Joel Fox

Joel Fox operates Joel Fox Consulting, a public affairs/political consulting firm. He also currently serves as president of the Small Business Action Committee, founded in 2003 to battle for small business on important political issues. Prior to starting his own firm in January 1999, Fox worked for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association for 19 years, serving as the association’s president from 1986 to 1998.

Fox is a co-publisher and editor-in-chief of the website Fox and Hounds Daily (www.foxandhoundsdaily.com), which offers commentary and news on California business and politics.

Over the years, Fox has taken a key role in many statewide and local ballot proposition campaigns, including leading the campaign to successfully pass Proposition 218, the “Right to Vote on Taxes” measure, on the 1996 ballot. In 2004, Fox was proponent of the workers’ compensation reform initiative embraced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which played a major role in leading to legislative compromise on workers’ comp reform.

Fox has authored hundreds of opinion articles which have been published in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union, Sacramento Bee, Indianapolis Star, National Review Online, and Manchester (NH) Union-Leader, as well as other newspapers and websites. He also wrote a piece for National Public Radio and had an essay published in a Time Warner-Baseball Hall of Fame sponsored book, What Baseball Means to Me.

Fox’s book, The Legend of Proposition 13, was published in May 2003

Fox served as a commissioner on the California Performance Review Commission (2004) appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; and the Assembly Speaker’s Commission on the California Initiative Process (2000-2001) appointed by Speaker Bob Hertzberg. Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Fox a commissioner on the California Assembly Speaker’s Commission on State and Local Finance (1999-2000). Governor Pete Wilson appointed Fox to both the California Citizens’ Commission on Ballot Initiatives (1993), and the California Constitution Revision Commission (1996). Fox also served on the California Commission on Transportation Investment (1995); was Vice Chairman of the Los Angeles County Blue Ribbon Budget Task Force (1996) appointed by Supervisor Mike Antonovich; and in the early 1990s was a trustee of LEARN, the Los Angeles school reform project. Fox is a member of the Board of Directors of Valley Vote, a community organization to improve governance and civic involvement in the San Fernando Valley and the City of Los Angeles.

Fox served as a Senior Research Associate at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College; was on the Advisory Council of the Public Policy Institute of California; and is a member of the Board of Advisors at the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California. He is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University.

Fox was a Senior Policy Consultant for the Schwarzenegger for Governor campaign during the historic Recall election of 2003; Policy Director for Richard Riordan for Governor in 2001-2; and a state co-chairman for John McCain for President in 2000. He was a McCain Delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention