David Dreier

David Dreier
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 26th district 28th district (1993-2003) 33rd district (1983-1993) 35th district (1981-1983)
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1981
Preceded by	James F. Lloyd
Chairman of the House Rules Committee
In office 1999–2007
Preceded by	Gerald B. H. Solomon
Succeeded by	Louise Slaughter
Born	July 5, 1952 (1952-07-05) (age 58) Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Residence	San Dimas, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Claremont Graduate University Claremont McKenna College
Occupation	Real estate executive
Religion	Christian Science

David Timothy Dreier (born July 5, 1952) is the U.S. Representative for California's 26th congressional district, serving in Congress since 1981. He is a member of the Republican Party.

[edit] Early life, education and career

Dreier was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, where his family continues to be active in real estate development; he is Vice President of Dreier Development Company in Kansas City. He graduated with a B.A. from Claremont Men's College (now Claremont McKenna College) in 1975 and an M.A. from the Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University) in 1976. He was director of corporate relations for Claremont McKenna College before entering the House.

[edit] U.S. House of Representatives

[edit] Committee assignments

• Committee on Rules (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process

Dreier served as chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee from 1999 until 2007, serving thereafter as the ranking member. With the Republicans regaining control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections, Dreier is expected to regain the chairmanship of the rules committee.^[1]

Dreier has also served as chairman of California's Republican Congressional Delegation since 2001. Dreier was a major player in helping elect Arnold Schwarzenegger in California's 2003 recall election, and is a frequent guest on the political talk show circuit. Whenever Dreier recognizes his colleagues to yield time, he usually mentions the hometown of the member, not just the state that member represents as all other representatives do. He referred to former Rules Committee Chairman Gerald B.H. Solomon as the "gentleman from Glens Falls, New York" and current Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter as the "gentlelady from Rochester".

Throughout his early Congressional service, Dreier established a record as a strong supporter of tax cuts and of President Reagan's anti-Communist foreign policy. One of the youngest as well as the first Californian Rules Chairman in history, Dreier plays a pivotal role in fashioning legislation promoting Republican Party positions on Social Security, child education, taxes, and national security.

Locally, Dreier is well known for supporting local institutions such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Metro Gold Line, and advocates for transportation improvements such as railroad grade separations and highway expansion. He supported bipartisan efforts to create legislation to prevent runaway film production.

Dreier has served for many years as a trustee of Claremont McKenna College, his undergraduate alma mater, which falls within his Congressional district.^[2]

According to Roll Call magazine, Dreier has a personal fortune in excess of $7.5 million^[3] and as much as $29 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.^[4]

Dreier is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership. He is a member of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute.^[5]

Dreier was also involved in proposing the Peace Officer Justice Act. This bill, if it becomes law, would make it a federal offense to flee the United States after having murdered a police officer. This legislation was strongly opposed by Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley.^[6]

Dreier also publicly supported a provision in the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 that excludes many US troops and legal immigrants from receiving federal tax rebates.^[7]

Dreier's behavior during his visit to Colombia's Lower House Chamber on August 28, 2007^[8] caused a stir among the nation's politicians and media. Dreier sat on the podium during a hearing before a gathering of local lawmakers^[9] in the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, seen by many as a sign of disrespect towards his Colombian counterparts.^[10] Dreier formally apologized on August 30, 2007. According to a Reuters story, Dreier said, "I meant absolutely no offense ... I simply wanted to demonstrate my warm feeling and affection."^[11]

[edit] Political campaigns

In 1978, Dreier decided to run for the United States House of Representatives at the age of 26. He ran against incumbent Democrat James Fredrick Lloyd, who had first won in an upset in a Republican-leaning district in 1974. Though unknown, Dreier ran a spirited campaign. Lloyd won that race by 54% to 46%, and Dreier ran again in 1980. Helped by local enthusiasm for Ronald Reagan and the unpopularity of President Jimmy Carter, Dreier won.

In 1982, the district that Dreier represented was merged with that of fellow Republican Congressman Wayne Grisham as part of a redistricting plan engineered by Phillip Burton. Dreier outspent Grisham and won by 57% to 43%.

[edit] 2004 campaign

Rep. David Dreier's congress photo for the 109th Congress.

In 2004, Dreier faced strong criticism on his stances on illegal immigration from opponent Cynthia Matthews.^[12] Dreier was accused of not supporting reimbursement of expenses incurred by state and local governments to serve illegal immigrants, supporting increases in the numbers of H1B visas allowed for skilled workers, not acting effectively enough in obtaining the extradition of a suspect who allegedly killed a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy, and supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants. The immigration attacks were especially damaging.

The National Republican Congressional Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) against The "John and Ken Show" on Los Angeles station KFI) alleging that the hosts, employees of Clear Channel Communications, were engaging in an illegal contribution to Matthews' campaign. The hosts held regular anti-Dreier rallies at his Glendora field office, had Matthews on frequently to discuss her positions on immigration, and dissected statements made by Dreier to other media outlets. Following his "outing" by L.A. Weekly in late September 2004, Dreier's sexual orientation and relationship to chief-of-staff Brad Smith were also discussed on the show (see "Sexual Orientation", below).

