peoplepill id: jeff-hewitt-1
JH
United States of America
1 views today
2 views this week
Jeff Hewitt
American politician

Jeff Hewitt

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro
American politician
A.K.A.
Jeffrey Hewitt
Gender
Male
Birth
Place of birth
Redlands, San Bernardino County, California, USA
Age
72 years
Jeff Hewitt
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Jeffrey Hewitt (born 1953) is an American politician who served on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors from 2019 to 2023, and as its chair from 2022 to 2023. A member of the Libertarian Party, Hewitt previously served on the Calimesa City Council and as the city's mayor.

Hewitt was elected to the Calimesa city council in the 2010 election and reelected in the 2014 election before being selected by the city council to become mayor in 2015. He unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the California State Senate and California State Assembly in the 2014 and 2016 elections. Hewitt was elected to the board of supervisors despite being outspent and was labeled as the most powerful elected Libertarian in the United States by the Los Angeles Times. He ran in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election with the support of the Libertarian Party of California.

Calimesa City Council (2010–2018)

Hewitt was elected to the Calimesa City Council on November 2, 2010, and sworn in on December 7. He was appointed to a second four-year term by the Council in 2014. The council unanimously elected Hewitt Mayor on December 11, 2015, succeeding Joyce McIntire.

In 2018, Hewitt limited Calimesa's contract with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) to circumvent the state's union requirements. In its place, Calimesa established its own fire department that was free to offer 401(k) retirement plans to its employees in lieu of the pensions required by the Cal Fire union, which had accounted for a large portion of the city's budget. The change also allowed Calimesa to reduce its staffing levels on fire trucks. Hewitt argued that the staffing levels mandated by Riverside County cities with Cal Fire contracts were unnecessarily high, and claims cost cuts made possible by the switch to a city-run fire department saved Calimesa from bankruptcy.

Hewitt resigned from the council on December 20, 2018, after being elected to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors in November. He was succeeded by Bill Davis.

Riverside County Supervisor (2019–2023)

Jeff Hewitt
Hewitt's official portrait, 2019

In an upset victory, Hewitt was elected to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors from District 5 in 2018 against former Republican Assemblyman Russ Bogh, despite Bogh raising twice as much money as Hewitt. Hewitt was sworn into office as a supervisor on January 8, 2019, by Libertarian National Committee Chair Nicholas Sarwark, succeeding retiring supervisor Marion Ashley. In 2018, the Los Angeles Times named Hewitt as the most powerful Libertarian ever elected in the United States, though according to Reason he has since been surpassed by Wyoming State Representative Marshall Burt.

Amid the California government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hewitt pushed Riverside County to reopen its businesses more quickly than the rest of California. In September 2020, Hewitt introduced legislation to establish restrictions specific to Riverside County, which would've been looser than those set by the state. The legislation would've allowed some indoor services that had been ordered closed to reopen with capacity limits, including restaurants, gyms, hair salons, places of worship, movie theaters, libraries, and retailers. Hewitt's proposal would have reopened the County fully by November 3, with large events being permitted starting on October 13. Due to a threat by Governor Gavin Newsom to cut state funding to counties that did not follow his guidelines for reopening, Hewitt's plan had the potential to cost Riverside County between $28 million and $656 million in state funding. Hewitt argued that the additional tax revenue gained from reopening the County would offset any loss of state funds. On September 22, the Board of Supervisors voted 3–2 to advance Hewitt's proposal, but delayed its implementation to October. On October 6, the Board voted 4–1 to enact a modified version of Hewitt's plan, with Hewitt as the sole opposing vote. Hewitt says he voted against the final version because the specific deadlines in his original proposal had been removed, and language had been added directing the County to cooperate with the state on reopening guidelines.

In November 2020, a female county employee filed a lawsuit against the county which accused Hewitt of sexual harassment back in May 2020. Riverside County settled the lawsuit in connection with the allegation for $50,000 in April 2021. Later that month, another female county employee filed suit against the county, and accused Hewitt and his chief of staff of making "disparaging and vulgar comments" back in October 2020.

On January 12, 2021, Hewitt was elected by the board to serve as its vice chair for the year. He succeeded Karen Spiegel, who was elected Chair. On January 12, 2022, Hewitt was elected by the board to serve as its chair for the year, with Kevin Jeffries elected Vice Chair. In an unusual move, supervisors Chuck Washington and V. Manuel Perez, both Democrats, abstained from voting on the 2022 appointments. Such votes have been unanimous for at least the last two decades, with the positions rotated annually by district. Washington has also endorsed Hewitt's 2022 re-election challenger, Democratic mayor Yxstian Gutierrez of Moreno Valley, potentially the first such endorsement by a sitting supervisor against a colleague. Hewitt and Gutierrez advanced from the top-two primary on June 7, 2022. Hewitt lost re-election to Gutierrez in the general election.

Other political activities

Jeff Hewitt
Hewitt speaking on a panel at FreedomFest 2021 in Rapid City, South Dakota, during his gubernatorial campaign

Hewitt sought election to the California State Senate in 2014 and the California State Assembly in 2016.

