George Runner
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George C. Runner, Jr. (born March 25, 1952 in Scotia, New York) is a Republican California State Senator, who represents the 17th Senate District, which includes portions of Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County and Ventura County. He is the Republican Caucus Chairman, making him the second-highest ranking Republican in the Senate.
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[edit] Political life
He was elected to the Senate in 2004. Representing the 36th California Assembly District, Runner served in the State Assembly for three terms, from 1996 to 2002. During this time of service, Runner served as Vice Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee.
Currently, Senator Runner serves as the Vice Chair of the Banking, Finance, and Insurance Committee, as well as the Environmental Quality Committee. He is also a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Revenue and Taxation Committee.
Runner's priorities in the Legislature are to focus on traditional conservative and some neoconservative issues.[citation needed]
He currently serves as the chairman of the California Senate Republican Caucus.
During the 2005-06 legislative session, Runner was named Legislator of the Year by:
- The California State Sheriffs’ Association
- Crime Victims United
- California Sexual Assault Investigators Association
- Coalition of Chief Probations Officers
- California Coalition of Directors of Environmental Health
- California Community College Trustees
- California Building Industry Association
He also received the Pursuit of Justice Award from the Association of Deputy District Attorneys-Los Angeles County.[citation needed]
Before he was elected to the legislature, Runner served the City of Lancaster as a Councilman, Vice Mayor and Mayor. During his mayoral term, the California Business Journal named Lancaster, California's number one mid-size city with which to do business.[citation needed]
Runner is the Chair of the Senate Republican Caucus. He also is the Vice Chair of the Senate Banking, Finance, and Insurance Committee, Vice Chair of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, and is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, and on the Select Committee on Defense and Aerospace Industries.
[edit] Jessica's Law
In 2006, along with his wife, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, George Runner co-authored one of the numerous "Jessica's Laws".
Jessica's Law ensures that all sexual offenders who are convicted of activity with children under the age of 14 are put into a prison with a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years or 25 years to life. It eliminates all "first-offense" sexual-offense provisions from California law.
It also eliminates all "good-time" credits for sexual offenders serving prison terms; under the authored provisions they are required to serve their entire sentence and will not be released for good behavior. The controversial law requires that sexual offenders who are released from prison wear a GPS bracelet for life.
It also creates a 2,000-foot (615 meter) zone around schools and parks in which registered sexual offenders would be utterly prohibited from living.
[edit] Amber Alert
George Runner is the originator of the state of California's Amber Alert system, which has successfully utilized the Emergency Alert System to involve the general public in the search for abducted children and has aided in numerous successful parent-child reunions. While originally designed and ostensibly implemented to combat kidnappings perpetrated by strangers, the majority of Amber Alerts have been issued regarding parental abductions.
[edit] Personal life
After attending local public schools in Lancaster, Runner earned a Business Management Bachelor's Degree from the University of Redlands and a graduate certificate in Management from Azusa Pacific University.
He married Assemblywoman Sharon Oden in 1973. She succeeded him as the 36th Assembly District representative in 2002. The Runners are the first husband and wife to serve concurrently in the California State Legislature.
They have a son, Micah, daughter-in-law, Sandy, daughter Rebekah, and three grandchildren.
George Runner is one of the founders of Desert Christian Schools. According to the Desert Christian Schools website,
"We wanted a school for not only everyone else's children, but for our own children, where we knew they were going to hear about God in an exciting way; a place where their faith was not just some parallel subject matter, but was integrated effectively throughout history, math, science and english."
[edit] External links
[edit] References
| Preceded by William J. "Pete" Knight |
California State Assemblymember 36th District 1996–2002 |
Succeeded by Sharon Runner |
| California State Senator 17th District 2004–present |
Succeeded by — |
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