John Garamendi

In 1974, Garamendi decided to run for California's 7th State Assembly district. Six-term Republican incumbent William T. Bagley did not stand for re-election, instead running for California State Controller and losing in the general election to Democratic State Assemblyman Kenneth Cory. In the election to succeed Bagley, Garamendi faced Republican State Assemblyman Douglas F. Carter. Carter had won a special election in the 12th Assembly district in July 1973 to succeed Republican Robert T. Monagan, who had resigned to become United States Assistant Secretary of Transportation. In the general election, Garamendi defeated Carter in a landslide, by 60,380 votes (64.08%) to 33,842 (35.92%) as the Democrats won a supermajority in the California State Assembly for the first time since the 1800s.[12][13]

In 1976, he decided to retire after one term to run in California's 13th State Senate district. He defeated Republican Bob Whitten 53%-47%.[14] He won re-election in 1980 (60%),[15] 1984 (69%),[16] and 1988 (69%).[17]

While in the California Senate, he served as Majority Leader. His sponsored legislation reformed health care, welfare, and the state tax code. He also protected Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake.[18] He was Chairman of the Joint Committee on Science and Technology, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, and the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee.[19]

He ran for Governor of California for the first time in 1982. In the Democratic primary, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley defeated him 61%-25%.[20]

In the 1986 Democratic primary for California State Controller, Garamendi lost to Assemblyman Gray Davis, 50%-38%.[21]

He ran for California Insurance Commissioner for the first time in 1990. He won the Democratic primary with a plurality of 36% of the vote. His closest challenger was radio talk show host Bill Press, who got 28% of the vote.[22] In the general election, he defeated Republican Wes Bannister 52%-38%.[23]

In 1991, while serving as the newly instituted California Insurance Commissioner, Garamendi seized Executive Life, a failing life insurance company, and resold it to French investors who turned out to be fronts for a government-owned French bank. They made billions of dollars selling off the company's portfolio of junk bonds while the Californians with Executive Life policies were very negatively affected. This situation erupted into a scandal in both the U.S. and France, with the U.S. government filing criminal charges, because it was illegal for a government-owned bank to own a U.S. insurer. Policyholders blamed Garamendi for putting them in this position.[24][25]

Eventually the U.S. government reached a settlement with the French bankers, and in 2005 Garamendi too agreed to a settlement, the terms of which further angered Executive Life policyholders, who, according to the Sacramento Bee, "had been damaged to the tune of perhaps $5 billion." A leader of the policyholders' interest group, Sue Watson, said, "We are shocked and outraged that the largest financial fraud in California history would be settled for so little and without even a fight." The Bee editorialized that "Garamendi cannot simultaneously assert that the sale was a good deal and a multibillion-dollar fraud, and then defend a cents-on-the-dollar settlement that left the buyers with billions of dollars in windfall profits. It just does not make sense."[26][27]

Garamendi ran for California governor a second time in 1994. In the Democratic primary, State Treasurer Kathleen Brown defeated him 48%-33%.[28][29]

He ran for California insurance commissioner for a second time in 2002. He won the Democratic primary with 39% of the vote.[31] In the general election, he defeated Republican Gary Mendoza 46%-42%.[32]

He created a Home Owners Bill of Rights. This helped create laws that reduced workers compensation costs 58% and reduced premiums by over $500 million. He re-established an anti-fraud task force. He also developed a report analyzing California's health care system with 43 recommended improvements.[18]

On August 7, 2003 Garamendi announced his candidacy for governor a third time in the gubernatorial recall election, but dropped out two days later to endorse Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante.

On July 16, 2004, Garamendi announced his candidacy to run for Lieutenant Governor of California, the first and only time he would run for this position. Incumbent Cruz Bustamante was term-limited and decided to run to replace Garamendi as insurance commissioner. Garamendi's endorsers included former Vice President Al Gore, Sierra Club, the California Teachers Association, the California League of Conservation Voters, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, the California Professional Firefighters Association, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Garamendi won the Democratic primary by defeating state senators Jackie Speier and Liz Figueroa 43%-40%-18%.[33] In the general election, he defeated Republican State Senator Tom McClintock 49%-45%.[34]

As Lieutenant Governor of California, Garamendi was the de jure President of the State Senate, regent of the University California, Trustee of the California State University System, member of the California State Lands Commission, Chairman of the California Commission for Economic Development, and acting governor.[35]

2009

Despite living outside of California's 10th congressional district, Garamendi announced his intention to run for the 2009 special election in the 10th district, where Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher had vacated her seat. There was some confusion about the location of Garamendi's residence. Garamendi said: "My front yard is in the district, our bedroom is not."[36] Garamendi continued to fuel speculation about the location of his residence when he made similar comments to The New York Times in July, stating the same thing. The Sacramento Board of Elections later confirmed that no portion of Garamendi's property lies within the 10th congressional district.

