Thomas Miller McClintock II (born July 10, 1956, in White Plains, New York) is a California State Senator, representing the 19th district. He is currently the Republican nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in California's 4th congressional district.

McClintock ran for Governor of California in the 2003 California recall election of and finished third out of 135 candidates with 13.5% of the overall vote. In 2006, he was the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of California, but lost to Democratic nominee John Garamendi by 4%.

Early life and career

McClintock graduated in 1978 from UCLA. He was elected Chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party at the age of twenty-three and served until 1981. He was chief of staff to State Senator Ed Davis from 1980-1982. From 1992-1994, he served as director of the Center for the California Taxpayer ^[1]. He was director of the Claremont Institute's Golden State Center for Policy Studies from 1995 to 1996. ^[2]

Political offices

McClintock, a resident of Thousand Oaks, was elected to the California State Assembly in 1982 at the age of twenty-six. He was reelected in 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990.

In 1992, McClintock lost his bid to incumbent Anthony C. Beilenson for a seat in the United States House of Representatives representing California's 24th District.

In 1994, McClintock ran for California State Controller but lost by 187,734 votes (2.3%) to the better-financed Kathleen Connell. McClintock won the support of 3,792,997 (46.0%) Californians while Connell had the votes of 3,980,731 (48.3%) people. Three other candidates split the other 463,152 (5.7%) votes. Connell outspent McClintock by a 3-to-1 margin.

Voters in the 38th State Assembly District returned McClintock to the Assembly in 1996 by a 15.8% electoral margin. McClintock was supported by 71,597 (55.6%) voters, while Democrat Jon Lauritzen obtained 51,274 (39.8%) votes. Natural Law Party candidate Virginia Neuman garnered the remaining 6,021 (4.6%) votes. In 1998, McClintock ran unopposed for reelection to the Assembly.

McClintock won a four-year term in the California Senate by a 15.2% margin in 2000. He won the support of 165,422 (57.6%) voters in the 19th State Senate District, while Daniel Gonzalez lost with 121,893 (42.4%) votes.

McClintock with an enthusiastic delegate of the California Youth and Government program

2002 run for State Controller

McClintock ran for State Controller again in 2002 and finished 22,730 votes behind eBay executive Steve Westly out of 7,258,758 votes cast. He logged 3,273,028 (45.1%) votes to Westly's 3,289,839 (45.4%); three other candidates won 695,891 (9.5%) votes. Westly outspent McClintock by a 5-to-1 margin. McClintock's campaigns for State Controller have focused on increasing accountability for the state budget. His ads featured the character Angus McClintock, a fictional cousin and fellow Scottish American extolling Tom McClintock's virtues of thriftiness and accountability with low-budget fifteen-second ads.

Opposition to taxes

McClintock has a long history of opposing taxes. During the 2000 dot-com bubble, he was instrumental in proposing a two-thirds reduction in the vehicle license fee, or car tax. In 2003, when then-Governor Gray Davis attempted to rescind the rollback, McClintock led the effort to stop the repeal ^[3]. McClintock has also opposed additional borrowing, making him odd bedfellows with State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who opposed Proposition 57 as well. While McClintock argued for more spending cuts, Angelides favored increasing taxes instead of borrowing. ^[4]

2003 recall

In the 2003 Gubernatorial recall election, McClintock finished third with the support of 1,160,182 (13.5%) Californians. Fellow Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger won the election with support from 4,203,596 (48.6%) people while Democratic Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante won 2,723,768 votes (31.5%). Together, Republicans Schwarzenegger and McClintock were supported by 5,363,778 Californians (62.1%). 132 other candidates won the remaining 6.4% of the vote.

2004 re-election and 2006 gubernatorial election

McClintock was re-elected to the California Senate in 2004, winning 61% of the vote. He was the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor in the 2006 elections. He ran for the Republican nomination virtually unopposed (Fresno realtor Tony Farmer gleaned 6.3% of the vote) but was defeated by State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi.

2008 run for U.S. House of Representatives

On March 4 2008, McClintock announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives in California's 4th congressional district. If elected, he would succeed fellow Republican John Doolittle, who is not seeking re-election.^[5] The 4th District extends from suburbs of Sacramento to the northeast corner of the state. Upon McClintock's entry into the race, fellow Republicans Rico Oller and Eric Egland withdrew from the Republican primary and endorsed McClintock. ^[5][6]

In the Republican primary, McClintock defeated former Congressman Doug Ose, Suzanne Jones, and Theodore Terbolizard. Ose formerly represented the neighboring 3rd District. The Democratic nominee is retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charlie Brown, who ran an unexpectedly strong race against Doolittle in 2006.

