Rep. Mike Thompson (D) Elected 1998, 4th term
Born:	Jan. 24, 1951, St. Helena
Home:	St. Helena
Education:	CA St. U., B. A. 1982, M. A. 1996.
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Janet)
Elected  Office:	CA Senate, 1990-98.
Military Career:	Army, 1969-73 (Vietnam).
Professional Career:	Supervisor, Beringer Winery; CA Assembly fellow, 1982-83; Chief of Staff, CA Assemblyman Lou Papan, 1984-87; Chief of Staff, CA Assemblywoman Jacqueline Speier, 1987-90.
DC Office	231 CHOB20515, 202-225-3311; Fax: 202-225-4335; Web site: mikethompson.house.gov
State Offices	Eureka, 707-269-9595; Fort Bragg, 707-962-0933; Napa, 707-226-9898; Yolo, 530-662-5272.
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The North Coast of California is unlike any other place in America. It is the only part of the Lower 48 states first settled by Russians, who built Fort Ross in 1812; they sold it in 1841 to a Swiss named John Augustus Sutter, whose discovery of gold near Sacramento started the Gold Rush eight years later. It is the only part of the world with large numbers of redwood trees, shooting up in the moist and drizzly air hundreds of feet toward the sky. It is wet country, and for years it has been one of America's prime lumbering areas: Eureka and smaller lumber towns are filled with filigreed Victorian houses and old lumber mills, saloons and waterfront hotels. It has moved on to other crops: in sunny valleys sealed off from the Coast Range, some of the nation's premium wine grapes grow on ridges, and Mendocino County has been known since the late 1960s for its premier marijuana fields. Thirty years ago, there were only 20 wineries in Napa Valley. Today, there are several hundred, with more just west of the ridges in Sonoma County; wineries were a favorite investment for Silicon Valley millionaires. Some of the land here has been planted in olive trees, and local olive production has grown to more than $100 million annually. These valleys were some of California's earliest literary haunts: Robert Louis Stevenson took his honeymoon near Calistoga in Napa, and Jack London owned a giant house in Sonoma that mysteriously burned down in 1913.

The 1st Congressional District of California consists of most of the North Coast from Mendocino County on north and Napa County and the eastern edge of Sonoma County--Healdsburg and the Alexander Valley and part of Sonoma Valley--plus part of the Yolo County flatlands to the east, including the University of California at Davis and industrial West Sacramento. The North Coast lumbering area from Mendocino on north, once filled with rough-hewn working men, was historically Democratic country; but their business became hostage to concern about the northern spotted owl, and the area backlashed toward the Republicans on environmental issues. As the timber industry waned, veterans of the counterculture settled in Mendocino County and along the coast, and the area became Democratic again. Inland, the wine-growing country around Healdsburg and in Napa County was Republican in the 1970s, but now partakes of the San Francisco Bay area's liberal consensus. The 2001 redistricting removed Fairfield and Travis Air Force Base from the district and added Davis and gritty West Sacramento, both heavily Democratic. This district changed partisan hands four times during the 1990s, thanks largely to splits among Democrats. But it is heavily Democratic now.

The congressman from the 1st District is Mike Thompson, a Democrat first elected in 1998. Thompson grew up in the Napa Valley town of St. Helena, dropped out of high school, served in the Army in Vietnam and earned a Purple Heart. Later, he got a bachelor and master's degree from what has become California State University-Chico, owned a vineyard and worked as a maintenance supervisor for Beringer, a big winery in the valley. In 1982 he was chosen an Assembly Fellow, and from 1984-90 was chief of staff to two Bay Area Assembly members. In 1990, he was elected to the first of two terms in the state Senate, where he chaired the Budget Committee.

In 1998, facing California's legislative term limits, Thompson decided to run for the House seat held, precariously, by Republican Frank Riggs, who had been elected in 1990, 1994 and 1996. Thompson looked like a serious challenger who could unite Democrats, and in January 1998 Riggs announced he was running for Barbara Boxer's Senate seat; with no name identification beyond the district and little money, he withdrew in April. Thompson faced weak opposition and won support from almost every interest group that matters in the 1st: unions, medical providers, vintners, oil and timber interests, environmental restriction advocates, law enforcement groups, fishermen. His issue stands--opposition to oil drilling off the California coast, support of abortion rights and the death penalty--were broadly popular. He won the June primary easily, 78%-22%, and won the general by 62%-33%.

