Larry Agran
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Larry Agran is the former mayor of Irvine, California, Orange County's noted planned city.
Agran served as Legal Counsel to the California State Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, and taught legislation and public policy at the UCLA School of Law and the University of California, Irvine Graduate School of Management.
Between 1979 and 1990 he served on the city council, including six years as the Mayor (Irvine employs a council-manager government).
In 1992, Agran unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for President. Party officials excluded him from most debates on the grounds that he was not a well-known figure nationally, and he performed poorly in the New Hampshire primary, but he did pick up modest support in later primaries as a protest candidate with appeal to those unhappy with the other candidates.
Agran was elected to serve as mayor once more on November 7, 2000, and was re-elected on November 5, 2002. The current mayor of Irvine is Beth Krom. Agran continues to serve on Irvine's City Council and exercize considerable influence over civic matters.
He is rumored to be the inspiration for the Sandy Cohen character (portrayed by actor Peter Gallagher) on the Fox drama The O.C.