Tom Campbell (California politician)

Tom Campbell
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 15th district
In office December 12, 1995 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Norman Mineta
Succeeded by	Mike Honda
Member of the California Senate from the 11th district
In office January 3, 1993 – December 12, 1995
Preceded by	Becky Morgan
Succeeded by	Byron Sher
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 12th district
In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 1993
Preceded by	Ernie Konnyu
Succeeded by	Tom Lantos
Personal details
Born	Thomas John Campbell (1952-08-14) August 14, 1952 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Susanne Campbell
Alma mater	University of Chicago Harvard University
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]

Thomas John "Tom" Campbell (born August 14, 1952) is a Professor of Law at the Dale E. Fowler School of Law, and a Professor of Economics at the George Argyros School of Business and Economics, at Chapman University, in Orange, California. He was Dean of Chapman University School of Law from 2011 - 2016, a former five-term Republican United States Congressman from California's 12th and 15th districts, former member of the California State Senate, a former professor at Stanford Law School, former dean of the Haas School of Business, and former professor of business administration at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2000 he retired from his House seat to run for the U.S. Senate but lost decisively to incumbent Dianne Feinstein. He served as the Director of Finance for the State of California from 2004 to 2005. On June 8, 2010, he lost his third bid for the United States Senate, and second for the seat held by Democrat Barbara Boxer, losing the Republican nomination to Carly Fiorina.

Campbell is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.^[2]

Early life

Born in Chicago, Campbell was the valedictorian of Chicago's St. Ignatius College Prep, Class of 1969. He went on to obtain his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Chicago (1973), a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1976) and then a subsequent Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago (1980).^[3] He served as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White from 1977 to 1978 and, the year before that, for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge George E. MacKinnon. His mentor was Milton Friedman. Tom Campbell's father was the late Hon. William Joseph Campbell, a former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. While Tom Campbell was raised in a Democratic family, he became a Republican during college.

Campbell was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1976 and went into private practice in Chicago. He was a White House Fellow in the offices of the Chief of Staff and Counsel (1980–1981).^[4] He then served in the Reagan Administration as Director of the Bureau of Competition in the Federal Trade Commission from 1981-1983, the youngest person ever to serve in that position.^[4]

Law professor

Campbell became a law professor at Stanford Law School in 1983, receiving tenure as a full professor in 1987.

Congressional and State Senate career

Campbell took a leave of absence in 1988 to run for the Republican nomination in California's 12th Congressional District, which included his home in Campbell and Stanford University. The 12th had traditionally been a moderate Republican bastion, but had grown increasingly friendly to Democrats over the years. Campbell soundly defeated first-term incumbent Ernie Konnyu in the Republican primary and narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent, San Mateo County Supervisor Anna Eshoo. He served two terms before making an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat being vacated by Alan Cranston. He lost the Republican primary to a considerably more conservative Republican, Bruce Herschensohn, who in turn was defeated by Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Boxer. His political career might have been in jeopardy in any case; his district had been re-numbered as the 14th District and had been made considerably more Democratic than its predecessor. (It was won by Eshoo, who still holds the seat.)

In 1993, California State Senator Becky Morgan stepped down mid-term, and Campbell won a special election to succeed her. In the California state Senate, Campbell was Chairman of the Housing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Education Committee, and served on the Budget Committee. California Journal rated him the Best Problem Solver in the State Senate, the Most Ethical State Senator, and the overall Best State Senator.

In 1995, 15th District Democratic Congressman Norman Mineta, later the Secretary of Commerce under president Bill Clinton and Secretary of Transportation under George W. Bush, unexpectedly resigned. Campbell's home had been re-drawn into this San Jose-based district, and he ran in the special election. Mineta had held the seat since 1975, and it was widely considered a safe Democratic district. Despite the considerable disadvantage in voter registration and Democratic attempts to tie him to Speaker Newt Gingrich, Campbell won the December special election easily. He won a full term almost as easily in 1996 and was handily re-elected in 1998.

During his two stints in Congress, Campbell was regarded as one of the more moderate House Republicans. He was very liberal on social issues (for instance, he was a strong supporter of abortion and gay rights) while conservative on fiscal matters. This was not surprising, as Bay Area Republicans tend to be somewhat more moderate on social and environmental matters than their counterparts in the rest of California. He has a decided libertarian streak, and remains popular with libertarian-leaning Republicans. As a fiscal conservative, he was the only Republican in the House to vote against the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.^[5]

Campbell led a group of 17 bipartisan members of Congress who filed a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton in 1999 over his conduct of the war in Kosovo. In the filing, they accused Clinton of not reporting to Congress within 48 hours on the status of the action as required by the 1973 War Powers Resolution and not first obtaining a declaration of war from Congress as required in the Constitution. Congress had voted 427 to 2 against a declaration of war with Yugoslavia and had voted to deny support for the air campaign. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that since Congress had voted for funding after the U.S. was actively engaged in the war with Kosovo, legislators had sent a confusing message about whether they approved of the war. Campbell said afterwards that this was a sidestepping of the law, and lawmakers who disagree with a war should not be forced to cut off funding for troops who are in the midst of it in order to get a judge to order an end to it.^[6]

In 2000, Campbell won the Republican nomination to take on Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. Despite touting his service as a Republican representing a strongly Democratic district, he was underfunded and a decided underdog against the popular, heavily financed Feinstein. Campbell was badly defeated, losing by over 19 points. He even lost his own district by almost 15 points. State Assemblyman Mike Honda, a Mineta protege, won Campbell's old seat by 12 points; since then, Republicans have only put up token opposition in that district. Indeed, since Campbell left office, no elected Republicans have represented a significant portion of San Jose above the county level.

