The thirty-nine year old Democrat was in the midst of a campaign for state Senate, when he passed away due to complications from liver disease… Firebaugh also battled the illness during his time in the state Assembly. Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero worked alongside him and remembers him as the eternal optimist. 
  
                                 “ He believed that while you are alive, you fight for social justice, you move forward, he was not one to pity himself.…”
 
Firebaugh served in the state Assembly from 1998 to 2004 representing a district in Southeast Los Angeles County.  He was the author of a controversial 2002 law that allowed illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition fees.  It has since been challenged in court.