Tom Bates, California Legislator

Biography

Tom Bates was a Democratic California State Assembly Member from 1977-1996. From 1977-1992, Bates represented Assembly District 12. The district encompassed the northernmost portion of Alameda County and a slice of Contra Costa County. AD 12 included the cities of Albany, Berkeley, Concord, El Cerrito, Piedmont, and Pleasant Hill. Following redistricting in 1992, Tom Bates's district became Assembly District 14 and Bates now represented the cities of Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Emeryville, San Pablo, and Tara Hill as well as parts of Richmond, Oakland, El Sobrante, and Kensington. Bates represented AD 14 until 1996 (Who's Who in the California Legislature).

Tom Bates was born in San Diego, California in 1938 and moved to what would eventually become his assembly district in 1956 when he began attending University of California, Berkeley. Bates lettered in rugby and football at Berkeley and was a starting member of the Cal 1959 Rose Bowl team. Bates received a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric from Berkeley in 1961. He credits his first wife Carol Martin as the reason behind his interest in politics. He met Carol during college and they married during his junior year. Bates participated in ROTC during college and upon graduation was commissioned into the U.S. Army as an officer. Bates spent his Army service in Germany and, after being discharged, returned to the San Francisco Bay Area where he had a short career in real estate before jumping into politics (Bates Oral History).

Bates began his political career managing college friend Ken Meade's campaign for Assemblyman for the 12th district. Meade won the seat in 1970 and Bates gained recognition for his involvement in the winning campaign. Following Meade's victory, Bates worked for a short time in campaign management and in legislators' offices but was soon encouraged to run as a candidate for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors (Bates Oral History). Bates won his race for Supervisor as well as all of his subsequent campaigns. In 1976, after four years as Supervisor, Bates ran for the assembly seat in the 12th district, which was being vacated by Ken Meade. He won with 58 percent of the vote. Bates's winning percentage, after a small dip in 1978, continued to rise until he left office in 1996 (Who's Who in the California Legislature).

Throughout his long career as a public servant, Tom Bates was well known for carrying progressive legislation and tackling new problems. Bates left a successful record for passing progressive legislation, especially considering the legislator from Berkeley was up against Republican governors for 15 of his 20 years in office. Even when his legislation did not pass, it left behind a solid foundation for future legislators or Bates himself to build upon.

Bates also showed innovation in areas other than the bills he authored. Bates co-chaired the nation's first legislative body addressing the changing family. Bates used his legislative position as Assembly Human Services Committee chair to conduct roundtables on the feminization of poverty, addressing the serious problem of women falling into poverty before the issue had any national recognition. Bates used his influence as an assemblyman to seek solutions outside of the traditional legislative process. Bates brought together a collection of authoritative entities from across the East Bay to form the East Bay Public Safety Corridor. The members of this successful partnership share information in an effort to better combat crime, particularly gun violence and truancy, across jurisdictional lines.

During his time as an assemblyman, Bates was recognized as a champion of social and environmental issues, receiving many awards and commendations from such organizations as the California Association of Rehabilitation Services, SUNRAE, California Association of Rehabilitation Agencies, the California Association for the Education of Young Children, and the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights. During his tenure as Assemblyman, Tom Bates was considered one of the most liberal members of the Assembly (California Legislature at Sacramento (Handbooks)).

Tom Bates represented the East Bay in the Assembly for 20 years before being termed out due to Proposition 140 in 1996. Although Bates had not planned to run for re-election in 1996, he did fight the lifetime term limit clause arguing that it was too restrictive and violated both his constitutional rights and those of his constituents. The lawsuit was eventually defeated (Bates Oral History). Tom Bates retired from the legislature and is currently (2009) serving his third term as mayor of Berkeley. He is married to former Berkeley mayor and current state senator, Loni Hancock, representative for the Ninth Senate District. They have four children and seven grandchildren (Berkeley Mayoral Website).

According to the California Legislature at Sacramento (Handbooks) and the Assembly Final History, Bates served on the following committees:

State Assembly, 1976-1996

From the guide to the Tom Bates Papers, 1938-1996, (California State Archives)