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• Government Relations and Lobbying
• Procurement
• Strategic Regulatory Consulting
• Grassroots Strategies and Coalition Building

John Benton is a determined advocate for his clients in the halls and hearing rooms of California's State Capitol and with the state's many regulatory agencies. This same commitment carries over into his development of winning strategies for clients who are pursuing state and local government contracts and procurements. Over the course of his career, he has worked with clients in the health care, insurance, oil, construction, trucking and information technology arenas.

Among his accomplishments are:

• Working with a broad coalition of interests, including both the environmental and trucking lobbies, to amend the California Oil Recycling Enhancement Act to increase incentives for collection and refinement of recycled lube oil
• Directing a lobbying and grassroots campaign to enact a bill that protects residential subcontractors in construction defect lawsuits
• Collaborating with pharmaceutical industry and the California Board of Pharmacy to develop a comprehensive regulatory system to catalogue and track pharmaceutical products in the chain of distribution
• Advancing a bill to expand the permitting authority of state and local governments to allow the safe carriage of housing trusses and wall panels on state highways
• Developing a unique change to the performance bond requirements for a large state IT procurement to allow his client to submit the winning bid.
• Securing regulatory approval of a controversial corporate reorganization plan for one of his insurance clients.

Prior to joining California Strategies, Benton was one of the founding partners of Government Strategies Inc. (GSI), a successful lobbying, government affairs and procurement firm located in Sacramento, California.

Earlier, he served as a regulatory and legislative counsel in the corporate legal departments of three large, national insurers: CNA Insurance Companies, Transamerica Insurance Group and CIGNA. For these industry giants, his work included directing the firms' legislative and regulatory interests in all 50 states; helping to defeat industry-threatening statewide ballot initiatives; and serving as a chief compliance and enforcement negotiator with state insurance regulators.

Upon graduation from Drake University Law School in 1983, he began his career as a staff attorney in the Iowa Department of Insurance. During his years with the department, he prosecuted agents and companies, handled consumer issues, served as an administrative hearing officer, and advocated departmental positions in the Iowa Legislature.

Benton lives in Sacramento with his wife of 28 years and has three grown children currently enrolled in undergraduate and graduate university programs. Over the span of his career, he has participated and chaired a number of local and national philanthropic, school, sports and professional organizations.