "mayors-of-places-in-california", "people-from-poway,-california", "american-university-alumni", "san-diego-city-attorneys", "21st-century-american-judges", "21st-century-american-lawyers", "21st-century-california-politicians", "20th-century-members-of-the-california-state-legislature"] description: "American politician" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Goldsmith" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Jan Goldsmith
image	File:Jangoldsmith.jpg
office1	City Attorney of San Diego
term_start1	2008
term_end1	2016
predecessor1	Mike Aguirre
successor1	Mara Elliott
office2	Judge of the San Diego Superior Court
term_start2	1998
term_end2	December 2008
state_assembly3	California
district3	75th
term_start3	December 7, 1992
term_end3	November 30, 1998
predecessor3	Dede Alpert
successor3	Charlene Zettel
office4	Mayor of Poway, California
term_start4	December 4, 1990
term_end4	November 3, 1992
predecessor4	Carl Kruse
successor4	Don Higginson, Jr.
office5	Deputy Mayor of Poway, California
term_start5	December 5, 1989
term_end5	December 4, 1990
predecessor5	Linda Brannon
successor5	Bob Emery
office6	Member of the Poway City Council
term_start6	December 5, 1989
term_end6	November 3, 1992
nationality	American
birth_name	Jan Ira Goldsmith
birth_date
birth_place	New Rochelle, New York, U.S.
spouse
children	3
education	American University (BA)
University of San Diego (JD)
party	Republican
::

Jan Ira Goldsmith (born January 26, 1951) is a Republican politician from San Diego, California, United States who served as the San Diego City Attorney from 2008 to 2016.

Education

He received his undergraduate degree from American University in Washington, D.C. and his J.D. degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.

Career

Upon graduating from law school he worked in private practice specializing in business litigation. He was also a council member and mayor for the city of Poway, California.

California State Legislature

Goldsmith was elected to three terms in the California state legislature, representing California's 75th State Assembly district from 1992 until 1998. The district covers Poway and other northern suburbs of San Diego County.

According to Goldsmith, his greatest legislative accomplishment had to do with juvenile justice. He chaired the Assembly subcommittee that put together a package of legislation that eventually became initiatives that the public got to vote on. He also felt foster care was another of his accomplishments. He was named legislator of the year for the Children’s Lobby. He carried the legislation that eliminated the bias against trans-racial adoption.

Goldsmith was the author of two bills, in 1994 and 1997, that attempted to legalize ferrets as pets in California. However, the California Department of Fish and Game opposed any introduction of ferrets into the state, and the bills failed.

Superior Court judge

Upon being term limited from the Assembly in 1998, Goldsmith made an unsuccessful bid for California State Treasurer, losing the primary to former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, who lost that election and went on to serve as mayor of Anaheim. Following his loss, Goldsmith became a San Diego County Superior Court judge, serving for 9½ years before stepping down to run for San Diego City Attorney.

San Diego City Attorney

Goldsmith ran for San Diego City attorney in 2008. In the June primary he received the most votes (32.2%) among five candidates, but not a majority. In the November runoff he defeated incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre, 59.4% to 40.4%. In 2012 he was re-elected without opposition.

In 2010 Goldsmith's office threatened the owners of a local restaurant with fines and jail for charging a fixed service charge instead of tipping; the issue was whether they were violating state disclosure laws. The city attorney later dropped the issue and did not pursue the case.

In 2013, Goldsmith was criticized by Mayor Bob Filner for prosecuting Jeff Olson for chalking anti-bank slogans on city sidewalks outside Bank of America branches, calling it "a stupid case" and a waste of city money. The prosecution was ultimately unsuccessful. With the defendant refusing a plea bargain, facing up to 13 years in jail and US$13,000.00 in fines, Judge Howard Shore admonished Olson's attorney, Tom Tosdal, from mentioning the First Amendment and political speech references during the trial. Additionally, Judge Shore issued a gag order, preventing communications with the media concerning the trial.