In the September election, no candidate reached the 50% threshold to avoid a run-off election. Garamendi ranked first among Democrats with 26% of the vote, defeating State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (18%) and Assemblymember Joan Buchanan (12%). In the November run-off special election, Garamendi defeated Republican nominee David Harmer 53%-43%.[37][38] After winning the special election on November 3, Garamendi was sworn in as a member of the US House of Representatives on November 5, 2009.[39]

2010

Garamendi won re-election to his first full term defeating Republican nominee Gary Clift 59%-38%.[40]

2012

After redistricting, Garamendi filed papers in March 2012 to run in the newly redrawn 3rd district.[41][42]

Garamendi was running in a district that was over 77 percent new to him. While the old 10th district traditionally favored Democrats, the new 3rd was somewhat more swingy.[43] However, the bulk of its vote was located in Democratic-leaning territory between the Bay Area and Sacramento, Garamendi's base. Garamendi defeated Republican Kim Vann 54.2%-45.8%.

2014

Garamendi was re-elected.

Garamendi has been critical of President Donald Trump, suggesting in December 2016 that because of his international real-estate business, Trump is weighed down with conflicts of interest. He also said he was disturbed by the placement of "generals, ex-generals in every one of the key positions dealing with the military, dealing with international affairs."[44]

At a July 2017 town hall in Davis, Garamendi said that current developments in the Trump administration were "far more serious" than Watergate. "This is developing far more rapidly than any of us expected," he said. "Is there a cover-up? An obstruction of justice? Well, we'll see. There's certainly some indication that it has already happened." He stated that there was "absolutely no doubt that that theft of private information, which is a federal offense, a felony, was then weaponized to influence the outcome of the election."[45]

In July 2017, Garamendi said that during recent visits to Vietnam, South Korea, and Australia, he had encountered "angst, worry and concern about what's happening in America." He said that these and other countries count on America for security and certainty, but "they don't see that in America today." He added: "The Trump issues are really about the stability of this world in a profoundly dangerous time."[45]

Garamendi said in January 2018 that he was "angry" when President Trump referred to certain Third World nations as "s---hole countries," "It was very demeaning," said Garamendi. "He lowered the standard of the presidency. That statement did great harm to America. We'll be paying for that for a long time." He later added that Trump was "ignorant of what's going on in Africa" and said that the President had "made some racist statements."[46]

In a January 2018 interview, Garamendi said of the U.S. treasury: "There's no money. They gave it all away." He complained that current economic policies, including the large 2017 tax cuts, benefited the rich and corporations, not the middle class.[46]

Commenting in January 2018 on illegal immigration, he expressed the desire to "make sure every person is identified" and charged that E-Verify, a system intended to curtail undocumented employment, had "not really been enforced." He said that it was possible to come up with some compromise on the issue between conservative and progressive House members, and expressed concern about the fate of "undocumented immigrants who are not considered Dreamers."[46]

After Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook's April 2018 testimony before a joint Senate committee, Garamendi said, "The privacy of the entire world is in his hands." Garamendi called for a privacy law that would cover social media.[47]

Garamendi speaks with generals during the District Commanders Course, 2015

In May 2011, by a vote of 60–1, the House Armed Services Committee approved a $553 billion military-funding bill that would increase pay and fund new aircraft, ships, and submarines. The sole "no" vote was cast by Garamendi.[48] In the same month, Garamendi introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would withdraw 90 percent of troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2013. Along with eight other members of Congress he wrote a letter to President Obama asking him to end the war.[49][50][51]

With Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Garamendi sponsored the Due Process Guarantee Act, a 2012 bill pushed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), that would bar the military from indefinitely detaining U.S. citizens or residents within the country without charge or trial.[52][53]

John Garmendi actively opposed a GOP-backed construction of a missile defense site on the East Coast, saying it was fiscally irresponsible to be "spending up to $5 billion in the next three years on a missile defense system that doesn't work."[54]

He voted against extending the Patriot Act.[55]

In a May 2011 article, Garamendi stated that "our national security is much more dependent on ending desperate poverty, funding good schools, and empowering women in the developing world while eradicating international terrorist networks like al Qaeda. With bin Laden dead and al Qaeda in Afghanistan largely extinguished, it's time we revisited the wisdom of continuing the war in Afghanistan."[56]

In April 2018, he expressed opposition to building a border wall and said, "If you want to go where the problem is, fund the Coast Guard."[57]

In the fall of 2017, Garamendi and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) co-introduced H.R. 4001, the Student Loan Refinancing and Recalculating Act. "For many Americans, the price of a college education is too high," he said.[58]

Garamendi voted on November 19, 2015, for HR 4038, legislation that would effectively halt the resettlement of refugees from Syria and Iraq to the United States.[59]

On March 31, 2018, he described Trump's approach to Syria as "helter-skelter" and "chaos." "There is no policy in the Middle East," he said.[60]

He expressed opposition in April 2018 to a military strike on Syria. "You have to have a strategy. This president doesn't have a clue about how to build a strategy."[47]

In January 2018, he called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 a "tax scam" that would primarily benefit the so-called "1 percent." He asserted that House "deficit hawks" wanted to "cut out the social safety net" to pay for tax bill.[61]

In a June 2017 article, John Garamendi rejected the proposal known as California WaterFix, calling it an "expensive boondoggle," and instead expressed support for Proposition 1, which he said would "create new water for the entire state."[62]

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Readiness (Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management
  • Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
  • Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

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• House Democratic Caucus
• American Sikh Caucus (Co-Chair)
• Air Force Caucus
• Alzheimer's Task Force
• Military Families Caucus
• Peace Corps Caucus (Co-Chair)
• Shipbuilding Caucus
• Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition
• United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus[64]
• Veterinary Medicine Caucus[65]
• Wine Caucus

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