Nicolas Heidorn is the founder of Heidorn Consulting, a firm that specializes in state and local policy and advocacy. He was formerly the Policy Director for California Common Cause, where he led the organization’s legislative advocacy in Sacramento. He was also the founder and Director of the California Local Redistricting Project, which was a joint Common Cause-McGeorge School of Law effort to promote local redistricting best practices. He has over a decade of experience advocating for voting and governance reforms, particularly in local government. He drafted Senate Bill 1108 (Allen, 2016), which for the first time authorized all California general law cities and counties to adopt independent citizens redistricting commissions, and has assisted several jurisdictions in setting up their own local commissions. Representing Common Cause, he was also part of the coalition that passed Assembly Bill 849 (Bonta, 2019), which adopted new criteria and public engagement requirements for city and county redistricting.

Prior to joining Common Cause, Heidorn served as Assistant General Counsel at the California Environmental Protection Agency, a position he was appointed to by Governor Brown in 2013. Before that, he worked in the State Legislature for State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas and on the Proposition 11 campaign, which establish California’s state Citizens Redistricting Commission.