Mike Dayton

Deputy Director, Legislative Affairs

Mike was born and raised in California's Central Valley. He has been with the California Office of Homeland Security since its inception in March of 2003. Mike is responsible for advising the Director on how fiscal, regulatory and legislative proposals would impact California's homeland security strategy.

Prior to joining the office of Homeland Security, Mike was a Congressional staffer for 13 years. During this time, Mike gained broad policy experience on a number of issues important to California. For four years he was the principal consultant to the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 23 moderate Members of Congress who were dedicated to finding non-partisan solutions to fiscal and regulatory issues. The budgets developed by the Blue Dogs consistently received high marks from editorial pages and non-partisan public policy groups.

As a staff member, Mike participated in a number of California Congressional delegation efforts ranging from protecting California's film industry from unfair trading practices to securing much needed funds for specialty crops and research to combat Pierce's disease during negotiations on the 2000 Farm Bill. He also played a major role in "Team California", a bi-partisan effort that brought together six Members of Congress, six members of the State Assembly and six members of the State Senate to modify federal formulas that result in California receiving less than its fair share of funding.

Mike graduated from California State University, Sacramento and received a B.A. degree in Government. In his free time, he volunteers for the Sacramento Chapter of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.