Topline:
Jordan Brandman, the 43-year-old former Anaheim City Council member, was found dead at his home Friday night. He was the city's first openly gay council member and began the city's tradition of raising the gay pride flag on Harvey Milk Day on May 22.
Available details: His body was discovered during a welfare check Friday night and has been taken to the Coroner Division of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for an autopsy. No foul play is suspected. No other details have been released.
His political career: Elected to City Council as a business friendly Democrat in 2012, he lost a reelection bid in 2016 and then won the city’s District 2 representative seat in 2018. He stepped down in 2021 after a series of violent and misogynistic text messages about another former council member at the time came to light.
The backstory: His death comes just a few months after the Los Angeles Times reported on his entanglements with lobbyists and corporate power brokers that swayed his votes on pro-Disney developments and tax-breaks, and who were subjects of an FBI criminal complaint of “ringleaders of a covert group that appeared to exert significant influence over the City of Anaheim.”
Go deeper:
Jordan Brandman, the 43-year-old former Anaheim City Council member, was found dead at his home Friday night.
His body was discovered during a welfare check and has been taken to the Coroner Division of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for an autopsy. There were no signs of foul play. No other details have been released.
“It is with sorrow and sadness that we learned of the passing of former Council Member Brandman,” Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said in a press statement released by the City of Anaheim. “Any loss of life in our city is a tragedy, and my heart goes out to all who knew Jordan and who are now coping with the news of his passing.”
Elected to City Council as a business friendly Democrat in 2012, Brandman came out as gay in 2015, making him the first openly gay council member in Anaheim. After spearheading the tradition of raising a gay pride flag on Harvey Milk Day, he lost a reelection bid in 2016. He won the city’s District 2 seat in 2018 but stepped down in 2021 after a series of violent and misogynistic text messages directed at another former council member at the time came to light.
His death comes just a few months after the Los Angeles Times reported on his entanglements with lobbyists and corporate power brokers who swayed his votes on pro-Disney developments and tax-breaks, and who were subjects of an FBI criminal complaint of “ringleaders of a covert group that appeared to exert significant influence over the City of Anaheim.”
Another Times report published at the same time revealed how the city kept under wraps an investigation into other misogynistic, racist and violent text messages Brandman sent, including one about shooting up City Hall, that he later denied. Those reports also reference his mental health struggles.
His cause of death is pending and under investigation.
