Curt Pringle
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Curtis L. "Curt" Pringle (born June 27, 1959), is a politician from the U.S. state of California. Pringle, a conservative Republican and onetime Speaker of the California State Assembly, is currently Mayor of Anaheim, California and runs his own public relations and lobbying firm.
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[edit] 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 died before election day, and under California law the central committee was charged with selecting a replacement. It chose Pringle.
Pringle won the election, but an election day controversy would plague him for years. On Election Day, the Orange County Republican Party hired uniformed guards to stand near the 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 and the Orange County Republican Party paid $400,000 to the defendants, five Latino voters and the Orange County Democratic Party.
[edit] 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, 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.
[edit] 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 is currently President. His firm's clients have included ARCO, the County of Orange, the City of Newport Beach, Yamaha, and Jack in the Box. Pringle was also appointed in 1998 by Governor Pete Wilson to the Orange County Fair Board, where he served for four years.
[edit] 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.'"[1]
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 Arrowhead Pond into the Platinum Triangle, which is meant to be Orange County's downtown. 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.
In August 2006, the Los Angeles Times's West magazine named Pringle as one of the 100 most powerful people in Southern California.
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.[2] On November 7, Pringle was re-elected with 79 percent of the vote.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Personal life
Pringle was born in Emmetsburg, Iowa but moved to California at an early age. For much of his adult life he lived in Garden Grove, California, a city adjacent to Anaheim. He is married to his wife Alexis, with whom he has two children, Kyle and Katie.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: Dick Longshore |
California State Assemblyman 72nd District December 1988–December 1990 |
Succeeded by: Tom Umberg |
| Preceded by: Steve Clute |
California State Assemblyman 68th District December 1992–December 1998 |
Succeeded by: Ken Maddox |
| Preceded by: Brian Setencich |
Speaker of the California State Assembly January 4, 1996–November 30, 1996 |
Succeeded by: Cruz Bustamante |
| Preceded by: Tom Daly |
Mayor of Anaheim, California December 3, 2002 – present |
Incumbent |
| Speakers of the California State Assembly |  |
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