Curt Pringle


Curtis L. "Curt" Pringle is an American politician from the U.S. state of California. He is the last Republican to serve as the Speaker of the California State Assembly and is also the longest-serving Republican Speaker in the last years. He is a former Mayor of Anaheim and a former Chairman of the California High Speed Rail Authority. Since leaving office, Pringle has operated a public relations and government affairs firm, Curt Pringle & Associates.

Early life and education

Pringle was born in Emmetsburg, Iowa, but moved with his family to California and settled in Garden Grove at the age of nine in 1968. Pringle earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in public administration from California State University, Long Beach.
In addition to his political work, Pringle has served as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Irvine and Chapman University, where he has taught California politics and government.

Career

As a young man, Pringle ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Garden Grove City Council. In 1986, while working for his parents' drapery business, Pringle was elected to the Orange County Republican Central Committee, which is the controlling organ of the county Republican Party. In 1988, the Republican nominee for Pringle's Assembly district, freshman incumbent Assemblyman Dick Longshore, died the day after the June primary election, and under California law the central committee members were charged with selecting a replacement. They chose Pringle.
In his first campaign for the state assembly, the OC Republican Party hired a security guard firm to protect against illegal voting by undocumented aliens. Some claimed this was an effort to scare Hispanic voters. The FBI investigated and although no charges were filed Pringle and the local GOP agreed to pay $400,000 to settle a lawsuit.

California State Assembly

Pringle took office as a state assemblyman in December 1988 at the age of 29. In 1990, he was defeated for re-election by Democrat Tom Umberg, but after legislative district lines were drawn between Pringle and Umberg's houses following the 1990 census, Pringle ran again for the Assembly in 1992 and won.

Mayor of Anaheim

In 2002, Pringle re-entered electoral politics with his campaign for Mayor of Anaheim, California, the tenth-most populous city in the state. Pringle won a multi-candidate race, with 36% of the vote, finishing 7% ahead of his nearest competitor, Anaheim City Councilwoman Lucille King. During his tenure as mayor, Pringle and the Anaheim City Council over which he presided enacted a number of reforms that The Orange County Register depicted as "freedom-friendly." According to the Los Angeles Times, "Pringle has built such a strong reputation for his aggressive pro-business approach to governance that other local officials have coined a verb for his philosophy: 'to Pringle-ize.'"
Pringle was an active Mayor, governing with majority support on the city council. Pringle led the effort to transform the area surrounding Angel Stadium and Honda Center into the Platinum Triangle, which is meant to be Orange County's "downtown". He was also the public face for the city as it courted the National Football League for a football franchise and fought the Angels baseball club over its name change from "Anaheim Angels" to "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim."
Pringle was also seen occasionally with mayors of other major California cities when they traveled to Sacramento to collectively lobby the Governor and California State Legislature. He has a good relationship with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat and former Speaker of the Assembly, whom he knows from their years together in Sacramento, and Pringle even hosted a fundraiser for Villaraigosa's unsuccessful 2001 bid for L.A. Mayor.
Pringle was also a member of the Orange County Transportation Authority's board of directors. In August 2006, the Los Angeles Times's West magazine named Pringle as one of the 100 most powerful people in Southern California. And the OC Metro magazine listed Pringle in their Hot 25 for 2006.
Pringle faced only nominal opposition for a second term as mayor, after his chief critic on the city council, Harry Sidhu, endorsed him. Pringle raised nearly half a million dollars for his re-election bid, as opposed to his nominal opponent, William Fitzgerald, who raised very little. On November 7, Pringle was re-elected with 79% of the vote, the highest percentage of any local candidate in OC who faced opposition in 2006.
Pringle serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Woodbury University in Burbank, California.

Business

After losing to Phil Angelides in the 1998 race for California State Treasurer, Pringle launched a government affairs, public relations, and entitlement firm, Curt Pringle & Associates, LLC, where he is currently President. His firm's clients have included ARCO, the County of Orange, the City of Newport Beach, Yamaha, and Jack in the Box.
Curt Pringle and Associates is based in Anaheim.
Pringle was also appointed in 1998 by Governor Pete Wilson to the Orange County Fair Board, where he served for four years. He was also appointed in 2007 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Public Employees Post Employment Benefits Commission and to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, serving four and a half years, including two years as Chairman of the Authority.
Pringle served from 2010 until 2015 as Chairman of the Orange County Taxpayers Association. Cal State Fullerton's Center for Oral and Public History recognized Pringle in its 2020 Celebrating Orange County's Political Legacy event.

Personal life

He has been married to his wife Alexis since 1984, with whom he has two children.

Electoral history