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As LBReport.com announced in a flash bulletin to our (free) e-mail news alert list this morning, LB area Congressman Steve Horn will retire in January, 2003.
"The redistricting process has created major changes in the areas constituting the 38th District," Horn said in a written statement. "In order to remove any doubt about my plans, I want to formally announce that I will be retiring from Congress at the end of this term in January, 2003," he declared.
We reproduce below the verbatim text of his Congressional office's release issued today.
Horn, a Republican who won five general elections in the 38th district since 1992, represented the most Democratic district in California held by a Republican (52 percent Democratic to 31 percent Republican). He dissented from the GOP House leadership on some high visibility issues, casting his vote against giving "most favored nation" trade status to the Peoples Republic of China (sought by Presidents Clinton and Bush and the GOP House leadership).
Horn did not accept contributions from Political Action Committees and, he said, was outspent in almost every campaign.
In November, 2000, despite being among a group of Republican House members targeted for defeat by Democrats nationally (Cong. James Rogan of Pasadena was another), Horn narrowly beat Democrat E. Gerrie Schipske by roughly 1% of the vote.
Eschewing criticism of the Democrat proposed redistricting map that will effectively remove him and the 38th district with the next Congressional election, Horn's statement said:
"It is also a particularly fitting time to step down at the end of this term because virtually every goal I supported in 1992 for the nation and for the district has been achieved," he said, saying he was "proud to be a part of the team that had the courage to balance the budget, pay down hundreds of billions in public debt, strengthen Social Security and Medicare, improve education, and reduce crime. It is my hope that three other major priorities, a Patients' Bill of Rights, a Medicare prescription drug benefit, and campaign finance reform, will finally be passed by the current Congress."
The statement said "[l]locally, every major challenge that we faced in 1993 has been finished or is on track to be completed by the end of 2002. Specifically, the Air Force's C-17 project, which was threatened with cancellation in 1993, was saved and we have laid the groundwork for its expansion....The Los Angeles River flood control project will be completed by the end of this year-five years ahead of schedule-and the Alameda Corridor project will be completed on schedule in 2002."
Although redistricting is constitutionally mandated after release of the new census, as a practical matter the process is inevitably politicized. Since Democrats won majority control of both the CA Assembly and Senate in 2000, they control the process.
The new proposed 37th Congressional district lines would put most of LB, including a sizable chunk of ELB (with LB Airport and areas north of Wardlow Rd. to Palo Verde Ave.) into the Carson-Compton 37th Congressional district currently represented by Democrat Juanita Millender-McDonald.
The remainder of ELB (Los Altos, El Dorado Park and Belmont Shore) would in a redrawn 45th Congressional district stretching from Costa Mesa to Palos Verdes, including the Ports of LB and LA, connected by a thin downtown LB coastal strip. The current 45th district (including Huntington Beach and Seal Beach) is represented Republican Dana Rohrabacher (who represented part of LB when he was first elected to Congress).
[To see color maps of the redrawn proposed Congressional districts, see LBReport.com coverage at: Assembly Committee Map Proposes Stripping Away LB's 38th Congressional District]
The verbatim statement issued Congressman Horn's office follows:
[Begin text]
Congressman Steve Horn (R-CA/38) today announced his decision to retire at the end of the current term in Congress."For the past decade, it has been the highest honor and privilege of my life to represent the people of California's 38th District in Congress. Representing a district of over 600,000 people is a special trust. My dedicated staff and I have worked hard to keep that trust and to serve the country and the district.
"The redistricting process has created major changes in the areas constituting the 38th District. In order to remove any doubt about my plans, I want to formally announce that I will be retiring from Congress at the end of this term in January, 2003.
"It is also a particularly fitting time to step down at the end of this term because virtually every goal I supported in 1992 for the nation and for the district has been achieved.
"Nationally, I am proud to be a part of the team that had the courage to balance the budget, pay down hundreds of billions in public debt, strengthen Social Security and Medicare, improve education, and reduce crime. It is my hope that three other major priorities, a Patients' Bill of Rights, a Medicare prescription drug benefit, and campaign finance reform, will finally be passed by the current Congress.
"Locally, every major challenge that we faced in 1993 has been finished or is on track to be completed by the end of 2002. Specifically, the Air Force's C-17 project, which was threatened with cancellation in 1993, was saved and we have laid the groundwork for its expansion. Built in Long Beach, it is the finest cargo plane in the world. The Los Angeles River flood control project will be completed by the end of this year-five years ahead of schedule-and the Alameda Corridor project will be completed on schedule in 2002. Dozens of other local projects, ranging from the transfer of the former NASA land in Downey to become a space museum and business park, to numerous projects at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have been, or are being, completed.
"The Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology, now known as the Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management, and Intergovernmental Relations, which I began chairing in 1995, authored the Debt Collection Improvement Act that is saving taxpayers billions of dollars and led the successful effort to prepare the federal government's computer systems for the Year 2000 conversion. The subcommittee has uncovered numerous examples of government waste and instituted legislation and rules changes to correct them.
"My reason for making this announcement now is to give my dedicated staff, in Washington and the district, ample time to consider the key educational and employment decisions they need to make for their future. I want to thank all the fine staff members who have served over the years. Our team has established an unparalleled reputation for outstanding constituent service, and, until the end of the term in January, 2003, we will continue to provide that same high level of service as well as to focus on the completion of our legislative projects.
"Above all, I want to thank my wife, Nini Horn, who has worked long volunteer hours in Washington and in the district to help constituents with their problems, and has been a gracious host for many district residents during their visits to Washington, D.C.
"Finally, I thank the tens of thousands of constituents with whom I have had the pleasure to meet, or who have called or written. Whether we agreed or disagreed on a specific issue, I learned from every conversation and every letter. It is both humbling and heartening to know how much common sense, commitment, and wisdom there is among the people of this district and the country."
Background:
Political: Steve Horn was first elected in 1992 and is currently serving his fifth term in Congress. He represents the most Democratic district in California held by a Republican (52 percent Democratic to 31 percent Republican). He has run all-volunteer campaigns and has refused to take contributions from Political Action Committees. He has been outspent in almost every campaign. Professional: President of California State University, Long Beach for 18 years, Horn was selected as one of the "100 most effective college presidents in the country" in a 1986 national study. He is the author of three books on reforming Congressional ethics, budgeting, and organization and has been involved in national policy-making in the executive and legislative branches since the Eisenhower Administration. Personal: Horn, 70, was born in 1931 and raised on a farm in San Juan Bautista, California. He was educated in the California public schools and worked his way through Stanford (A.B. and Ph.D.) and Harvard (M.P.A.). He served eight years in the U. S. Army Reserve, Strategic Intelligence (1954-1962). He has been married for 47 years to Nini Horn. They have lived in Long Beach, California since 1970 and have two grown children: Marcia, the Executive Director of the International Foundation for Anticancer Drug Discovery in Phoenix, and Stephen, a graduate student. They have one grandson, Marcia's son Jonathan, age five.
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