Only one month after taking office on the California Board of Equalization, Michelle Steel barely has time to breathe.

“It’s one meeting after another — meetings with staff members, meetings with taxpayers,” she says with a sigh. “I have more work than an attorney.”

And yet she’s still smiling.

Beating out four white men in last year’s primary elections, Steel serves as the nation’s highest-ranking elected Korean American and California’s highest-ranking Republican woman. She travels back and forth between her office in Palos Verdes, Calif., and the state capitol, representing more than 8 million people in areas such as Orange and San Diego counties.

The Sacramento Union called her “the California GOP’s last, great hope.” Already, she’s doing what she promised voters she’d do: fight taxes. For instance, just last month, she sponsored a bill to provide tax relief for homeowners who want to add fire safety features to their properties.  

“I will always presume that a taxpayer is innocent, until proven guilty,” says Steel, 51. “Anything that would raise taxes, I’m not going to go for it.”

Her interest in the system was sparked about 30 years ago when her immigrant mother, who was closing her clothing shop in downtown Los Angeles, got slapped with an unwarranted Board of Equalization tax bill for a couple thousand dollars. Helpless and confused, she lacked the information and resources to fight it.

Steel speaks at her inauguration in Sacramento

“That was big money at that time,” Steel says. “She didn’t have any other options. So she paid it.”

Today, she makes sure that first-generation Korean Americans know their rights. According to census figures, Korean Americans own about 45 percent of liquor stores, small grocery markets and one-hour photo shops. Steel holds tax seminars in Koreatown, educating small business owners on how to protect themselves, and is a commentator for Radio Seoul, a Korean-language station.  

“I want to be the bridge between first and second generations and the bridge between Korean Americans and the mainstream population,” Steel says. 

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Born in Seoul, Korea, Michelle Park moved to the United States in 1975. She was a senior at Pepperdine University when she met her husband, Shawn Steel, who would eventually serve as the right wing chair of the California Republican Party. They met on the tennis courts at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. They married in 1983. 

Through her husband, Steel met all sorts of politicians and bureaucrats, who would come to their home for parties and events.  

“I didn’t know my friends were a little different than others,” Steel says. “The best man in our wedding was Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter.” 

For a while, Steel remained a full-time mom to her two children, Cheyenne and Siobhan, now 19 and 16, respectively. But when the Los Angeles Riots broke out in 1992, she felt the need to do something more. As she was watching terror unfold on her television set, Steel noticed that TV reporters tended to only interview second-generation English-speaking Korean Americans.