Joseph Gelman

Joseph Gelman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1960. He is an author, businessman, political analyst and consultant.
After working as a Commodity Futures Trading Commission-licensed financial adviser, Gelman joined the Bruce Herschensohn for US Senate GOP primary campaign in 1990. He first earned notoriety and gained public attention with what became a “quote of the week” in Newsweek Magazine by dismissing Herschensohn’s opponents in a way that stuck: “Between Tom Campbell and Sonny Bono, they have the bad haircut vote sewn up.” Herschensohn went on to win the GOP primary in 1992, and Gelman was hired as the adviser to the past president and chairman of AIPAC, as a political and defense analyst, and speechwriter. During that period he was appointed President of the Board of Civil Service Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles by newly elected Mayor Richard Riordan, and as the Chairman of the Resolutions Committee of the California Republican party by California GOP Chairman John Harrington.
Gelman’s tenure at the Los Angeles Civil Service Commission became controversial when he openly expressed strong opposition to the city’s race-based system of public contracting and public employment. When the Los Angeles city council rebuffed his efforts to change its policy, Gelman organized the political effort to place a statewide initiative to outlaw racial preferences on the ballot in California to circumvent the city. The initiative quickly became a national debate on the merits of “affirmative action”.
Gelman opened the office of what became the California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), hired petition circulators, and worked with Attorney General Dan Lungren’s office to gain a favorable interpretation for the language of the measure to be presented on the California ballot. As chairman of the State GOP Resolutions committee, he pushed through the official California GOP endorsement of the resolution, which was followed by an endorsement by Governor Pete Wilson.
By 1996, Mayor Rirodan succumbed to pressure from the Los Angeles City Council to seek Gelman's resignation for circumventing the city’s race-based policies and for initiating a statewide proposition that would outlaw city practices. Simultaneously, California Republican Governor Pete Wilson co-opted the financially struggling CCRI initiative and placed his longtime political ally, Ward Connerly, in charge of the initiative and to be its public face. A few months later, in the elections of November 1996, CCRI was approved by the voters of California with 54% of the vote. Racial preferences or “affirmative action” is now illegal in the State of California. Journalist Bob Zelnick documented the CCRI campaign and Gelman's pivotal role, in his book Backfire.
Gelman went on to write a regular column for the Los Angeles Daily News (1995-97).
With Amos Tichauer, Gelman helped established Orgil International in 1996, a San Diego-based company that manufactured Israeli-style greenhouses for US export to developing nations around the world. The company's mission was to introduce controlled Environment Agriculture technology to poverty stricken countries to vastly improve yields and create export markets. Gelman served as President of Orgil International, and was appointed to the advisory committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Ex-Im Bank), as the small business representative. The company was awarded small business exporter of the year by the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Administration. Orgil International was sold to a large agricultural conglomerate in 2007.
Gelman is the co-author of ‘Confidential’, The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon - Arnon Milchan. Confidential is a full-length biography of legendary film producer Arnon Milchan, scheduled for publication in July 2011, by Gefen Publishing House. Israeli President Shimon Peres, Viacom CEO, Sumner Redstone, and producer Arnon Milchan himself, among others are interviewed by Gelman and his co-writer, Meir Doron.
<big>Personal</big>
Joseph Gelman served in the Israeli Paratroopers Brigade for over three years, under the direct command of Shaul Mofaz, who later became Israel's Defense Minister. Gelman was honored as the outstanding soldier of his battalion, which later played a key role in the Israel Defense Forces’s advance to Beirut in the 1982 Lebanon war, in which Gelman participated.

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