Candidate for
United States Representative; District 2

My parents were divorced when I was eight years old, and I bounced around between various relatives and foster homes until I went off the UCLA in 1959. I worked full time while I was an undergraduate and ever since. I met Betty at UCLA and we married and both went into college teaching. Betty retired after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991, but her therapy has been successful and she established Books for Peace, which ships donated books to Peace Corps library and school projects overseas. During the last decade of my teaching at California State University my main course focus was breast cancer research, and I combined various therapies into an effective combination for Betty. Between my legal activity in support of redistricting reform and my five-year still continuing anti-discrimination battle in Sonoma County Superior Court, fighting against bias and injustice has been a major focus, which led me back into the political arena when threats to freedom of choice in health care interfered with Betty's therapy. I have a niece, Mehera Halliwell who recently graduated from medical school and a nephew Logan Halliwell who was part of the Marine force which liberated Baghdad in 2003. I shudder to think what the world will be like for them, if present trends continue.

My recent political activity is summarized in the Political Philosophy, Question Answers and Position Papers Sections. My earlier political background is discussed below, to provide a longer term perspective and indication of my enduring political values.

These days almost every Republican candidate points to the common ground he or she shares with our most successful recent president of either party, Ronald Reagan. It has finally come to pass that I am the same age now (69) as Reagan was when he became the oldest American elected President. In fact my common ground with Reagan goes back to when he was Governor of California and for one bright shining moment the Republican Party controlled both houses of the State Legislature. In 1970 when Governor Reagan was running for re-election, I was a Reform Coalition candidate for the State Senate along with Marin County's Peter Behr. Along with 17 of 20 GOP State Senate nominees that year, I lost. My opponent was Ralph Dills, an Old Guard Democrat first elected to the Legislature in 1938, whose stock in trade was killing reform legislation in committee, without recorded votes. The reason why Peter Behr was one of only three Republicans elected to the State Senate in 1970, was a 1969 coup (which Governor Reagan strongly denounced) whereby lobbyist campaign contributions paved the way for Democrats in the State Senate picking a Republican leader (Jack Schrade of San Diego County, who had only 8 GOP votes) over the Reform Coalition leader (Howard Way of Tulare County, who had 13 GOP votes).

The most important example of untoward lobbyist influence was the pollution of San Francisco Bay with Toxic Waste, and the 1970 campaign featured song lyrics like "What's that stinky creek out there, that's San Francisco Bay" and slogans like "Fill the Bay with Dolwig" (Old Guard Republican State Senator Richard J. Dolwig). However, the theme of my LA County State Senate campaign "Dills Kills Pollution Bills" didn't resonate sufficiently to outweigh my 8 to 1 disadvantage in campaign contributions. It also didn't help that LA voters wanted to acquire more Northern California water, instead of allowing it to flow "uselessly" (i.e. to dilute pollution in San Francisco Bay and keep salt water from backing up into agricultural areas) into the ocean. While I lost my battle with Ralph Dills, our side won the war when Governor Reagan sided with Senator Behr in support of his Wild Rivers Bill (over a weaker version by Old Guard Democrat Randy Collier, which favored hydropower over salmon fishing). When it was discovered that Old Guard Leader Jack Schrade accepted a large campaign contribution the day before clearing legislation favoring the Thrift & Loan Industry (over more responsible banks), he was eventually ousted by San Diego State Senator James Mills. Senate President Pro-Tempore Mills then appointed Peter Behr to the San Francisco BCDC (Bay Conservation and Development Commission), which put an end to excessive landfills causing the Bay to shrink and become a "stinky creek."

Senator Peter Behr's Malpractice Reform Bill (MICRA) put a $250,000 lid on "pain and suffering" awards in malpractice cases (while continuing to allow full reimbursement for medical costs and lost wages). This helps to protect California physicians from being forced into "defensive medicine" wherein therapy is dictated by the need to avoid highly subjective inflated malpractice awards, instead of by the best interests of the patient. Without this protection Betty Halliwell would probably have died soon after her breast cancer was discovered in 1991, especially if HillaryCare had been in force, which did not allow mammograms to be provided to women in their forties. My top political concern continues to be the battle to repeal and replace ObamaCare, which like the power grab in HillaryCare also provides for standardized rules promoting "one size fits all" therapy (in the name of avoiding "two tier medicine"). My experience in working with the Marin County Public Health Department (to apply their SEER data base to validate and improve Betty's therapy) and my fully costed-out Health Care financing reform proposal (which I brought forward to help fight ObamaCare in 2009 and 2010) puts me in a better position than any other congressional candidate to help fight our very high local breast cancer rates (the highest in the world for women below normal retirement age).

