Rep. Bill Thomas (R) Elected 1978, 13th term
Born:	Dec. 6, 1941, Wallace, ID
Home:	Bakersfield
Education:	San Francisco St. U., B.A. 1963, M.A. 1965
Religion:	Baptist
Marital Status:	married (Sharon)
Elected  Office:	CA Assembly, 1974-78.
Professional Career:	Prof., Bakersfield Commun. Col., 1965-74.
Additional Info
Recent Articles · Offices · Committees · Ratings · Key Votes · Election Results District Demographics
More On California
At A Glance · State Profile District Map Redistricting · Almanac Home

Bakersfield, at the apex of the southern end of California's Central Valley, has been the focus of great migrations four times--in a gold rush in 1885, when oil was discovered here in 1899, during the 1930s when the Okies drove their jalopies from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma and Kansas and Texas across the Southwest on U.S. 66, and again in the 1980s and 1990s, when Bakersfield and Kern County grew more rapidly than California's biggest metro areas. Bakersfield's oil rigs pump more oil than is produced annually in Oklahoma, but the migration that made the deepest imprint was in the 1930s. The Okies drove over one thousand miles of brown landscape, then through the Tehachapi Pass, and found this vast green valley, with its irrigated fields and its eucalyptus-shaded towns, the richest farming country in the world. The story is told vividly in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, though his vision of the Okies as workers eager to join together with their fellow proletarians and rise up against their bosses did not get the picture quite right. More accurate is Dan Morgan's Rising in the West, which shows the strong Pentecostal beliefs that drove many migrants and, unlike Steinbeck, explains how they prospered in California.

The area around Bakersfield has become the one Southern-accented part of California, the home of country singers Buck Owens and Merle Haggard and a thriving contemporary country music scene, culturally conservative with a strong drive toward discipline and little empathy for the therapy that is so common in Los Angeles, 110 miles south. But Bakersfield's uniqueness may be diluted as southern California spreads north: developers are planning a town of 70,000 on valley land where I-5 plunges downhill from the Tejon Pass.

The 22d Congressional District, the southernmost district in the Central Valley, includes most of Bakersfield and Kern, most of the land area of San Luis Obispo County, over the mountains to the west, and a slice of northern Los Angeles County including half the desert town of Lancaster. At the eastern end in the desert is Edwards Air Force Base where Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 and where the Space Shuttle has frequently landed; not far away is Mojave, the end of the Twenty Mule Team Trail where borate from Death Valley was loaded onto trains. The district's boundaries are designed to maximize the Hispanic percentage of the next-door 20th District, but the population of the 22d is still 21% Hispanic. The 22d includes most of Bakersfield and its surroundings, oil fields and high-income subdivisions, and Kern County desert and mountain communities. The rich farmland produces most of the olives grown in the United States and is the nation's largest dairy-producing region. Politically, Kern County was Democratic territory in the early 1960s--when, for that matter, so was Oklahoma. By the late 1960s, both had become solidly Republican in national politics, and today both seem Republican up and down the ticket. The inland portion of San Luis Obispo County has always been Republican. In 2000 George W. Bush won 64% of the vote here, his best performance in any California district.

The congressman from the 22d District is Bill Thomas, first elected in 1978 and now chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Thomas grew up in Orange County; his father was a union plumber and his parents never graduated from high school; he lived for a time in public housing. He graduated from San Francisco State and taught political science from 1965 to 1974 in the community college in Bakersfield. In 1974 he was elected to the Assembly, a conservative in a liberal-run legislature; when Congressman Bill Ketchum died after the 1978 primary, Thomas ran as the relative moderate at the party convention and won the seat. In his first year in Washington he roomed with another young professor just elected to the House, Newt Gingrich. He is bright and testy; he has, wrote Faye Fiore in the Los Angeles Times, ''an intellect so sharp he is considered one of the brightest members of the House and a temper so mercurial some say he may be one of the meanest.'' In Washingtonian's 2002 poll of congressional staffers, Thomas was number one on the "meanest" list and number three on "brainiest." Thomas says, "Other people have other skills, interpersonal maybe, or [they're] backslappers, or whatever they do. My stock in trade has always been knowledge." Some of that may have come from being beaten again and again by Democrats on elections issues. On the House Administration Committee he was the Republicans' point man on the challenge to Indiana's 8th District result in 1985, in which the Democrats voted in their man though the state authorities said the Republican had won--"rape," said Thomas, who added that if Republicans ever got a majority, "We will not be civilized. We will not assume it's business as usual. We will not go back to playing the lackey." He was also attacked by conservatives for being too moderate, and in December 1992 Gingrich and others ran Paul Gillmor of Ohio against him for ranking-member on House Administration; Thomas won by only 12 votes. "That particular event changed his life. It taught him, in a very serious way, that leadership in the House is a team sport," said Gingrich later.

Now things are different. After Republicans won the majority in 1994, Thomas received two tough assignments from Gingrich. As chairman of House Administration, Thomas managed the Republicans' bills reducing the House budget by $50 million, reducing committee staffs by one-third, providing an independent audit of the House and applying to Congress the laws it applies to others. He opposed Democratic campaign finance measures and proposed his own.

On Ways and Means, and as chairman of its Health Subcommittee, Thomas has been the majority Republicans' lead man on Medicare. He studied the issue intensively, rising at 4:00 a.m. to crack the books, and reflected on the situation of his parents (his mother was killed and his father gravely injured in a Kern County car crash). Thomas played a lead role in the Medicare changes and spending cuts--including steps to give senior citizens additional private-insurance options--that were enacted as part of the Clinton-Republican Congress budget agreement of May 1997. Thomas was co-chairman, with Senator John Breaux, of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare set up under the 1997 law. In June 2000 and again in 2002 he pushed to passage bills to provide a stand-alone prescription drug benefit for seniors; this allowed Republican House members to say they had passed a bill while the Senate Democrats hadn't. In January 2003, Thomas responded skeptically to George W. Bush's words on prescription drugs in his State of the Union address.

Throughout 2000 Thomas was running, quietly, for Ways and Means chairman. Chairman Bill Archer, limited to six years by Republicans' term limits, was retiring from Congress. The next committee Republican in seniority was Philip Crane, who had not been nearly as productive legislatively; in March 2000 Crane admitted he had a problem with alcohol, and spent some weeks in treatment. But in June Thomas was hit with a Bakersfield Californian story charging that he had an "intensely personal relationship" with health care lobbyist Deborah Steelman; Thomas denied any professional impropriety, and the story had relatively little impact. His greater problem was his temper. He takes pride in his knowledge, and has shown contempt for those with less. Even his hobbies are unsociable: he likes to disassemble and reassemble old cars and take apart computers. Thomas recognized the problem and assured Republican leaders that he would contain his temper. Crane had backing from some economic and religious conservatives, but Thomas got the backing of Speaker Dennis Hastert, even though both he and Crane are from Illinois. Thomas was the choice of the Republican Steering Committee, a choice ratified by the Republican Conference.

As chairman, Thomas moved first on taxes. Noting the signs that the economy was weakening and taking note of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony favoring a tax cut, he decided in late January 2001 to advance the income tax cut in George W. Bush's $1.6 trillion package. It passed in committee in February and was passed by the House, with a few Democratic votes, in early March. In the next month, Thomas gained bipartisan support, although the cut was scaled down by the Senate. Immediately after the September 11 attacks, Thomas began talking about a cut in capital gains tax to stimulate the economy. In October he put together a $100 billion stimulus package that passed the House in October 216-214. In November and December Thomas denounced Tom Daschle and Trent Lott when they insisted that Thomas's negotiating guidelines would violate Senate rules; the package did not pass the Senate until March 2002. In June 2002, after the World Trade Organization declared the Extraterritorial Income Exclusion an illegal export subsidy, Thomas started working on a bill to replace it with a tax credit for multinational corporations and other changes in the tax code, including higher taxes on U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations. In October, under pressure from the House Republican leadership to do something to aid investors, he brought forward two tax bills advanced by other members, one by Zoe Lofgren to increase the deduction for stock market losses from $3,000 to $8,250 and one by Rob Portman and Ben Cardin raising the contribution cap and the age for withdrawals on 401(k) and IRA plans; the Portman-Cardin measure passed the committee on party-line votes but did not come to the floor.

While Thomas was working on the 2001 economic stimulus package, he was also working to renew trade promotion authority, which had lapsed in 1994. He was criticized for not negotiating with Democrats Charles Rangel and Sander Levin, the ranking members on the committee and its Trade Subcommittee, who wanted to require labor and environmental provisions in trade agreements. Instead he negotiated with junior committee Democrats Bill Jefferson and John Tanner. The bill was passed by a 26-13 vote in committee in October. During the next two months, he struggled to get the Democratic votes necessary for passage even while trying to hold Republicans together on the stimulus package; he got some Democratic votes by supporting more Trade Adjustment Assistance health care spending. Trade promotion authority passed the House December 6 by a 215-214 as Speaker Dennis Hastert kept the roll call on past the usual time limit so that Thomas and Tom DeLay could round up a majority. In all, 23 Republicans voted against, 21 Democrats for: a very small number from a party that from the 1830s through the 1970s had free trade as one of its major causes. In May 2002 the Senate passed a trade package including trade promotion authority, approval of an Andean trade agreement and Trade Adjustment Assistance; the House had passed separate bills on each; the Senate bill also included the Dayton-Craig amendment barring any trade agreements that repealed trade retaliation laws. Thomas again scuffled with the Senate over the rules for the conference committee and pressed for a rule for consideration in the House which many opposed as overly constricting. The leadership pulled the rule from the floor June 20 for lack of votes; it was approved June 26 by 215-214. The conference committee was settled in a late night meeting between Thomas and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus; the Senate got $12 billion in Trade Adjustment Assistance and health care provisions opposed by Thomas, the House got rid of Dayton-Craig. The conference report passed the House 215-212 on July 26 and the Senate 64-34 on August 1.

Thomas was active on other issues. He has not been as active on welfare as on taxes and trade, but he did lead debate as the House passed a reauthorization of the 1996 welfare law in May 2002; the Senate did not act on the issue. In 2002 he got the staff of the Joint Economic Committee to prepare an economic model for estimating the effect of tax cuts and increases on the economy; such dynamic scoring has long been a goal of conservatives, who argue that tax cuts tend to stimulate the economy and that current scoring inevitably overstates their cost.

Through all this furious activity Thomas depended largely on Republican support and had little contact with Ways and Means ranking Democrat Charles Rangel. The narrow margins by which Thomas's tax and trade measures passed led many to say that his combative style and strong partisanship nearly cost Republicans these major victories. But on such complex issues it is always possible for the House to pass no bill at all: opposition can aggregate and support splinter. Thomas's proven prowess at building majorities in committee and the House floor, no matter how narrow they sometimes are, is impressive. When Thomas expressed doubts about George W. Bush's proposals for tax cuts and Medicare changes in January 2003, White House strategists and House Republican leaders saw no alternative to letting him take the lead on those issues. His substantive knowledge of the issues and his political skills at accumulating support left them no choice.

Thomas has been reelected easily every two years in his heavily Republican district. In the 1990s he was California House Republicans' point man on redistricting issues. After the November 1998 election, when it became clear that Democrats would control redistricting, Thomas concocted a ballot proposition in 1999 that would turn redistricting over to the California Supreme Court (most of whose justices were appointed by Republicans) and also cut legislators' salaries. The House Republicans' campaign committee, fearful that it could lose eight seats in redistricting, put up $1.3 million to get it on the ballot. But in December 1999 the state Supreme Court ruled it was invalid because it included two subjects. Thomas then split the proposal into two separate initiatives, but in March 2000 the campaign committee declined to put up any more money to get it on the ballot. In 2001 NRCC chairman Tom Davis, acting with the approval of White House political strategist Karl Rove, and David Dreier met directly with California Democratic redistricting consultant Michael Berman and made a deal: Berman would draw a plan with safe seats for all but one of California's Republican incumbents and would make the state's one new seat safely Republican in return for Republican support in the legislature for the plan, which would also provide safe seats for 33 California Democrats. Thomas was the lone member of the delegation who argued against the deal: he feared it would put most of the state's Latinos in Democratic districts, where Republicans would have no incentives to win them over, and he preferred to take his chances on a court challenge to a Democratic plan. But his advice wasn't followed.

Recent News Coverage
Search the CongressDaily, Hotline, House Race Hotline, National Journal and Technology Daily archives using the form below:

DC Office
2208 RHOB 20515, 202-225-2915; Fax: 202-225-8798; Web site: www.house.gov/billthomas

State Offices
Bakersfield, 661-327-3611; San Luis Obispo, 805-549-0390.

Committees

• Ways & Means (Chmn. of 24 R).
• Joint Committee on Taxation (Chmn. of 5 Reps.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	10	27	0	0	34	100	52	100	80	81	75
2001	15	--	0	7	--	--	57	100	68	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	35%	--	65%		36%	--	61%
Social	52%	--	47%		52%	--	48%
Foreign	14%	--	85%		34%	--	65%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots N  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Bill Thomas (R)	120,473	73%	$1,591,853
	Jaime Corvera (D)	38,988	24%	$10,426
	Other	4,824	3%
2002 primary	Bill Thomas (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Bill Thomas (R)	142,539	72%	$1,529,664
	Pedro Martinez Jr. (D)	49,318	25%
	James Manion (LIB)	7,243	4%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (79%); 1996 (66%); 1994 (68%); 1992 (65%); 1990 (60%); 1988 (71%); 1986 (73%); 1984 (71%); 1982 (68%); 1980 (71%); 1978 (59%)

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	141,156	64%
	Gore (D)	73,338	33%
	Other	5,043	2%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Twenty-Second District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +16
• District Size: 10,454 square miles
• Population in 2000: 639,088; 82.5% urban; 17.5% rural
• Median Household Income: $41,801; 13.7% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 23.1% blue collar; 57.8% white collar; 19.1% gray collar; 14.8% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 66.8% White, 5.6% Black, 2.9% Asian, 0.9% Amer. Indian, 0.1% Hawaiian, 2.5% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 21.0% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 10.7% German, 8.1% Irish, 7.8% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.