Dreier was not the originator of the NRCC complaint and disavowed orchestrating the complaint. The hosts continued the allegedly infringing activity through the election and on February 24, 2006, the FEC declared that the charges were without merit. In an interview on KABC's Doug McIntyre program, Dreier denied the charges regarding immigration.^[13]

In spite of outspending his opponent by nearly 2-1,^{[citation needed]} his opponent's unpopularity in the Democratic Party, and representing a Republican-leaning district, Dreier won his 2004 race with 54 percent of the vote^[14] in the 2004 election and Dreier's then-worst total since 1980. In 2008, Dreier won with his now-worst total of 52.7 percent.^[15]

[edit] 2005 House Majority Leader bid

Congressman David Dreier at the Walnut Family Festival Parade in Walnut, California. Photo by Frederick Nacino

Following the indictment of Tom DeLay on September 28, 2005, Dreier was widely expected to temporarily assume the position of House Majority Leader.^[16] Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert favored Dreier for the position, presumably because Dreier has consistently adhered to the views of the Republican leadership and would have been willing to relinquish the title immediately should DeLay be able to return to the Majority Leader position. However, a conference of rank-and-file Republican representatives disapproved of the choice of Dreier in such a senior position largely because many conservative Republican House members believe that Dreier is too politically moderate. According to Dreier spokeswoman Jo Maney, Dreier declined the temporary Majority Leader position because he "would have had to give up his chairmanship of the Rules Committee to move to another position, and that's not something that he wanted to do."^[17]

Openly-gay Democratic Congressman Barney Frank, when asked whether Dreier was passed over for the position because of his "moderate" views, told a crowd of reporters "Yes, in the sense that I marched in the moderate pride parade last summer and went to a moderate bar.”^[18][19]

The House Majority Leader position instead went to then Majority Whip Roy Blunt, though both Dreier and then Deputy Majority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia shared in some duties.^[20] Rep. John Boehner was later elected House Majority Leader.

[edit] 2006 campaign

On October 2, 2005, Dreier announced he would be running for re-election. Flanked by the mayor of the city of San Dimas and the Los Angeles County Sheriff, Dreier said he would campaign on a platform of being tough on illegal immigration, supporting the "war on terror", and supporting harsher penalties for those who commit crimes against law enforcement. La Cañada businessman Sonny Sardo challenged Dreier for his seat in the June 6, 2006, Republican Primary. Dreier received 65 percent of the vote, while Sardo received 27 percent of the vote and Melvin Milton 8 percent of the vote.

Russ Warner and Dreier's former opponent Cynthia Matthews, both Democrats, ran for the right to oppose Dreier in the general election. Matthews won the election with 47 percent of the vote compared to 38 percent for Warner and Hoyt Hilsman with 15 percent of the vote. On November 7, 2006, Dreier defeated Matthews, receiving 57.0 percent of the total votes to her 37.9 percent, with 3.3 percent going to Ted Brown (Libertarian Party) and 1.8 percent to Elliott Graham (American Independent Party).

[edit] Personal life

Dreier claims to be a distant relative of Richard Bland Lee, a Democratic congressman from Virginia who served on the first Rules Committee empaneled by the House of Representatives.^[21]

[edit] Sexual orientation

In the fall of 2004, journalist Doug Ireland claimed to "out" Dreier in print in L.A. Weekly, in its September 24–September 30, 2004 issue.^[22][23] The L.A. Weekly printed that Dreier had had a romantic relationship with his longtime chief of staff, Brad W. Smith, who at the time collected a $156,600 government salary. Smith earned the highest possible salary allowed by law for a committee staff member^[24] and was reportedly the highest-paid chief of staff working for any House of Representatives committee chair. ("By comparison," wrote Ireland, "the chief of staff to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee makes $126,000, while the chief of staff to the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee makes just $100,696.")^[22][25][26]

The alleged "outing" was a result of Dreier coming under increasing scrutiny from gay rights groups because of his voting record, which includes supporting the Defense of Marriage Act, as well as voting against gay adoption,^{[citation needed]} and against inclusion of homosexuals as a protected class in hate crime. However, he did vote for employment discrimination legislation to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation in 2007.^[27]

Dreier's 1998 and 2000 Democratic opponent, Janice Nelson, alleged that his relationship with Smith had been an open secret for many years. His 2004 opponent, Cynthia Matthews, came out of the closet and demanded that Dreier do the same. Dreier did not publicly respond to these charges, which were discussed on local radio programs in his district. At the time, the mainstream U.S. print media did not cover the story (although the controversy was later, in June 2005, addressed in the British press^[28] after it was announced that British prime minister Tony Blair's son Euan would work as an unpaid intern for Dreier's committee during the summer of 2005).

Amid the controversy, Dreier voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment on September 30, 2004. He explained his opposition to the amendment by stating that he felt the Constitution was not the appropriate tool for restricting rights.^{[citation needed]}

Dreier also opposed hate crimes protections for gay people in his vote against the Matthew Shepard Act, and voted against the repeal of the U.S. military's "Don't Ask. Don't Tell" policy. In December 2010, however, Dreier voted in favor of repealing the policy in a standalone bill.^[29]

On September 6, 2007, blogger Mike Rogers outed Dreier on Talk of the Nation on NPR. The topic of the program was "The Ethics of Outing."^[30]

Dreier's alleged closeted sexuality is one of the features of the 2009 documentary film Outrage. The film depicted photos of various exotic vacation locales around the world that were visited by Dreier, noting that each time, Dreier's chief of staff Brad W. Smith would arrive at the same getaway spot a day later.

[edit] External links

• U.S. Congressman David Dreier Official U.S. house site
• David Dreier for U.S. Congress Official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Congressional profile at GovTrack.us
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Congress.org
• David Dreier at the Notable Names Database

[edit] References