Tom McClintock
| Tom McClintock |
Thomas Miller McClintock (born July 10, 1956) is a Republican California State Senator. He ran for Governor of California in the 2003 California recall election of Gray Davis and came in third out of 135.
McClintock graduated from UCLA in 1978. He was the Ventura County, California Republican Party chairman from 1979 to 1981. He was chief of staff to Sen. Ed Davis from 1980 to 1982. From 1992 to 1994 he served as director of the Center for the California Taxpayer. He was director of the Claremont Institute's Golden State Center for Policy Studies from 1994 to 1996.
McClintock was elected to the the Califonia State Assembly in 1982 at the age of 26. He was reelected in 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990.
In 1992, McClintock lost his bid to incumbent Anthony Beilenson for a seat in the House of Representatives representing California's 24th District.
In 1994, McClintock ran for California State Controller and lost by 187,734 votes 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.
Voters in the 38th State Assembly District returned McClintock to the California State Assembly in 1996 by a 15.8% electoral margin. McClintock was supported by 71,597 (55.6%) voters. Democrat Jon Lauritzen obtained 51,274 (39.8%) votes. Natural Law Party candidate Virginia Neuman garnered the remaining 6,021 (4.6%) people.
In 1998, McClintock ran unopposed for reelection to the Assembly.
McClintock won a four-year term in the California's Senate by a 15.2% margin in 2000. McClintock won the support of 165,422 (57.6%) people in the 19th State Senate District while Daniel Gonzalez won only 121,893 (42.4%) votes. Despite conservative Republican McClintock's landslide victory in the State Senate race, the district supported Democrat Al Gore for President in the same election.
McClintock ran for California State Controller again in 2002 and finished 22,730 votes behind 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.
In the 2003 Gubernatorial recall election, McClintock won 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 votes.
McClintock is seeking a second four-year term in the California State Senate in the 2004 elections.