About the Senator

During his 22 years in the CA Senate, Richardson showed that a determined application of confrontational politics could produce victories – even when he was in the minority. Richardson organized multiple PAC’s that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for political donations. He led the charge to defeat 3 members of the CA Supreme Court, including the infamous Rose Bird. He then enacted a capital punishment law over the veto of Governor Jerry Brown. Richardson’s political machine launched State Senator George Deukmejian’s successful gubernatorial bid on the heels of the capital punishment movement. At the same time, the philosophical center of the legislature was shifted to the right. Richardson authored a state preemption of firearms law which just last year resulted in overturning the recently enacted San Francisco handgun ban. He also passed a law that declares that one’s home is one’s castle and can be defended with deadly force. "Conservatives today are not in power nationally, but that does not mean that they cannot win battles. If they are going to be effective, Richardson’s lessons need to be studied and applied." Paul Weyrich, Free Congress Foundation