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==Political career==
In addition to his professional career, Westly has maintained a concurrent career in the Democratic Party. At age 23 in 1981, he was elected as Northern Treasurer of the California Democratic Party, the youngest party officer ever. He was subsequently elected State Controller of the California Democratic Party in 1983, Northern Chair of the California Democratic Party in 1985, and Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party in 1987. In 1989, he was defeated as State Chair of the California Democratic Party by former Governor [[Jerry Brown]]. Despite that loss, Westly continued his left wing activism within the party by being elected to the [[Democratic National Committee]] in [[1988]], as the highest vote getter, and was reelected in 1992, 1996, and 2000.
Westly ran for California State Controller in [[2002]] against [[California State Senate|State Senator]] [[Tom McClintock]] and won by a margin of 22,730 votes (out of 7,258,758 votes cast). Westly garnered 3,289,839 (45.4%) votes while McClintock won the support of 3,273,028 (45.1%) people. Three other candidates won 695,891 (9.5%) votes. To win the race Westly massively outspent McClintock by a 5-to-1 margin.
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