California Senate District 24 candidate Brian Goldsmith, center right, with Ron Wong, at left of Goldsmith, founder and CEO of Imprenta Communications, and other attendees at an AAPI community gathering where Goldsmith discussed affordability, small-business concerns, public safety, and homelessness. – AJPress photo
Candidate emphasizes housing, child and elder care, small-business concerns and finding solutions to homelessness
LOS ANGELES — For Brian Goldsmith, California’s affordability problem extends beyond housing.
It includes the rising cost of child and elder care, the shrinking path to homeownership for middle-income families and the pressures facing small-business owners.
Those concerns are central to Goldsmith’s campaign for California’s 24th Senate District, where he is emphasizing affordability, public safety and measurable results.
Goldsmith advanced from the June 2 primary with 55,627 votes, or 18.28%, and will face West Hollywood Councilmember John M. Erickson, who received 62,397 votes, or 20.50%, in the Nov. 3 general election, according to Los Angeles County election results.
District 24 includes communities across the South Bay, Westside, Hollywood and Santa Monica Mountains areas of Los Angeles County. Among them are Torrance, Gardena, Santa Monica, Malibu, Beverly Hills, Rancho Palos Verdes and West Hollywood.
Goldsmith’s housing agenda calls for more workforce and mixed-income housing, down-payment assistance, faster permitting and greater use of suitable public land for housing. He has emphasized what his campaign calls the “missing middle,” including workers who earn too much to qualify for some assistance but still struggle to buy homes near their jobs.
His platform also proposes a dedicated funding stream for universal child care beginning at six months and identifies elder care as another major household expense. In discussions with AAPI residents, Goldsmith has linked those costs to multigenerational families in which adults may be raising children while helping support aging parents.
Small businesses are another focus. Goldsmith proposes reviewing regulations to streamline compliance and lower costs while retaining protections he considers necessary. He argues that affordability policy should address not only household expenses but also the costs of operating businesses and employing workers.
On homelessness, Goldsmith says California should focus on finding solutions rather than merely managing the problem. His platform calls for transparent measures to evaluate homelessness programs and says programs that fail to meet their goals should be changed or ended, while effective programs should be expanded.
He pairs that approach with support for community-based policing, addiction and behavioral-health treatment, and full funding for Proposition 36, the 2024 voter-approved measure that increased penalties for certain repeat theft and drug offenses while creating treatment provisions for some drug-related offenses.
Goldsmith also includes anti-Asian hate and other forms of discrimination in his public-safety agenda and supports security funding for schools, religious institutions, cultural centers and other communities considered at risk.
In his AAPI outreach, he has said officials should maintain relationships with communities beyond elections and understand their concerns.
Goldsmith describes himself as a moderate and coalition builder who believes lawmakers should look for areas of agreement and revisit policies when evidence shows they are not working as intended.
A graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School, Goldsmith worked in journalism at CNN and CBS News and later with Yahoo News and Katie Couric Media before moving into entrepreneurship and political consulting.
