Rep. David Dreier (R) Elected 1980, 13th term
Born:	July 5, 1952, Kansas City, MO
Home:	San Dimas
Education:	Claremont McKenna Col., B.A. 1975, Claremont Grad. Schl., M.A. 1976
Religion:	Christian Scientist
Marital Status:	single
Professional Career:	Corp. Relations Dir., Claremont McKenna Col., 1976-78; Mktg. Dir., Industrial Hydrocarbons, 1978-80; V.P., Dreier Development Co., 1985-present.
DC Office	233 CHOB20515, 202-225-2305; Fax: 202-225-7018; Web site: dreier.house.gov
State Offices	Glendora, 626-852-2626.
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It was the great route west to California in the first half of the 20th century: Passengers on the Santa Fe railroad's Super Chief or motorists on U.S. 66, after hours and days in barren desert, descended through the Cajon Pass into the Los Angeles Basin, then moved in a stately procession beneath the 10,000-foot snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains, marveling at orange groves and exotic plants. The railroad and highway ran through a line of towns built by Midwestern Protestants as independent communities and now mostly high-income suburbs with their own civic institutions: Claremont, home of the academically renowned Claremont Colleges; La Verne and Glendora and San Dimas with its rodeo and horse trails; Monrovia and Arcadia, site of the Santa Anita race track and the Los Angeles County Arboretum; and, a few miles from the tracks, luxurious San Marino, home of the Huntington Library, one of the world's great museums and scholarly institutions. Today, the traveler arriving in Los Angeles can see the same sights, if the air is clear, much more quickly as the jet glides down the flight path to LAX.

The 26th Congressional District of California covers this territory in the San Gabriel Valley. It includes, east of Claremont, the newer San Bernardino cities of Upland, Montclair and Rancho Cucamonga, home of the minor league baseball team the Quakes who play at a stadium called the Epicenter. It also includes the new suburb of Walnut to the south and, far to the west, connected by the San Gabriel Mountains, the mountain-enclosed suburb of La Canada-Flintridge, home of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Historically, the towns running east from Los Angeles have been heavily Republican. But many of these towns now have large Hispanic and Asian populations--Arcadia, San Dimas and Walnut have sizable Chinese populations--and have become Democratic. The communities in the 26th District, however, have remained pretty heavily Republican, even San Marino, whose population was 49% Asian in 2000. George W. Bush won 55% of the vote here in 2004.

The congressman from the 26th District is David Dreier, a Republican first elected in 1980 and chairman of the House Rules Committee. Dreier grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, then spent a decade mostly on the Claremont McKenna campus, as a student and administrator, before he was elected to Congress in 1980. Dreier first ran in 1978, at 25, and lost to Democratic incumbent Jim Lloyd. He beat Lloyd in 1980 and in 1982 beat fellow Republican Wayne Grisham after they were redistricted together. At that point, Dreier evidently decided never to be pressed for funds again; he raised plenty and spent little, which takes more self-discipline than one might think. After the 2002 campaign he had $2.5 million cash on hand, the highest in the House.

Dreier personifies the intellectually rigorous conservatism and free market economics that has thrived at Claremont and maintains a California cheerfulness and good humor characteristic of California--even after serving for 14 years in the minority, chiefly on the Rules Committee, where Republicans were outnumbered 9-4 and lost almost every vote. Now Dreier is on the long end of the 9-4 split, and the complaints are coming from the Democrats.

Rules chairmen, once upon a time independent operators, have become an operating part of the House leadership since Democrats instituted election of committee chairmen in 1974 and Republicans did so in 1994. Rules sets the terms for debate and limits the amendments that can be offered--an essential procedural function in a legislature with 435 members, and one which can be and often is used to shape substantive outcome. The 9-4 ratio and the careful selection of members guarantee the chairman and leadership control over committee votes, but over time it must be tempered by a sense of fairness: An outraged minority party can store up grievances and wait for a chance to overturn a rule on the floor. In 1999 and 2000, Dreier's Rules Committee produced 229 rules, and not one was defeated on the floor; in 2003 and 2004, the committee produced 169 rules, and again not one was defeated on the floor. He also led a bipartisan process that reduced the number of standing House rules from 51 to 28, and expanded the Subcommittee on Technology and the House. After September 11, he opposed conducting congressional sessions electronically and helped establish the Select Committee on Homeland Security for the 108th Congress. In 2003 he pushed through rules changes to allow the speaker to adjust, in case of a catastrophic attack, the number of House members required for a quorum. In April 2004 he led the House in passing a law setting a 45-day limit for special elections to fill vacancies if more than 100 seats are declared vacant by the speaker. In September 2004 he circulated a draft rule allowing the speaker in case of catastrophe to hold extended quorum calls and then declare vacancies and set an emergency quorum; Democrats criticized this for not allowing minority party input, and scholars questioned its constitutionality. But the House passed the emergency quorum rule on January 4.

