John Doolittle - Career Prior To The U.S. House

Career Prior To The U.S. House

In 1979, Doolittle worked as an aide to State Senator H. L. Richardson, the conservative founder of Gun Owners of America and the Law and Order Campaign Committee.

In a 1980 race for the California State Senate, Doolittle, then 29, stunned everyone by narrowly defeating Democrat Albert S. Rodda, dean of the state Senate and chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

In 1981, the Democratic state legislature's redistricting plan, which used creatively drawn districts to squeeze out Republican lawmakers, dumped Doolittle into a Democratic district, where he lost to then-Assemblyman Leroy Greene in 1982. But by a quirk of redistricting, Doolittle was able to keep his original seat until 1984, when he won another term by beating Ray Johnson, a Republican turned independent from Chico. An administrative law judge later found him guilty of violating campaign finance laws when his campaign helped his Democratic opponent, to pull votes away from Johnson. Doolittle easily won re-election in 1988. From 1987 to 1990, he was chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus.