Rep. Ed Royce (R) Elected 1992, 6th term
Born:	Oct. 12, 1951, Los Angeles
Home:	Fullerton
Education:	CA State Fullerton, B.A. 1977
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Marie)
Elected  Office:	CA Senate, 1982-92.
Professional Career:	Tax Mgr., 1979-82.
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Orange County is the fifth most populous county in the United States, having grown steadily from 130,000 in 1940 to 703,000 in 1960, 1.9 million in 1980, and 2.8 million in 2000. It is now a community with the patina of maturity--in some places an aging community, fraying around the edges. The county can no longer double its population, as it did in the 1950s and 1960s, when Disneyland sprung up on empty land and mile-square grids of orange groves and bean fields were transformed into one suburban subdivision, shopping center or office tower after another. A distinctive civilization was implanted here: mostly white and middle-class, confident of its traditional values and its market capitalism, proud of American principles and American military might. Orange County has been transformed in the years since by its openness to economic and ethnic change. Its economy was constantly reshaped by the inevitable upheavals of capitalism. There is no single industry here, not even defense, that is totally responsible for the prosperity of Orange County. It was hit hard by the defense cutbacks and recession of the early 1990s but it bounced back, pitched forward by new startups and small entrepreneurial successes not anticipated by government or corporate planners.

Always Republican, Orange County became a symbol of conservatism first in California and then nationally. In 1988 its 317,000-vote plurality for George H. W. Bush was the largest of any county in the country. Orange County's conservatism reflected a belief in technological progress and traditional values as unyielding as the mile-square grid the county's founders imposed on most of its land, a belief in the market economies that had produced such local wonders as Disneyland and the area's advanced military technologies. But problems developed. In 1994, the county government declared bankruptcy because of the county treasurer's sloppy investment and bookkeeping practices; shortly afterwards, the Disney company shelved plans for a $2 billion resort development that would have doubled the size of Disneyland. Orange County has rebounded, and so has Disney, which in 2001 opened its California Adventure amusement park in the neighboring 47th District. Orange County, like the rest of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, has trended toward the Democrats. In 2000 it still voted Republican, but gave George W. Bush only a 149,000-vote margin.

The 40th Congressional District consists of acreage that was mostly farmland when Disneyland was being laid out. At the geographic center is Fullerton, with its own branch of Cal State University; to the southwest are Buena Park, home of Knott's Berry Farm, the earliest theme park (1940), plus Cypress, Los Alamitos, La Palma, Stanton, and parts of Garden Grove and Westminster. Southeast of Fullerton the district includes most of Placentia, a part of eastern Anaheim and all of Villa Park and Orange, the district's largest city. Overall the 40th District is 30% Hispanic, 16% Asian (primarily Korean, Vietnamese and Filipino) and 2% black--the all-white Orange County stereotype is out of date.

The congressman from the 40th District is Ed Royce, whose life almost precisely covers the area's growth. Like Orange County, he has long been conservative. He was in the Young Americans for Freedom at Cal State Fullerton; he worked several years as a tax and capital projects manager for a cement company. In 1982, a bunch of conservative legislators known as "the Cave Men'' took him to a Black Angus restaurant--no avocado and sprout sandwiches for them--and persuaded him to run for the state Senate. He won at age 31. When the legislature refused to pass his bill allowing crime victims to object to trial delays, giving grand juries more power and ending shopping for juries, he put it on the ballot as an initiative and it passed by a wide margin.

In 1992 Royce ran for the House. With the blessing of Orange County Republican leaders, he was unopposed in the crucial primary and easily won the general. In the House, Royce has a conservative voting record, though a bit less so on foreign issues. He co-sponsored the nationwide AMBER alert plan to recover abducted children, approved by the House in March 2003. He co-chairs the House "porkbusters," risking others' wrath by opposing appropriations bills with dubious projects. He advocated a breakup of the Energy Department and the abolition of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which guarantees foreign investments, as a form of corporate welfare. With John McCain, he estimated that spending bills following the September 11 attacks had $14 billion in pork. His proposal to ensure that nonprofit religious organizations have access to all necessary financial resources was a forerunner of George W. Bush's faith-based initiative.

As chairman of the International Relations Subcommittee on Africa and an ardent free-trader, Royce backed an Africa free trade bill with ranking Ways and Means Democrat Charles Rangel; it came at a time when, after three decades of economic stagnation and dictatorship, several African countries were moving toward market economics and democracy. Despite Rangel's sponsorship, the issue divided the Black Caucus; Jesse Jackson Jr. called for forgiving of African nations' foreign debts instead. But Royce helped steer the bill to enactment in 2000. In 2002, when Congress passed trade promotion authority, it revised the earlier bill to raise the cap on duty-free apparel imports from Africa. Although he had never set foot in Africa before he became chairman, he was widely praised for learning about the continent and was the only Republican on Bill Clinton's 1998 visit to Africa. Royce also has a strong interest in Asia; he co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans and urges stronger strategic and trade relationships between the United States and India. In December 2001 George W. Bush signed his bill establishing Radio Free Afghanistan as a tool in the fight against terrorism. In the juggling of subcommittee chairmanships after the 2002 election, Royce expressed interest in taking the Middle East panel; but it went to the more senior Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Royce has been reelected by wide margins. After redistricting, half of the district was new to him in 2002, but he still won reelection with 68%.

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DC Office
2202 RHOB 20515, 202-225-4111; Fax: 202-226-0335; Web site: www.house.gov/royce

State Offices
Fullerton, 714-992-8081.

Committees

• Financial Services (8th of 37 R): Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit.
• International Relations (10th of 26 R): Africa (Chmn.); Asia & the Pacific.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	0	7	0	25	99	88	70	85	100	100	100
2001	5	--	0	0	--	--	81	74	100	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	13%	--	86%		28%	--	69%
Social	0%	--	81%		0%	--	75%
Foreign	41%	--	58%		0%	--	85%
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 Y  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	Ed Royce (R)	92,422	68%	$845,661
	Christina Avalos (D)	40,265	29%	$10,452
	Other	3,955	3%
2002 primary	Ed Royce (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Ed Royce (R)	129,294	63%	$327,284
	Gill G. Kanel (D)	64,938	32%	$24,805
	Other	11,872	6%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (63%); 1996 (63%); 1994 (66%); 1992 (57%)

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	119,443	56%
	Gore (D)	86,460	41%
	Other	5,886	3%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fortieth 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 + 8
• District Size: 102 square miles
• Population in 2000: 639,088; 100.0% urban; 0.0% rural
• Median Household Income: $54,356; 10.2% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 22.1% blue collar; 64.5% white collar; 13.4% gray collar; 10.1% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 49.3% White, 2.2% Black, 15.6% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.4% Hawaiian, 2.4% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 29.6% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 9.3% German, 6.8% English, 6.8% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.