REMEMBERING AND CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF H.L. RICHARDSON OF CALIFORNIA; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 28
(House of Representatives - February 11, 2020)
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[Pages H1019-H1020]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING AND CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF H.L. RICHARDSON OF CALIFORNIA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, lost amidst the tumult of the last
couple of weeks was the quiet passing of an outspoken leader of
California, H.L. ``Bill'' Richardson. H.L., as he was known to his
friends, arrived in the California State Senate with the freshman class
of 1966, part of the Reagan landslide that year.
For every one of the 22 years he served in the Senate, H.L. was a
force to be reckoned with. He served for many years in the Republican
leadership, but he was never ever a political insider. His enormous
influence inside the senate stemmed from the fact that he never joined
that club; he never lost sight of the people who elected him. And he
not only worked tirelessly to serve them inside the capitol, he worked
even harder to organize, inform, and mobilize them outside the capitol.
He founded a multitude of advocacy groups to empower the millions of
Californians who believed in individual liberty and economic freedom.
He started the Free Market Political Action Committee to support free
market principles and the candidates who embraced them, and it became
the inspiration and prototype of groups like the Club for Growth and
Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks today.
In the 1970's, when Jerry Brown first came to power and appointed
radical leftists to the California courts, H.L. founded the Law and
Order Campaign Committee, which became the driving force between the
historic recall of Chief Justice Rose Bird and two of her associates on
the California Supreme Court. That organization went on for many years
to restore common sense to the California courts and criminal justice
system, including pressing the legislature to restore the death penalty
over Jerry Brown's veto.
His passion for the Second Amendment was his most defining cause. He
founded Gun Owners of California to fight the growing movement in
California to disarm law-abiding citizens, and its success not only
beat back Proposition 15, a 1982 initiative to ban handguns in
California, it generated so many new Second Amendment voters in that
election to put George Deukmejian over the top by a tiny margin of
victory over Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in that Governor's race that
year. Gun Owners of California continues its good work to this day, as
does its spin-off, Gun Owners of America.
H.L. had a wicked sense of humor, and it was keenest when bursting
bubbles of political pomposity. One of his half dozen published books,
still required reading in some college classes, is titled, ``What Makes
You Think We Read the Bills?'' His book, ``Confrontational Politics,''
offers a civilized, but no less resolute, conservative response to Saul
Alinsky's ``Rules for Radicals.''
California, once called ``The Golden State,'' is today drawing more
and more attention as a slow-moving train wreck. The radical left has
now dominated the State's institutions for more than 20 years, and
California is showing all of the political, social, and economic
pathologies that accompany leftist governance: failing schools; rising
crime; chronic traffic congestion; skyrocketing costs of housing,
energy, and water; rampant homelessness; oppressive regulations; the
highest effective poverty rate in the Nation; and a population now
fleeing to other States.
Senator H.L. Richardson held back that tide for nearly 30 years. He
was a mighty seawall that protected California from the left, giving
one final generation of Californians the joy of living in the most
prosperous and beautiful State in the Nation.
But, as age took its toll, his influence waned, the left steadily
advanced, and none of us whom he inspired to follow him has been able
to stop it.
On January 13, H.L. Richardson passed away at the age of 92, and with
him passed the golden California of freedom, opportunity, and
prosperity that he fought so hard, so long, and so effectively to
preserve. Perhaps the day will come when California will see a rebirth
of freedom, and on that day, H.L.'s wisdom, courage, and leadership
[[Page H1020]]
will show that generation the way back.
We can hasten that day by remembering and celebrating his life, his
lessons, and his achievements.
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