James Stephen Peace was a member of the CA State Assembly from 1982-1992 and later served in the CA Senate, representing the 40th District, from 1994-2002. Peace was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy from 1995–1997, during which time he co-authored the electricity deregulation bill. In his term as Senator, Peace authored the first laws in the nation aimed at protecting the privacy of individuals' personal information by requiring companies to inform consumers of data breaches. After being term-limited out of the State Senate, he served as Director of the California Department of Finance.
After leaving public service, Peace served as a Founding Director of the California Independent Voter Project, during which time he wrote California's Nonpartisan Open Primary Constitutional Amendment. He has served on the Board of the UCSD Scripps Institute of Oceanography and as Chairman of the Board of Chicago-based, Authentify, Inc., the privately held company that pioneered dual authentication security for online financial transactions. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Killer Tomatoes Entertainment and as a member of the Board of Directors of Preservation Ranch. He is a principal in the consulting firm JSPeace and Associates.