In March 2008, Ose's campaign commercials criticized McClintock for receiving payments totaling over $300,000 in per diem living expenses during his time in the California State Senate, despite the fact that he maintains a home near Sacramento. McClintock held that the payments were justified because his legal residence is in his Senate district in Thousand Oaks. He stated, "Every legislator's [Sacramento area] residence is close to the Capitol. My residential costs up here are much greater than the average legislator because my family is here."^[7] However, Ose's campaign commercials argued McClintock does not own or rent in home in the 19th district, but uses his mother's address. These attacks prompted a response from McClintock's wife, Lori, who said McClintock stays with his mother in order to better care for her after she fell ill and after the death of her husband. ^[8]

Electoral history

• 1992 Primary Election for United States House of Representatives
  • Tom McClintock (R), 34.5%
  • Sang R. Korman (R), 23.7%
  • Bill Spillane (R), 18.3%
  • Jim Salomon (R), 7.5%
  • Rob Meyer (R), 4.9%
  • Stephen M. Weiss (R), 3.8%
  • Nicholas Hariton (R), 3.1%
  • Robert Colaco (R), 2.7%
  • Harry Wachtel (R), 1.5%
• 1992 General Election for United States House of Representatives
  • Anthony C. Beilenson (D), 55.5%
  • Tom McClintock (R), 39.1%
  • John Paul Linblad (P&F), 5.4%
• 1994 Primary Election for Controller
  • Tom McClintock (R), 60.8%
  • John Morris (R), 39.2%
• 1994 General Election for Controller
  • Kathleen Connell (D), 48.3%
  • Tom McClintock (R), 46.1%
  • Elizabeth Nakano (P&F), 2.2%
  • Nathan Johnson (AI), 1.8%
  • Cullene Lang (L), 1.6%
• 1996 Primary Election for State Assembly
  • Tom McClintock (R), 38.2%
  • Ross Hopkins (R), 20.3%
  • Bob Larkin (R), 13.0%
  • Robert Hamlin (R), 11.1%
  • Stephen Frank (R), 9.0%
  • Peggy Freeman (R), 8.4%
• 1996 General Election for State Assembly
  • Tom McClintock (R), 55.6%
  • Jon Lauritzen (D), 39.8%
  • Virginia Neuman (NL), 4.6%
• 1998 Primary Election for State Assembly
  • Tom McClintock (R), 100.0%
• 1998 General Election for State Assembly
  • Tom McClintock (R), 100.0%
• 2000 Primary Election for State Senate
  • Tom McClintock (R), 74.9%
  • Judy Mikels (R), 25.1%^[9]
• 2000 General Election for State Senate
  • Tom McClintock (R), 57.6%
  • Daniel R. Gonzales (D), 42.4%
• 2002 Primary Election for Controller
  • Tom McClintock (R), 45.8%
  • Dean Andal (R), 35.5%
  • W. Snow Hume (R), 9.4%
  • Nancy Beecham (R), 9.3%
• 2002 General Election for Controller
  • Steve Westly (D), 45.4%
  • Tom McClintock (R), 45.1%
  • Laura Wells (G), 5.8%
  • J. Carlos Aguirre (NL), 2.4%
  • Ernest F. Vance (AI), 1.3%
• 2003 Recall Election for Governor
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), 48.6%
  • Cruz Bustamante (D), 31.5%
  • Tom McClintock (R), 13.5%
  • Peter Camejo (G), 2.8%
  • Arianna Huffington (I), 0.6%
  • Peter Ueberroth (R), 0.3%
  • Larry Flynt (D), 0.2%
  • Gary Coleman (I), 0.2%
• 2004 Primary Election for State Senate
  • Tom McClintock, 100.0%
• 2004 General Election for State Senate
  • Tom McClintock, 60.8%
  • Paul Joseph Graber, 39.2%
• 2006 Primary Election for Lieutenant Governor
  • Tom McClintock (R), 93.8%
  • Tony Farmer (R), 6.2%
• 2006 Election for Lieutenant Governor
  • John Garamendi (D), 49.5 %
  • Tom McClintock (R), 44.9 %
• 2008 Primary Election for United States House of Representatives
  • Tom McClintock (R), 53.8%
  • Doug Ose (R), 38.7%
  • Suzanne Jones (R), 5.3%
  • Theodore Terbolizard (R), 2.2%

References

External links

• Official Senate Web Site
• Official Campaign Web Site
• VoteCircle Profile
• Tom McClintock Political History