John L. Burton
John Lowell Burton (* December 15, 1932 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American politician. Between 1974 and 1983 he represented the state of California in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since April 2009 he has been chairman of the Democratic Party in California.
Career
John Burton is the younger brother of Congressman Phillip Burton (1926-1983) and the brother of his widow, Congresswoman Sala Burton ( 1925-1987 ). He attended until 1950, the Lincoln High School in San Francisco and then until 1954, the San Francisco State College. Between 1954 and 1956 he served in the U.S. Army. After a subsequent law studies at the University of San Francisco Law School in 1961 and its recent approval as a lawyer, he began to work in this profession. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic Party launched a political career. Between 1965 and 1974 he sat as a deputy in the California State Assembly. In the years 1973 and 1974 he was chairman of his party in California for the first time. Between 1968 and 1980 he participated as a delegate to all Democratic National Conventions.
Following the resignation of Mr William S. Mailliard Burton was at the due election for the sixth seat of California as his successor in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he took up his new mandate on June 4, 1974. After four elections he could remain until January 3, 1983 at the Congress. Since 1975 he has acted as successor to his brother Phillip the fifth district of his state. That was practically only an exchange of electoral districts, represented as Phillip Burton then the sixth district in Congress. At the very beginning of his time in Congress, John Burton experienced the climax of the Watergate affair with the resignation of President Richard Nixon. In 1982 he gave up another candidacy. Then, his brother Phillip came back once more in the fifth constituency, which he represented until his death on 10 April 1983 at the Congress. The fifth district stay and now lives in the hands of Burton's because Phillips widow Sala Burton took over the mandate and could exercise until 1 February 1987.
After the end of his time in the U.S. House of Representatives John Burton practiced as a lawyer again. From 1988 to 1996 he was again deputy in the State Assembly; between 1996 and 2004 he was a member of the Senate of California. He founded the John Burton Foundation to support homeless children in California. In 2009 he was elected as the successor of Arthur Torres once again to the state chairman of the Democratic Party in California.