Wally Knox (born February 7, 1947) was a Democratic Assemblyman from the State of California from 1994 until 2000. Due to

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...

s, he was ineligible to run again for the Assembly. Instead he ran for the 23rd district

State Senate A state legislature in the United States is the legislative body of any of the 50 U.S. states. The formal name varies from state to state. In 27 states, the legislature is simply called the ''Legislature'' or the ''State Legislature'', whil ...

seat, but lost the Democratic primary to Assemblymember Sheila Kuehl.

Pre-legislative career and personal life

Prior to his election, Knox served on the board of trustees of the

Los Angeles Community College District The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) is the community college district serving Los Angeles, California, and some of its neighboring cities and certain unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Its headquarters are in Downtown Lo ...

. He was an attorney specializing in

labor relations Labor relations is a field of study that can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In an international context, it is a subfield of labor history that studies the human relations with regard to work in its broadest ...

, and owned a small business. He was on the Executive Board of the American Jewish Committee. The first in his family to attend college, he graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and Hastings Law School. He served four years in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

and is a decorated

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

veteran. He is married to Elizabeth Garfield, and has two daughters, Aviva and Tamara. They belong to Temple Israel of Hollywood.

The 42nd District

Knox's 42nd Assembly district included the

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area communities of

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, Brentwood, Beverly Fairfax, Bel Air, Century City,

Hancock Park Hancock Park is a city park in the Miracle Mile section of the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. The park's destinations include the La Brea Tar Pits; the adjacent George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, which displ ...

, Hollywood,

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, Westwood,

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

and

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most prominent gay villages ...

. In the San Fernando Valley, he represents Encino,

Sherman Oaks Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...

Studio City Studio City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1927, ...

and Universal City.

Assembly career

In the Assembly, Knox served as chair of the Revenue and Taxation Committee. He was also a member of the following committees: Judiciary, Housing and Community Development, and Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security. Earlier, he served as chair of the Labor and Employment Committee. He sponsored the bill to reinstate daily

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

pay with flexibility for workers and employers. He was the author of a new law allowing parents to use their accrued

sick leave Sick leave (or paid sick days or sick pay) is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sic ...

to care for ill children. In 1997-1998, he was chair of the Select Committee on the California Middle Class, which examined the causes of stagnating wages and declining living standards for working families.

Legislative accomplishments

Knox successfully fought to reinstate the renters tax credit and secured expanded tax relief for senior citizens. He gained passage of anti-crime measures, including a one-gun limit law, intended to dry up the black market sales of handguns to gang members, youths and felons. He authored legislation that doubled the size of a successful crime prevention program that targets repeat offenders. He wrote laws to assist local law enforcement in apprehending street criminals and the prosecution of car registration tag thefts. He sponsored an effort that enabled the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

to trace and crack down on illegal handguns. For four consecutive years Knox earned a score of 100% from the

California League of Conservation Voters California Environmental Voters (also called EnviroVoters), formerly the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV), is a lobbying and educational organization which focuses on environmental issues affecting California. It is affiliated with ...

with a perfect pro-environment voting record. He authored new laws to prevent ocean pollution and to cut down on hazardous air pollution. He wrote the nation's first law requiring banks to disclose to consumers hidden charges for the use of ATMs. He is responsible for expanding State assistance to innovative start-up companies, in the high-tech, biotech and multi-media fields, through the new business incubator program. Knox received the 1998 award for outstanding leadership from the Jewish Public Affairs Committee. He secured passage of a crucial new law that helps

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

survivors and families of Holocaust victims recoup insurance policy payments denied them by European insurance companies. He authored a landmark law requiring insurers to disclose Holocaust-era policy information to a public State registry, or lose their license to operate in California.

References

Biography of Wally KnoxJoin California - Wally Knox
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knox, Wally Living people People from Los Angeles County, California Harvard University alumni University of California College of the Law, San Francisco alumni United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly 1947 births