Dreier also has a policy agenda: free trade, high-tech and San Gabriel Valley water. He was one of the leading advocates of normal trade relations with China, and led the fight for many months when it seemed short of votes. Days before the vote, to counter complaints about China's suppression of religious freedom, he circulated a carefully worded letter from Billy Graham seeming to favor open trade ties; normal trade relations with China passed 237-197 in May 2000. In 2001 and 2002 he worked to pass trade promotion authority, which had lapsed in 1994. On high-tech, he was one of the chief sponsors, with the Silicon Valley's Zoe Lofgren, of increasing the number of H1-B visas. He has pushed for changing the Export Administration Act by changing the standard that determines whether high-performance computers can be exported; he argues that the MTOPS standard is obsolete. Dreier has threatened to use his chairmanship to strip from bills measures he opposes, such as an Internet gambling ban (he is against all Internet regulation) and the Northeast Dairy Compact. In March 2003 he and Anna Eshoo sponsored a bill to provide transparency and information about corporations' issuance of stock options but which did not require expensing of options. In response to France's opposition to the United States on Iraq, Dreier in March 2003 suggested increasing the number of immigration slots to citizens of France, so that more of its most talented citizens can come to the United States.

Dreier has taken a role in Republican party politics. He serves on the Republican Steering Committee and was parliamentarian at the 2000 Republican National Convention, in which capacity he produced the rationale for the three-day "rolling roll call." He supported George W. Bush early in the 2000 race for president; they have been acquainted since Dreier sat next to Bush at a training school for Republican congressional candidates in 1978. That year neither won; 22 years later they were elected and became Rules Committee chairman and President. Dreier took the lead for the Republican delegation on redistricting in 2001, and played a part in reaching agreement with Democratic redistricter Michael Berman under which 19 of the 20 Republican incumbents got safe districts in return for Republican support in the California legislature. That helped Dreier, whose district was becoming more Hispanic and more Democratic; he was reelected by 57%-40% in 2000, his closest margin since 1980. In August 2003 he supported Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor in the recall election and appeared with him at almost every campaign rally. In the six weeks between Schwarzenegger's election October 7 and his inauguration, Dreier acted as head of his 65-member transition team in Sacramento, missing House votes. In November 2003 he declined to run against Senator Barbara Boxer.

Election year 2004 seemed likely to be routine for Dreier. He was opposed by a conservative in the March primary who attacked him on trade and illegal immigration; Dreier won 84%-16%. He went to Texas to campaign for Rules member Pete Sessions in his campaign against ranking Rules Democrat Martin Frost; they had been put in the same district by Tom DeLay's redistricting plan. But in August 2004 Los Angeles radio talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, who had been inveighing against illegal immigration, started a Fire Dreier campaign. In September they held a rally outside Dreier's office with his Democratic opponent, who in all spent only $26,000. Dreier protested, "I take a back seat to no one on the issue of illegal immigration, yet I'm being painted as a coyote," and he sponsored a bill to provide 700 new border guards and a fraudproof Social Security card. Dreier spent $1.3 million and won by the reduced margin of 54%-43%, the first time since 1980 he finished with under 57%. He ran slightly behind George W. Bush, who carried the district 55%-44%.

In January 2005 Speaker Dennis Hastert issued Dreier a waiver to serve two more years as Rules Chairman. Dreier pushed through new House rules, strongly attacked by Democrats, which changed ethics committee procedures to make it easier to create investigative subcommittees and to allow members to contest letters of admonishment. On the first day of the session Dreier filed a bill to increase penalties on employers of illegal immigrants and provide a plastic Social Security card with a picture; it was supported by T.J. Bonner, president of the Border Patrol employees' union and co-sponsored by Democrat Silvestre Reyes, the former head of the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas. Dreier opposed Arnold Schwarzenegger's February proposal to redistrict all the state's legislative districts; Dreier argued that the congressional district boundary lines should stay in place until after the 2010 Census. Critics pointed out that his district is mostly surrounded by Democratic districts, and a neutral redrawing of the lines could give him a significantly more Democratic district.

Committees

• Chairman, Committee on Rules
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• Rules (Chmn. of 9 R): Legislative & Budget Process; Rules & Organization of the House.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	5	10	0	0	100	52	100	88	70	66	--
2003	5	--	0	0	--	64	100	88	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	21%	--	75%		17%	--	80%
Social	42%	--	58%		42%	--	57%
Foreign	38%	--	62%		45%	--	54%
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 Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	David Dreier (R)	134,596	54%	$1,338,730
	Cynthia Matthews (D)	107,522	43%	$25,535
	Randall Weissbuch (Lib)	9,089	4%
2004 primary	David Dreier (R)	53,368	84%
	S. Sonny Sardo (R)	10,502	16%
2002 general	David Dreier (R)	95,360	64%	$637,925
	Marjorie Mikels (D)	50,081	33%	$64,363
	Other	4,089	3%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (57%); 1998 (58%); 1996 (61%); 1994 (67%); 1992 (58%); 1990 (64%); 1988 (69%); 1986 (72%); 1984 (71%); 1982 (65%); 1980 (52%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 148,352 (55%) Kerry (D) 117,532 (44%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 127,468 (53%) Gore (D) 105,023 (44%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Twenty-Sixth 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 + 4
• District Size: 755 square miles
• Population in 2000: 639,088; 98.8% urban; 1.2% rural
• Median Household Income: $58,968; 8.4% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 17.3% blue collar; 70.7% white collar; 12.0% gray collar; 10.5% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 52.7% White, 4.4% Black, 15.2% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.1% Hawaiian, 2.6% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 24.4% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 9.6% German, 7.5% English, 6.9% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.