Houston excels in lonely role: Lawmaker bears GOP standard in Bay Area

When voters swept U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo out of office in November, that left Assemblyman Guy Houston the last Republican left standing.

The affable, athletic 46-year-old legislator laughs when asked what it felt like to be the only Bay Area Republican in an elected, partisan seat.

But the pragmatic Houston doesn't complain about his party's paltry Bay Area numbers.

Instead, he points out the advantage: He can raise money without fear of treading on fellow Republicans' territory.

"I have more license than my Democratic colleagues," Houston said. "I can raise money all over the Bay Area."

Houston is no ideologue and doesn't bite on partisan bait. The former high school and college sports star says he puts his constituents first and the party second.

So far, the strategy has served Houston well; voters have elected him to the Legislature three times in competitive races in a sprawling district that stretches from Walnut Creek to San Ramon, Brentwood to Oakley and Stockton to Galt.

"Voters in this part of Contra Costa and eastern Alameda County are comfortable with candidates who don't play up partisanship," said Tim Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies at Sacramento State. "Houston can vote conservative. He just doesn't have to put on a neon sign saying 'I'm a conservative Republican.'"

Despite Houston's election successes, he stands at a political crossroads: As a Bay Area Republican faced with term limits, he has few options.

He will term out of the Assembly in 2008 unless voters pass term limit reforms, which many consider unlikely. Contra Costa's state Senate district is heavily Democratic.

Barring a return to local office, the former Dublin mayor's best shot may be Congress.

Republicans desperately want to reclaim the seat head by upstart Democrat Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, who soundly beat Pombo in 2006. Houston met in mid-February with national GOP leaders to talk about entering the race.

"My pitch to them was that I'm the only candidate that can take on McNerney in his back yard," said Houston, who grew up in Pleasanton.

But if last year's heated campaign is any indication, the congressional race will play out as the nation debates issues that deeply divide the parties, such as the Iraq war and immigration.

Houston's balancing act between his centrist constituents and party conservatives could prove nettlesome in a partisan-charged campaign.

Democrats also point to Houston's unresolved legal troubles in a case involving seniors who say they were defrauded by Houston and his father as a sign of possible ethics problems, an issue that helped defeat Republicans nationwide in 2006. (See accompanying story.)

Although Houston and his supporters bill him as a pragmatic Republican, critics say he votes lockstep with conservative and business interests.

An analysis of his campaign contributions from the last election appears to support his critics' views. Nearly 60 percent of the $1.4 million he raised came from developers and related industries, and political organizations.

Legislative report cards from a host of special interest groups that analyze voting records clearly paint Houston as a conservative.

He receives A's from the Gun Owners of America and the California Chamber of Commerce but earns failing marks from groups such as the California League of Conservation Voters and California Labor Federation.

Houston twice voted no on legislation to raise the minimum wage and opposed the state's 2006 global warming bill.

"It's difficult for me to imagine that (Houston's voting record) is in concert with what Houston's constituents feel," said Rico Mastrodonato, spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters. "I would guess that his constituents care a lot more about the environment than Guy Houston does."

GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently didn't consider Houston a liability. The governor hosted a Houston fundraiser in the 2006 election but avoided Pombo.

And report cards can be deceiving. The groups may count some but not all bills on an issue, which skews the results.

The record also shows that Houston has voted contrary to the wishes of the Republican Assembly Caucus on a number of issues.

Houston, for example, opposed federal legislation that would have loosened a prohibition on offshore oil drilling. He voted in favor of hiking the boater registration fee, tighter smog-check rules and a law that requires bank workers to report suspected elder fraud.

"You can't assume that Guy is going to vote a certain way," said Assembly Republican Caucus Chairman Mike Villines of Fresno. "He's comfortable voting how he wants. As the last Republican in the Bay Area, it shows that voters believe he puts them first rather than politics."

The governor has signed 10 of Houston's bills into law since he took office, quite an accomplishment for a Republican in a Democratic controlled Legislature.

Houston's trademark issue is not a bill but his bipartisan initiative to fund schools suffering under formulas that favor urban over suburban and rural districts.

His predecessor, Lynne Leach, started the campaign, but Houston carried the fight to a successful conclusion when Schwarzenegger agreed to put money into school equalization. The effort produced an extra $2.4 million for the San Ramon Valley School District and $1.2 million for Livermore.

Houston will make equalization the centerpiece of his legislative agenda again this year as he pushes to close the remaining funding gap.

