Sam Farr, California Legislator

Biography

California legislator Sam Farr was born July 4, 1941, in San Francisco. He received a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Biology from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, in 1963, and later attended graduate school at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, and law school at the University of Santa Clara. He served for two years as a United States Peace Corps volunteer in Columbia from 1964 to 1966. His first experience in California politics was serving as a budget analyst to the Legislature from 1969 to 1971, then as chief consultant to the Assembly Constitutional Amendments Committee from 1971 to 1975.

Farr first served in elective office as a member of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, from 1975 to 1980. On June 3, 1980, he won the four-way Democratic primary election for the 28th Assembly District (encompassing part of Monterey County and all of Santa Cruz County) with 41.8 percent of the vote; he won the November 4 general election with 53.3 percent and was sworn in as the 28th District Assembly Member on December 1. He did not face a serious primary or general election challenger for the remainder of his Assembly career. His subsequent winning percentages were 71.1 percent (1982), 72.9 percent (1984), 72.1 percent (1986), 70.8 percent (1988), 71.5 percent (1990), and 60.7 percent (1992).

Following the 1991 reapportionment of California's state and federal legislative districts, Farr's district became the 27th Assembly District, but continued to encompass Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties. Comparison of graphs representing the two districts in the 1991 and 1993-1994 editions of Who's Who in the California Legislature indicate that the district may have shifted south somewhat. Voter registration changed somewhat: the 28th A.D. was 54.7 percent Democratic in October 1990, and the 27th A.D. was 50.9 percent Democratic in October 1992. This may account for the ten-point decrease in Farr's election percentage across those years (from 71.5 to 60.7 percent).

In 1993, U.S. Representative Leon Panetta (D-17) was appointed Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget by President Clinton, and subsequently resigned his seat in Congress. A special election was held April 13 to fill the 17th Congressional District seat; Farr came in first in the all-party primary, receiving 25.8 percent of the vote against more than two dozen other candidates. A runoff election was held between the top vote-getters of each party on June 8; Farr won with 52.3 percent and subsequently resigned his Assembly seat on June 15 to begin his service in the House of Representatives. On June 10, to commemorate his departure, the State Assembly unanimously passed House Resolution 23, commending Farr "for his outstanding record of dedicated service to his constituents and to all of the people of California, and convey to him their best wishes for success in his work in Washington."

State Assembly, 1980-1993

From the guide to the Sam Farr Papers, 1980-1994, (California State Archives)