Curt Pringle Totally Explained

Everything about Curt Pringle totally explained

Curtis L. "Curt" Pringle (born June 27, 1959), is a politician from the U.S. state of California. Pringle, a conservative/libertarian Republican and onetime Speaker of the California State Assembly, is currently Mayor of Anaheim, California and runs his own public relations and lobbying firm.

Early political career

As a young man, Pringle ran, unsuccessfully, three times for a seat on the Garden Grove City Council. In 1986, while working for his parents' drapery business, Pringle ran unopposed for the Orange County Republican Central Committee, which is the controlling organ of the county Republican Party. In 1988, the Republican nominee for Pringle's Assembly district, freshman incumbent Assemblyman Dick Longshore, died the day after the June primary election, and under California law the central committee members were charged with selecting a replacement. They chose Pringle.
Pringle won the election in a mild upset, narrowly defeating Democrat Rick Thierbach. But an election day controversy would plague him for years. On Election Day, the Orange County Republican Party hired uniformed guards to stand near a few polling places in Pringle's district. Latino activists charged that Pringle and/or the party had hired the guards to scare away Latino voters, who were expected to favor Pringle's Democratic opponent. Pringle and the Republican Party were sued, and the case was eventually settled. Pringle, the Orange County Republican Party and two other defendants paid $400,000 to the plaintiffs, five Latino voters and the Orange County Democratic Party.

California State Assembly

Pringle took office as a state assemblyman in December 1988 at the age of 29. In 1990, he was defeated for re-election by Democrat Tom Umberg, but after legislative district lines were drawn between Pringle and Umberg's houses following the 1990 census, Pringle ran again for the Assembly in 1992 and won. Pringle worked his way up the Republican hierarchy, and in 1996, after a protracted power struggle between Republicans and former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, he was elected Speaker of the Assembly. According to Brown, Pringle was the last Speaker to wield broad power in that office, since rule changes immediately after Pringle's tenure transferred much of the Speaker's authority to committee chairmen. Pringle, for example, issued committee assignments to both parties' members, controlled campaign funds, and had broad administrative duties.

A firm of his own

After losing to Phil Angelides in the 1998 race for California State Treasurer, Pringle launched a government affairs, public relations, and entitlement firm, Curt Pringle & Associates, LLC, where he's currently President. His firm's clients have included ARCO, the County of Orange, the City of Newport Beach, Yamaha, and Jack in the Box.
Curt Pringle and Associates has offices in Anaheim and Sacramento.
Pringle was also appointed in 1998 by Governor Pete Wilson to the Orange County Fair Board, where he served for four years. He was also appointed in 2007 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Public Employees Post Employment Benefits Commission and to the California High Speed Rail Authority.

Mayor of Anaheim

In 2002, Pringle re-entered electoral politics with his successful campaign for Mayor of Anaheim, California, the tenth-most populous city in the state. Since taking office in December 2002, Pringle and the Anaheim City Council over which he presides have enacted a number of reforms that The Orange County Register has depicted as "freedom-friendly." According to the Los Angeles Times, "Pringle has built such a strong reputation for his aggressive pro-business approach to governance (creative tax waivers, sweeping zone changes, market incentives to redevelop run-down parts of the city) that other local officials have coined a verb for his philosophy: 'to Pringle-ize.'"
   Although in Anaheim, the mayor is technically just primus inter pares among fellow city council members, Pringle has been an active mayor, governing with majority support on the city council. Pringle has led the effort to transform the area surrounding Angel Stadium and the Honda Center (formerly the Arrowhead Pond) into the Platinum Triangle, which is meant to be Orange County's central business district. He has also been the public face for the city as it has courted the National Football League for a football franchise and fought the Angels baseball club over its recent name change from "Anaheim Angels" to "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim."
   Pringle can also be seen occasionally with mayors of other major California cities when they travel to Sacramento to collectively lobby the Governor and state legislature. He has a good relationship with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, whom he knows from their years together in Sacramento, and he even hosted a fundraiser for Villaraigosa's unsuccessful 2001 bid for L.A. Mayor.
   Pringle is also a member of the Orange County Transportation Authority's board of directors.
   Pringle also serves as a Governor's appointee to the California High-Speed Rail Authority Commission and the Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission.
   In August 2006, the Los Angeles Times's West magazine named Pringle as one of the 100 most powerful people in Southern California. And the OC Metro magazine listed Pringle in their Hot 25 for 2006.
   Pringle faced only nominal opposition for a second term as mayor, after his chief critic on the city council, Harry Sidhu, endorsed him. Pringle raised nearly half a million dollars for his reelection bid, as opposed to his nominal opponent, William Fitzgerald, who raised very little. On November 7, Pringle was re-elected with 79 percent of the vote, the highest percentage of any local candidate in OC who faced opposition in 2006.

Education and teaching career

Pringle received a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in public administration from California State University, Long Beach.
In addition to his political work, Pringle is an adjunct professor at the University of California, Irvine, where he teaches California politics and government.

Personal life

Pringle was born in Emmetsburg, Iowa but moved to California and settled in the Garden Grove area in 1968. For much of his adult life he lived in Garden Grove, California, a city adjacent to Anaheim. He is married to his wife Alexis since 1984, with whom he's two children, Kyle and Katie. His son Kyle was married to Sarah Norling in January 2007.

Electoral history

2006 General Election for Mayor of Anaheim
- Curt Pringle, 41,449 - 79.0%
- William Fitzgerald, 11,004 - 21.0%
2002 General Election for Mayor of Anaheim
- Curt Pringle, 16,146 - 35.9%
- Lucille Kring, 12,142 - 27.0%
- Frank Feldhaus, 9,783 - 21.7%
- Steve Staveley, 6,928 - 15.4%
1998 General Election for State Treasurer
- Phil Angelides (D), 4,164,708 - 52.7%
- Curt Pringle (R), 3,158,624 - 39.9%
- Jon Petersen (L), 183,356 - 2.4%
- Carlos Aguirre (NL), 172,711 - 2.1%
- Jan Tucker (P&F), 146,167 - 1.8%
- Edmon Kaiser (AI), 91,764 - 1.1%
1998 Republican Primary Election for State Treasurer
- Curt Pringle (R), 1,493,608 - 62.2%
- Jan Goldsmith (R), 907,395 - 37.8%
1996 General Election for State Assembly, 68th District
- Curt Pringle (R), 56,493 - 58.7%
- Audrey Gibson (D), 39,754 - 41.3%
1996 Republican Primary Election for State Assembly, 68th District
- Curt Pringle (R), 24,469 - 100.0%
1994 General Election for State Assembly, 68th District
- Curt Pringle (R), 51,977 - 63.3%
- Irv Pickler (D), 30,184 - 36.7%
1994 Republican Primary Election for State Assembly, 68th District
- Curt Pringle (R), 20,848 - 100.0%
1992 General Election for State Assembly, 68th District
- Curt Pringle (R), 61,615 - 57.1%
- Linda Kay Rigney (D), 46,222 - 42.9%
1992 Republican Primary Election for State Assembly, 68th District
- Curt Pringle (R), 17,346 - 60.9%
- Joy Neugebauer (R), 6,313 - 22.1%
- Rhonda McCune (R), 4,840 - 17.0%
1990 General Election for State Assembly, 72nd District
- Tom Umberg (D), 25,247 - 51.9%
- Curt Pringle (R), 23,411 - 48.1%
1988 General Election for State Assembly, 72nd District
- Curt Pringle (R), 34,037 - 50.6%
- Rick Thierbach (D), 33,194 - 49.4%

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