In 2008, Campbell wrote in Reason that he would be voting no on Proposition 8, the proposed ballot measure banning same-sex marriage in the state, per his Republican beliefs that "government should be limited. Government has no business making distinctions between people based on their personal lives."^[7] Proposition 8 eventually passed by a margin of 52-48%.^[8]

Return to legal scholarship

Campbell (right) with Intel founder Gordon Moore and Sun founder Scott McNealy

In 2000, Campbell returned to Stanford. He remained there until his appointment at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley in 2002. In the intervening years, he began to assemble the material, out of his professional political experiences, for his book The Separation of Powers in Practice ^[9] with Stanford University Press.^[10]

As Dean of the Haas School, Campbell stressed the study of corporate social responsibility and business ethics amid an era of corporate scandals. A full-fledged Center for Responsible Business was established. In September 2004, Campbell was named by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to his newly formed Council of Economic Advisors. From 2004 to 2005 Campbell took a leave of absence from his Berkeley post to serve as director of the California Department of Finance in the Schwarzenegger administration.

On August 27, 2007, Campbell announced that he would step down from his position at Haas in the summer of 2008.^[11] In mid-2008, Campbell joined the Palo Alto office of Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.^[12] Campbell joined the Chapman School of Law for a 2-year visiting appointment which began January 2009, serving as the Fletcher Jones Distinguished Visiting Professor at Chapman University School of Law.^[13] In February 2011, Chapman announced that Campbell would be its new Dean.^[14] Campbell replaced interim Dean Scott Howe, who replaced Dean John C. Eastman, who stepped down to seek the 2010 Republican nomination for Attorney General of California^[15] (ironically, Campbell had filed paperwork to seek the 2010 Republican nomination for Governor of California the day after stepping down as Dean of Haas^[16] before going on to seek the 2010 Republican nomination for U.S. Senator from California; neither Eastman and Campbell won the Republican nomination in their respective races).

Return to politics

In July 2008, Tom Campbell filed the necessary paperwork in order to establish a committee with the intent to raise funds for a prospective race for the Republican nomination to be Governor of California in 2010.^[16]

On January 13, 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported that Campbell would run for the United States Senate, instead of for Governor of California. Campbell's Web Site confirmed it.^[17] In the primary on June 8, Campbell finished a distant second to former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, in a race that also included State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore. The primary election received national attention, in part due to a campaign ad released by Carly Fiorina, depicting Campbell as a "Demon Sheep."

Al-Arian controversy

In February 2010, a dispute was triggered by his 2002 letter in defense of Sami Al-Arian, a professor at the University of South Florida accused of expressing political views without making clear they were not those of the university. Campbell expressed concern that Al-Arian's academic freedom was being infringed upon, a conclusion shared by the American Association of University Professors' investigation. Four years later, on March 2, 2006, Al-Arian entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization;.^[18] The Tampa Bay Times reported: "Al-Arian ended up taking a plea deal on greatly reduced charges after a federal jury in Tampa did not convict him following a lengthy trial," and he was deported to Turkey in 2015.^[19]

Campbell said there were no criminal charges against Al-Arian when he wrote his January 21, 2002, letter to USF's president, asking USF not to discipline Al-Arian.^[20][21][22] He also said he had not been aware that Al-Arian had said, in a speech discussed in an O'Reilly interview before Campbell wrote his letter: "Jihad is our path. Victory to Islam. Death to Israel."^[23] Campbell said:

I did not hear, I did not read, I was not aware of statements Sami Al-Arian had made relative to Israel. And I would not have written the letter had I known about those. ... To say 'Death to Israel' is abhorrent, it's horrible.^[23]

Campbell said he should have done more research before writing the letter in Al-Arian's defense. While he was not aware of Al-Arian's statements, he said he "should have" been aware of them.^{[20][23][24][25]} "I was wrong," he said.^[24] "I should not have done so. I regret it.".^[24] GOP consultant Ken Khachigian described the matter as "a political misstep".^[26]

2016 U.S. presidential election

In 2016, Campbell wrote a column for the Orange County Register which, while not endorsing Gary Johnson for president, suggested libertarian-leaning Republicans should consider him.^[27] Campbell was later one of 30 former Republican members of Congress who wrote an open letter denouncing Donald Trump's candidacy.^[28]

Awards

In 2016, Campbell was one of those honored by the Anti-Defamation League of Orange and Los Angeles Counties, California, with the Marcus J. Kaufman Jurisprudence Award. In 1998, the University of Chicago Alumni Association gave Campbell its Professional Achievement Award.

Electoral history

Books

• Separation of Powers in Practice (2004) ISBN 0-8047-5027-0

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tom Campbell (California politician) (category)

• CAMPBELL, Thomas J., (1952– ), Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Our Campaigns
• Profile at Chapman University
• Tom Campbell at Ballotpedia