In addition, he is working on 15 bills that would, among other things, establish a program to buy and sell emissions credits, allow steroid testing for high school athletes and streamline an environmental review of Vasco Road upgrades.

He also hopes to mend strained relationships with the San Ramon Valley School District through legislation designed to increase the pool of special education teachers.

Houston intervened in a bitter fight last year between parents of special-needs children and the district, a move that some school officials didn't appreciate.

"I would expect a legislator to meet with locally elected officials or the district superintendent before he took on an issue like that," said San Ramon Valley School Board trustee Joan Buchanan. "Guy didn't do that, and I was disappointed."

Houston doesn't talk publicly about his father's 2003 bankruptcy, but the lawmaker speaks fondly of his dad.

Fred Houston taught and coached at San Ramon Valley High School during most of his son's childhood. Even though the family lived in Pleasanton, Guy attended his father's school where he excelled at sports.

The two drove together to school, and Guy, the oldest of two brothers, cherished the time alone with his dad.

"He taught me that anything worth doing, you have to work at very hard," Houston said, "and that you have to do the extra work that others don't do."

Fred began selling real estate in the 1970s, a move that would set the stage for the careers of Guy and his brother, Eric

In 1989, Fred opened Valley Capital Investment and Mortgage as a companion firm to his now-bankrupt real estate company. Today, his sons own the mortgage firm.

Houston showed an early interest in politics. He was only 8 years old during the 1968 Humphrey-Nixon election, but he remembers it.

"Even when I was young," said Houston, who would study journalism in college for a possible career as a sportswriter, "I would read the front page of the newspaper as well as the sports page and the comics."

The clean-cut redhead whose college nickname was "Howdy Doody" plunged deeper into politics at St. Mary's College, where he joined the Young Republicans and volunteered in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign.

He would later work on the GOP campaigns of former congressman Dick Baker and state Sen. Dick Rainey.

Houston quickly thought of himself as a candidate and signed up for a GOP boot camp.

"Guy didn't ask me specifically for advice," recalled Rainey, "but he was watching me and my staff and learning about the things it would take."

At age 32, Houston was the youngest person elected to the Dublin City Council, and two years later, in 1994, he toppled Dublin Mayor Pete Snyder.

"Guy was the right person for Dublin at the right time," said current Mayor Janet Lockhart. "Guy was the person to go and talk to firms like Sybase and get them interested in Dublin."

The November 2002 Assembly election was costly, but he beat Democrat and former Contra Costa County Supervisor Donna Gerber in a district in which party registration slightly favors Republicans. He won two more terms despite Democrats' repeated efforts to unseat him.

As the only Bay Area Republican at the Capitol, Houston is both his party's standard bearer for the region and a target for Democrats.

Some Democrats say he's a policy lightweight known chiefly for a 4-0 winning record as his party's captain in the annual Republicans-vs.-Democrats softball game.

"Guy rarely speaks on the floor (of the Assembly)," said a Democratic Party staffer. "He's not a go-to guy in terms of Republican leadership. He's also known for being mostly focused on his own campaign."

Even some GOP staffers in the Capitol describe Houston, who hasn't risen to party leadership positions, as a well-liked but not a high-powered lawmaker. One said he "leans back-bencher."

Houston even found himself the butt of jokes recently after details emerged about taped, private conversations in the governor's office. Schwarzenegger chief of staff Susan Kennedy said Houston would lose bladder control if the governor were to chastise Houston.

Staffers who "never get out of the Capitol bubble don't understand what members have to go through in their districts," said ex-Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla of Pittsburg. "There are few opportunities for people in Guy's position to shine. He's in a targeted seat and he's in the minority party and he depends on the kindness of others to get re-elected or advance his bills."

Republicans from all over the Bay Area call Houston, and he's expected to recruit new members to run for public office. He's often asked to speak at Peninsula and South Bay GOP events.

"You take on the obligation to be accessible beyond your own district," said ex-Assemblywoman Leach, who was also a lone Republican leader during part of her tenure. "I would have people come up to me from places outside the district and say, 'You are our only hope!'"

Houston has won every election he has entered, and his fans fervently hope he will continue his winning streak.

But is Houston ready for Congress -- what he calls, in his penchant for sports analogies, the political equivalent of the big leagues?

"It's his dream," she said. "He's passionate about politics and he's always said he would love to be in Washington. If you have the opportunity, why not go for it?"