On April 2, 2016, Hewitt was elected the Region 4 representative to the Libertarian National Committee, succeeding Daniel Wiener. He was re-elected in 2018 and 2020. Hewitt announced his candidacy in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election in an op-ed in the Orange County Register on May 2, 2021. The 50% threshold to recall incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom was not reached. Hewitt received 0.7% of the replacement candidate vote.

Electoral history

CandidateVotes%
Jim Hyatt1,56038.4
Jeff Hewitt1,00724.8
John Keith88221.7
Arthur Guerrero61415.1
Total votes4,063100%
Primary election
PartyCandidateVotes%
RepublicanMike Morrell43,44762.6
DemocraticRonald O'Donnell10,53115.2
DemocraticAmeenah Fuller6,7059.7
LibertarianJeff Hewitt4,4796.5
RepublicanCrystal Ruiz4,1876.0
Total votes69,349100%
Primary election
PartyCandidateVotes%
RepublicanChad Mayes (incumbent)49,58050.8
DemocraticGreg Rodriguez40,44641.4
LibertarianJeff Hewitt7,6017.8
Total votes97,627100%
Primary election
CandidateVotes%
Russ Bogh14,69826.6
Jeff Hewitt14,30425.9
Jaime Hurtado11,40920.7
Patricia Vargas Sanchez8,38815.2
Altie Holcomb6,40211.6
Total votes55,201100%
General election
Jeff Hewitt54,89151.9
Russ Bogh50,87848.1
Total votes105,769100%
PartyCandidateVotes%
RepublicanLarry Elder3,563,86748.4%
DemocraticKevin Paffrath706,7789.6%
RepublicanKevin Faulconer590,3468.0%
DemocraticBrandon M. Ross392,0295.3%
RepublicanJohn Cox305,0954.1%
RepublicanKevin Kiley255,4903.5%
DemocraticJacqueline McGowan214,2422.9%
DemocraticJoel Ventresca186,3452.5%
DemocraticDaniel Watts167,3552.3%
DemocraticHolly L. Baade92,2181.3%
DemocraticPatrick Kilpatrick86,6171.2%
DemocraticArmando "Mando" Perez-Serrato85,0611.2%
RepublicanCaitlyn Jenner75,2151.0%
DemocraticJohn R. Drake68,5450.9%
GreenDan Kapelovitz64,3750.9%
LibertarianJeff Hewitt50,3780.7%
RepublicanTed Gaines47,9370.7%
No party preferenceAngelyne35,9000.5%
No party preferenceDavid Moore31,224nil
RepublicanAnthony Trimino28,101nil
RepublicanDoug Ose26,204nil
No party preferenceMichael Loebs25,468nil
GreenHeather Collins24,260nil
No party preferenceMajor Singh21,394nil
RepublicanDavid Lozano19,945nil
RepublicanDenver Stoner19,588nil
RepublicanSam Gallucci18,134nil
RepublicanSteve Chavez Lodge17,435nil
RepublicanJenny Rae Le Roux16,032nil
RepublicanDavid Alexander Bramante11,501nil
RepublicanDiego Martinez10,860nil
RepublicanRobert C. Newman II10,602nil
RepublicanSarah Stephens10,583nil
No party preferenceDennis Richter10,468nil
RepublicanMajor Williams (write-in)8,965nil
No party preferenceDenis Lucey8,182nil
No party preferenceJames G. Hanink7,193nil
RepublicanDaniel Mercuri7,110nil
RepublicanChauncey "Slim" Killens6,879nil
RepublicanLeo S. Zacky6,099nil
No party preferenceKevin Kaul5,600nil
RepublicanDavid Hillberg4,435nil
No party preferenceAdam Papagan4,021nil
RepublicanRhonda Furin3,964nil
RepublicanNickolas Wildstar3,811nil
No party preferenceJeremiah "Jeremy" Marciniak2,894nil
RepublicanJoe M. Symmon2,397nil
No party preferenceMiki Habryn (write-in)137nil
DemocraticRoxanne (write-in)116nil
DemocraticStacy Smith (write-in)81nil
No party preferenceVivek B. Mohan (write-in)68nil
American IndependentThuy E. Hugens (write-in)19nil
No party preferenceVince Lundgren (write-in)5nil
Total valid votes7,361,568100
Turnout12,892,57858.5%
Registered electors22,057,154
Primary election
CandidateVotes%
Yxstian Gutierrez19,33733.6
Jeff Hewitt18,29231.8
Lloyd White15,06626.2
Deni Antionette Mazingo4,9088.5
Total votes57,603100%
General election
Yxstian Gutierrez47,31254.3
Jeff Hewitt39,88745.7
Total votes87,199100%

Personal life

Hewitt was born in 1953 in Redlands, California. He is married to his third wife Wendy, who is the secretary of the Riverside County Libertarian Party. She has served on the Calimesa City Council since 2020. Hewitt has six children.

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Lists
Jeff Hewitt is in following lists
comments so far.
Comments
From our partners
Sponsored
Credits
References and sources
Jeff Hewitt
arrow-left arrow-right instagram whatsapp myspace quora soundcloud spotify tumblr vk website youtube pandora tunein iheart itunes