Requiescat in Pace Congressman Doug LaMalfa

We woke up this morning to the terrible news that California Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa had suddenly passed away overnight. Our sincere  prayers go out to his family.

I had the pleasure of covering Assemblyman/Senator LaMalfa when he served in the California Legislature. He always made himself available for questions and comments, and when he saw me hanging out in the back of the Assembly or Senate, he would often swing by to say hi.

He was a statesman and a voice of reason. And Doug LaMalfa had a sense of humor.

In 2011, I reported that then-Sen. Doug LaMalfa presented “A measure to close California’s budget deficit,” to “Help Our State Tax,” which would add another line on California income tax forms so that taxpayers can make an extra voluntary contributions to the state.

This was for anyone interested in voluntarily paying more in taxes to the state of California – Senator LaMalfa wanted to make it easy for you to accomplish this noble gesture.

LaMalfa said that the provision is not currently on the tax form, and since he hears so many people say that they would give more in taxes if asked, he wanted to make it easier to do so.

“Polling shows that many people are clammoring to help,” said LaMalfa. “What could be better than a simple solution?”

Rep. LaMalfa fought hard against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50 redistricting scheme, which targeted LaMalfa and remapped his solid Republican district, originally stretching from Siskiyou County and much of the Oregon-California border down through rural Shasta and Sutter Counties. Under the new Prop. 50 maps, the district shifts south out of Modoc County and jogs westward to pick up parts of leftist Sonoma County and Democrat State Senator Mike McGuire’s home city of Santa Rosa, Calmatters reported.

KCRA reported last summer that “three sources close to the situation told KCRA 3 the Democratic leader of the California Senate, Mike McGuire, had one of the new, targeted districts drawn specifically for him in exchange for his support of the redistricting plan.”

Sure enough, in November, Democrat Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire launched a campaign to run against Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa in the redrawn congressional district.

We have learned that LaMalfa had an aneurism and died during emergency surgery.

As California Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Marysville) so accurately said today about LaMalfa:

“His focus was always on the people of his district and the American values he cherished so deeply. There was no one who took the job of representative more seriously than Doug. He traversed the district, going to every dinner and community event. He demanded answers from bureaucrats. He pushed hard for the things his people needed. He waited until the very end of every State of the Union so he could talk to the President, Republican or Democrat, about his district.”

Requiescat in Pace Congressman Doug LaMalfa.