In the House, Thompson has voted and styled himself as a moderate Democrat. He joined both the New Democrats and the Blue Dogs, and pledged bipartisanship. With Republican George Radanovich, he started the House Wine Caucus. On behalf of the wine industry, he lost a battle with conservative senators and beer and alcohol wholesalers on a bill giving states new power to restrict sales over the Internet. He joined Jerry Lewis on a proposal to create a $1 billion pool to help pay for making buildings more resistant to earthquakes. Mindful of local businesses, he voted to override Bill Clinton's veto of the estate tax repeal. Before deciding to vote for normal trade relations with China, he got the Clinton White House to resolve a nine-year battle over a local zip code. But he voted against trade promotion authority. In June 2001, the House passed his bill to finance salmon habitat restoration projects. After the massive fish kill caused by flooding of the Klamath River in late 2002, he proposed emergency aid to local communities and a long-term water conservation program.

Thompson has been a close ally of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and has been seen as a rising star among House Democrats. But his ambitions to head the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee after the 2002 election was frustrated after his trip, with David Bonior and Jim McDermott, to Baghdad in September 2002, on which Bonior criticized George W. Bush and opposed the use of force in Iraq and McDermott suggested that Saddam Hussein was more credible than Bush. Thompson, who did not appear on television, said that he went to get first-hand information on the consequences of war and to urge Iraq to comply with demands for inspections. But polls suggested that Bonior's and McDermott's comments moved many voters away from the Democratic party, and they also angered many Democrats who supported Bush's stand against Saddam Hussein. In an opinion article in the Washington Post, Thompson wrote, "I never expected conservative partisans to try to use my State Department-licensed trip to fuel their own propaganda machine." He won reelection easily, but it was obvious that making Thompson chairman of House Democrats' campaign committee would give Republican candidates in every close race in the country a talking point, and no more was heard about his candidacy for that position.

Thompson got a consolation prize, a seat on the Budget Committee. He retreated deliberately to obscurity in the House, working chiefly on district issues, including proposals to resolve land disputes with area Indian tribes and to designate new wilderness areas in the Coast Range, which drew broad local support. After the 2004 election, he was again mentioned as a possible DCCC chairman, but many Democrats were still wary, and he was put in charge of the DCCC's incumbent protection program. He also won a seat on the Ways and Means Committee. He has been reelected without difficulty.

Committees

• Ways & Means (15th of 17 D): Health; Select Revenue Measures.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	90	75	88	91	90	11	48	13	6	7	--
2003	90	--	100	90	--	31	50	24	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	66%	--	32%		62%	--	38%
Social	73%	--	26%		86%	--	12%
Foreign	75%	--	21%		83%	--	16%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Mike Thompson (D)	189,366	67%	$1,272,329
	Lawrence Wiesner (R)	79,970	28%	$28,993
	Pamela Elizondo (Green)	13,635	5%
2004 primary	Mike Thompson (D)	unopposed
2002 general	Mike Thompson (D)	118,669	64%	$1,037,781
	Lawrence Wiesner (R)	60,013	32%	$85,419
	Kevin Bastian (Lib)	6,534	4%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (65%); 1998 (62%)

2004 Presidential Vote Kerry (D) 173,926 (60%) Bush (R) 111,754 (38%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 131,376 (52%) Bush (R) 98,506 (39%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the First 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: D +10
• District Size: 12,195 square miles
• Population in 2000: 639,087; 76.0% urban; 24.0% rural
• Median Household Income: $38,918; 15.3% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 20.9% blue collar; 58.3% white collar; 20.8% gray collar; 13.4% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 71.2% White, 1.3% Black, 3.9% Asian, 2.4% Amer. Indian, 0.2% Hawaiian, 2.9% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 17.9% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 11.3% German, 9.0% Irish, 8.9% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.