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Huntington Beach's popular — and controversial — Michael Gates quits Justice Department
Michael Gates, speaking at an event with Huntington Beach Councilwoman Gracey Van Der Mark and State Senator Tony Strickland.
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Allen J. Schaben
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Huntington Beach's popular — and controversial — Michael Gates quits Justice Department
Huntington Beach’s popular, and controversial, former city attorney is resigning from his position in the U.S. Department of Justice. Jill Replogle reports.
Huntington Beach’s popular, and controversial, former city attorney is resigning from his position in the U.S. Department of Justice. Michael Gates served 10 months in the Trump Administration as a deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. He posted his resignation letter, dated Nov. 8, on Facebook over the weekend.
Gates told LAist he was proud of his work in Washington D.C., in particular with helping to file eight lawsuits seeking voter registration files, including against Orange County. But he said he missed his family and Huntington Beach.
“Honestly I just want to come home,” he told LAist. “It’s hard not to be in the most beautiful city in the world.”
Gates said he will be rejoining the city attorney’s office as the chief assistant city attorney.
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Gates’s backstory
Gates has been an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump and his policies, and a continuous thorn in the side of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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He’s a popular figure in conservative Huntington Beach — he was first elected city attorney in 2014 and has won reelection twice since then. Huntington Beach is among a minority of cities in California that elects rather than appoints a city attorney.
As city attorney, Gates sued the state over housing mandates and defended the city's right to implement voter ID. He also marched the city into culture war battles. While he was city attorney, his office sued California over the state’s sanctuary law, as well as a law prohibiting schools from requiring teachers to inform parents of a child’s request to change pronouns or otherwise “out” them as LGBTQ.
On a more local level, Gates helped broker a controversial settlement over the pandemic-era cancellation of the city’s annual airshow, which will cost Huntington Beach taxpayers millions over the coming years.
Gates told LAist he’s looking forward to, once again, heading up the city’s litigation, including a scheduled trial against an effort to force Huntington Beach to adopt by-district elections. He said he plans to run again for city attorney in next year’s election.
Mike Vigliotta, the current city attorney, was appointed in February following Gates' departure for Washington D.C.
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