Mike Anthony GipsonMike Anthony Gipson

Assemblymember Mike Gipson is a proven leader with decades of experience fighting for working families. He is running for the Board of Equalization to fight for fairness, transparency, and accountability. Mike will fight to close tax loopholes that billionaires and corporations exploit to avoid paying their fair share. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mike has dedicated his life’s work to public service. He has worked for service employee and public educator unions, as a local city councilmember, a former local police officer, and currently is a member of the California State Assembly. He is the longest-serving Assembly Democratic Caucus Chair in state history. As Assemblyman, Mike has championed groundbreaking laws protecting California children and families from ICE, laws to get 3-D printed “ghost guns” of of the streets and out of the hands of criminals, funding for expanded access to healthcare, education, and childcare, and Investments in mental health services. That’s why Governor Gavin Newsom said, “Mike has been a bold leader for the people of our state.” Previously serving as Chief of Staff to the former Board of Equalization Chairman, Mike currently serves as Chair of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee, which oversees the Board of Equalization. On the BOE, Gipson will bring in the funds needed to support quality healthcare, strong schools, and vital social services that sustain families and communities across our state. By June 2nd, vote Mike Gipson for Board of Equalization! Endorsed by nurses, construction workers, and classroom teachers. Visit mikegipson.net

District 3 covers Los Angeles County. Both candidates in this race are Democrats, with self-described labor organizer Samuel Sukaton facing off against Assemblyman Mike Gipson.

Samuel Sukaton is identified on the ballot as a labor union organizer. Repeated attempts over a month to interview him were unsuccessful. He is the only BOE candidate in the region who favors gutting Proposition 13, the 1978 property tax limitation initiative, “to raise new revenue with things like split-roll,” meaning much higher taxes for business properties. He also has served (https://www.californiadsa.org/voterguide) in leadership for the Democratic Socialists of America-LA.

Gipson (https://ballotpedia.org/Mike_Gipson) has served in the Assembly since 2014 and before that was (https://lasentinel.net/mike-gipson-has-his-eye-on-the-64th.html) chief of staff for then-BOE Chairman Jerome Horton. In our interview, he said the 2017 reform “disenfranchised” taxpayers, lamenting that now a “mom-and-pop business has to pay court costs, pay a lawyer to litigate it in superior court and wait months and months to be heard.” 

For the board as it currently is, he would make its website (https://www.boe.ca.gov/) more accessible in different languages and easier to navigate. 

As a legislator, Gipson was the principal coauthor of Senate Constitutional Amendment 4 (https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SCA4/id/2785836) in 2023, which was sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. It failed in committee, but would have restored parent-child home transfers without reassessment currently limited by Proposition 19. 

This is an easy call. Gipson understands the importance of Prop. 13 and the office he’s running for. His opponent is a far-left activist who ducks the press.

Source (https://www.dailynews.com/2026/08/30/our-endorsements-for-the-california-state-board-of-equalization/)

• indicates least bad option

CSEA endorsed