Richard Mountjoy

Dick Mountjoy

Richard "Dick" Mountjoy (born January 13, 1932 in Monrovia , California ; † May 18, 2015 ibid) was an American Republican Party politician who was a member of the California State Assembly between 1978 and 1995 and then from 1995 to 2000 a member of the Senate of California was. In the election to the United States Senate on November 7, 2006 , he ran against incumbent US Senator Dianne Feinstein , but suffered a significant defeat.

Life

Local politician and member of the California State Assembly

Mountjoy served in the US Navy during the Korean War and later owned a construction company in his native city. He began his political career in local politics when he was elected a member of the Monrovia City Council in 1968. At the same time he acted as mayor of the city from 1968 to 1976 .

In 1978, Mountjoy was first elected as a Republican Party candidate to the State Assembly, the lower house of the California State Legislature. In his first election, he and other candidates from his party benefited from their legislative initiative against higher taxes (Proposition 13) . A staunch Conservative as a member of the State Assembly, he was known for his support for gun owners , his opposition to abortion and his strong stand against illegal immigration.

He was one of the key supporters of Proposition 187 , a 1993 bill to restrict illegal immigration by cutting financial support for school and medical aid for residents who entered illegally. While the bill won electorate approval, it was later rejected as unconstitutional by a US federal court .

Member of the California State Senate and unsuccessful candidacy for the US Senate

In a by-election in 1995, Mountjoy was elected a member of the California Senate and was a member until 2000. After his election as a member of the Senate, he refused to waive his mandate in the State Assembly, however, in order to prevent the Democrat Willie Brown from retaining his long-standing influential office as Speaker of Parliament . In bitter, contentious debates, the Democrats finally excluded him as a member of the State Assembly by majority vote, so that Brown could be re-elected spokesman for the State Assembly. At the time, Mountjoy denounced his removal as "the most corrupt power game in the history of the state of California".

Mountjoy ran for the Republican Party on November 7, 2006 in the US Senate election against longtime US Senator Dianne Feinstein of the Democratic Party.

In his campaign speeches, he said he believed in "God, land and family, in order" and vowed to "protect our nation from terrorist threats, illegal immigrant invasions and excessive government spending." However, he suffered a severe electoral defeat against Dianne Feinstein with a gap of 24 percentage points: While he received 2,817,841 votes (35 percent), Feinstein received 4,757,569 votes (59 percent).

His marriage to Earline Mountjoy, who died in 2009, resulted in his son Dennis Mountjoy , who was also a member of the California State Assembly between 2000 and 2006.

Web links

• Richard Mountjoy, GOP legislator and key Prop. 187 backer, dies at 83 . In: Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2015