• Occupation: State assemblyman and president of Valley Capital Realty and Mortgage, a Dublin real estate sales and brokerage company

• Political background: Dublin councilman, 1992-94; Dublin mayor, 1994-2000; assemblyman, District 15, 2000-present

• Education: Bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from St. Mary's College, 1982 and 1987. Financial planner certification, College of Financial Planning, Denver, 1991

• Family: Married 16 years to Inge Houston and father of three children: Bartlett, 14; Sumner, 12; and Glynnis Rose, 8

• Quote hanging in his Sacramento office: "Winning is not a sometime thing. It is an all-the-time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while, you do the right thing all the time. There's no room for second place. There is only one place; that's first place." -- Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi

Assemblyman Guy Houston's ratings from a variety of special interest groups' annual report cards reflect his strong conservative politics.

California Labor Federation AFL-CIO 2005 4 percent lifetime Assembly voting record

California Public Interest Research Group (environmental consumer advocacy group) 2006 20 percent

• AB2165: Increased state relief funds to victims affected by the 2004 Middle River levee break in San Joaquin County. Signed 2004.

• AB1125: Resolved a governing dispute involving the Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and the Zone 7 Water Agency. Signed 2003.

• AB953: Amended the Subdivision Map Act to remove a requirement to build facilities outside an approved development if government does not acquire the necessary land in a timely manner. Signed 2003.

• AB350: Increased from $10,000 to $25,000 the threshold at which fire protection districts with budgets under $1 million must use competitive bidding for special services. 2005-06 session. Signed 2006.

• AB1729: Clarified recording requirements for promissory notes secured by real property. Signed 2005.

• AB2198: Modernized the law governing the prescribing of drugs to persons suffering from chronic pain. Signed 2006.

• AB2624: Established the process required for a homeowner to exercise the right of reclaiming his or her property within 90 days after it is seized in a nonjudicial foreclosure. Signed 2006.

• AB2664: Clarified the law that gives consumers who purchase health club contracts valued at less than $1,500 five days to cancel their contracts. Signed 2006.

• AB2719: Increased income caps to keep up with inflation in the property tax postponement program for low-income seniors and disabled individuals. Signed 2006.

• AB3004: Allows law enforcement officers who make arrests for driving under the influence to use vehicles that may not adhere to state-approved paint colors. Signed 2006.

California State Assemblyman Guy Houston, R-Livermore, demonstrates his Terminator toy in Sacramento.

Houston doesn't sound like much of a leader. But we need to take out McNerney in '08. We may have no choice but to go with Houston. We'd probably lose an Assembly seat, though, and we need enough Republicans to hold up budgets and sustain vetoes.

"Terminator toy."

"Toy" is right. That's about what Arnold is -- a toy leader, sort of like a toy dog.

To: California Patriot; fieldmarshaldj; AuH2ORepublican; Kuksool; zbigreddogz; calcowgirl; ...

There may be other choices. State Assemblyman Alan Nakashini and former state Assemblyman Dean Andal (who also served on the Board of Equalization) are also eyeing candidacies, and I believe they are more conservative than Houston.

However, Richard Pombo blew it and has no business running again.

4 posted on 03/22/2007 7:58:32 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (If the GOP were to stop worshiping Free Trade as if it were a religion, they'd win every election)

I tend to cringe when I see "pragmatic" associated with Republican, as that screams "RINO." Let the pragmatics run in ultrarodent districts. Whatever Pombo's shortcomings, I still wouldn't mind seeing him make a comeback.

5 posted on 03/22/2007 9:02:38 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)

If you look at the ratings that different advocacy groups gave him, it seems that Houston is more conservative than "pragmatic." I wouldn't mind a quiet conservative from Contra Costa running in that district---he'd probably beat McNerney like a rented mule and go on to have a voting record just as good as Richard Pombo's.

6 posted on 03/23/2007 8:36:28 AM PDT by AuH2ORepublican (http://auh2orepublican.blogspot.com/)

It's a tough call. The district, as you know, is so unnaturally drawn. Soccer moms and office-park dads in the Bay Area, exurbanites and semi-rural people in the Central Valley, no overlap in the politicians they're familiar with. On balance, it's probably better to go with a Valley candidate who can really clean up in that part of the district.

7 posted on 03/23/2007 9:17:28 AM PDT by California Patriot ("That's not Charley the Tuna out there. It's Jaws." -- Richard Nixon)

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