Goldsmith and Filner were in conflict almost from the day Filner took office, over several issues including medical marijuana, tourism funding, cuts to the City Attorney budget, road paving bonds, and the presence of Goldsmith's aide at a confidential city meetings. Goldsmith was a key figure in the August 2013 mediated negotiations that led to Filner's agreeing to resign.

Goldsmith left the City Attorney's office in 2016 as a result of term limits.

Post-political career

In March 2017 Goldsmith returned to private practice, joining the San Diego law firm Procopio as an of-counsel attorney on its litigation team.

Electoral history

Poway City Council

California State Assembly

California State Treasurer

San Diego City Attorney

::data[format=table]

2008 San Diego City Attorney election	Candidate	First-round	Runoff	Votes
Jan Goldsmith	68,326	32.22	278,830	52.89
Michael J. Aguirre (incumbent)	61,257	28.89	189,628	40.38
Scott Peters	43,295	20.42
Brian Maienschein	26,267	12.39
Amy J. Lepine	12,687	5.98
::

References

[https://web.archive.org/web/20191128220039/https://fedsoc.org/contributors/jan-goldsmith Federalist Society Bio]
[http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/5943 Dede Alpert - Democratic]
[http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/6079 Charlene Zettel - Republican]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191128220227/https://poway.org/176/Chronology-of-Mayors City of Poway Mayoral History]
"City Council History {{!}} Poway, CA - Official Website". Poway, California.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191115192545/https://poway.org/170/City-Council-History City Council History]
"Hon. Jan Ira Goldsmith, (Ret.)".
[https://books.google.com/books?id=kZchAQAAIAAJ&q=Jan+I.+Goldsmith+born+January+26,+1951 California Legislature at Sacramento (1997) - page 201]
Cox, John. (March 19, 2017). "Former City Attorney Jan Goldsmith Joins Procopio". San Diego Business Journal.
(May 2008). "Jan Goldsmith: interview with Tom Blair". San Diego Magazine.
"Ferret issues". State of California.
"City of San Diego Attorney". San Diego County Registrar of Voters.
"City of San Diego Attorney". San Diego County Registrar.
"City of San Diego Attorney". San Diego County Registrar of Voters.
Showley, Roger. (March 6, 2010). "Linkery off hook over mandatory-tip policy". San Diego Union Tribune.
(June 2013). "San Diego mayor, city attorney in dust-up over chalk vandalism case". Los Angeles Times.
Perry, Tony. (1 July 2013). "San Diego jury acquits chalk protester in sidewalk graffiti case". [[Los Angeles Times]].
Hargrove, Dorian. (27 June 2013). "Judge issues gag order in case of man prosecuted for scribbling anti-bank messages in chalk". [[San Diego Reader]].
"The San Diego Union-Tribune - San Diego, California & National News".
"The San Diego Union-Tribune - San Diego, California & National News".
Wian, Casey. (August 21, 2013). "San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, city reach mediation deal, city attorney says". CNN.
(20 November 1988). "** OFFICIAL ** COUNTY WIDE CUMULATIVE REPORT SAN DIEGO COUNTY- GENERAL ELECTION NOVEMBER 8, 1988".
"STATEMENT OF VOTE Primary Election June 2, 1992". California Secretary of State.
"STATEMENT OF VOTE General Election November 3, 1992". California Secretary of State.
"STATEMENT OF VOTE June 7, 1994 Primary Election". California Secretary of State.
"STATEMENT OF VOTE November 8, 1994, General Election". California Secretary of State.
"March 26, 1996 Primary Election STATEMENT OF VOTE". California Secretary of State.
"Statement of Vote November 5, 1996". California Secretary of State.
(7 July 2008). "COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO DIRECT PRIMARY ELECTION Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Official Results (San Diego County Portion Only) #14 Final". San Diego County.
(2 December 2008). "COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO PRESIDENTIAL GENERAL ELECTION Tuesday, November 4, 2008 Final Official Results (San Diego County Portion Only)". San Diego County.
(2 July 2012). "COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION Tuesday, June 5, 2012 Official Results (San Diego Portion Only) Report # 23". San Diego County.

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