Gary K. Hart

Running as a Democrat, he launched several unsuccessful campaigns for the United States House of Representatives (1970) and the California State Assembly (1972) but later won an Assembly seat (1974), succeeding incumbent Republican Don MacGillivray, who ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate. In 1982, he ran for the California State Senate and won, narrowly defeating Republican state Assemblyman Charles R. Imbrecht, whose wife would, coincidentally, go on to be a History teacher in Hart's PACE program. Hart served in both houses of the Legislature for a total of 20 years, having chaired the Senate Education Committee from 1983 until his retirement in 1994. In 1988, he had made another run for Congress but narrowly lost to Republican incumbent Bob Lagomarsino.

After his retirement from the Legislature, he founded the California State University Institute for Education Reform at the California State University, Sacramento campus. The Institute promotes education reform efforts aimed at improving pupil academic achievement. Hart also served as the California Secretary of Education for Governor Gray Davis from January 1999 through March 2000. His principal responsibility as Secretary for Education was helping craft and pass the Governor's 1999 education reform program. Most recently, he has created and taught in the Program in America and California Explorations (PACE), an innovative core humanities initiative at Kennedy High School in Sacramento.

Hart's State Senate district included portions of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, and Los Angeles Counties. A former high school teacher, Hart has authored a wide range of legislation on education-related topics, including performance-based student testing, school restructuring, charter schools, and latch key child care programs. He was voted most ethical California legislator by his peers and as such appeared on the cover of California Journal.