Even before my ties to Marin County were reinforced by the house Betty's parents owned in Kentfield (which they had to sell in 1978 just before Proposition 13 dealt with soaring property taxes our folks couldn't afford) I looked to this County as the foremost bastion of political support for legislation against arbitrary discrimination in Housing (in the 1964 fight against Prop 14, which would have allowed for rental and sales decisions at the "absolute discretion" of the property owner). In 1967 the Marin Republican Party and Assemblyman Bill Bagley, were able to successfully resist repeal of the Rumford Fair Housing Act, after Proposition 14 was ruled unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. However, the fight didn't end there + as Governor George Wallace of Alabama rode a strong white backlash against fair treatment of minorities to mount the strongest third party movement in recent history (whose vehicle in California was the American Independent Party). The American Independent Party is not so racist as it was in 1968, but it continues to appeal to those elements in the electorate who are the most hostile to all forms of civil rights legislation. I do not believe in guilt by association, and all parties in this state who peacefully advocate their agendas should be respected. However, my only Republican opponent (Dan Roberts) is only one year removed from his American Independent Party congressional candidacy, and I intended to fully explore his commitment (or lack thereof) to protection from arbitrary discrimination in housing in this campaign.

Anyone who thinks that arbitrary discrimination in rental decisions is no longer a serious problem, should view Sonoma County Superior Court records in Paxinos v Halliwell & Parker (MCV 191306). Entrenched favoritism is so deeply embedded in Sonoma County Superior Court, that when Judge Elaine Rushing was censured for her dishonesty and admitted favoritism in the handling of her cases, she was made Supervising Judge of the Civil Division. Since Judge Rushing's censure was not disclosed to self represented litigants Michael Halliwell and James Parker, we had no way to anticipate or protect ourselves from the dishonest tactics she repeatedly utilized (including the insertion of bogus documents into the Case File). When Judge Rushing's dishonesty became so obvious that she was not able to lie her way out of problems arising from her drunk driving, she demanded special treatment because of her husband's position on the California Court of Appeal. She has in fact received a total whitewash from every Sonoma County Superior Court Judge (at least half a dozen) who has handled any aspect of Paxinos v Halliwell & Parker, and reprisals for our documenting what Judge Rushing did to us are still continuing, as this case has dragged on for more than 4 ½ years. Every candidate for public office (including congressional candidates and judges) take an oath to uphold and defend State and Federal Constitutions, and I am determined to continue to defend tenants' rights which exist in statutes and governing caselaw, but not in Sonoma County Superior Court.

The launching pad of Ronald Reagan's political career was as a champion of the "outs" against the "ins" + and his stand against insider favoritism was never clearer than in his opposition to the gerrymandering of California's congressional and state legislative districts. Starting in 1969, when I worked with Governor Reagan's staff on this issue, and continuing with my amicus curiae activity in Legislature v Reinecke (1974) and Assembly v. Deukmejian (1982), I have defended the concept that "Equal Protection of the Laws" extends to ALL candidates for public office. In 1973 Governor Reagan had vetoed a partisan gerrymander sponsored by Democrats who controlled the State Legislature and he was face by an intraparty revolt by Republican legislators more concerned with squeezing as many Republicans as possible into their own districts, than in preserving an opportunity to regain control (when GOP candidates win more than half of the total votes cast for State Assembly, State Senate, and/or congressional districts). These GOP legislators with an "overriding" interest in self preservation were openly making deals with Democrats to protect the political status quo. They even wore buttons saying "43-37 or fight" which meant opposition to guaranteeing Democrat control of more than the 43 (of 80) Assembly seats, they won in the 1972 elections. When the Republican Party unexpectedly won two formerly Democrat seats (in LA County's 38th and 67th Assembly Districts), this upset the political apple cart. I was still a member of the LA County GOP Central Committee for a four-year term following my 1970 State Senate nomination (in the 32nd SD), and had been elected to their Executive Committee in January 1973. I probably alienated some Executive Committee members who represented incumbents favoring a 43-37 deal (to give back the two new seats we had won), when I remarked after second GOP special election victory: "There is nothing quite so embarrassing as having reinforcements arrive in the middle of a surrender."

I was directly involved in the 1973 67th AD special election campaign, as a candidate who finished well behind the top Republican (Gardena City Councilman Paul Bannai). I became Bannai's Research Chairman after the first round of voting, and followed the blueprint laid down in the GOP victory in the 38th AD, and took great satisfaction when our side won again. When we both were running in the first round, Paul Bannai stole a lot of my political thunder by agreeing with me (especially on how to fight against partisan gerrymandering), which I did not mind since the point of politics is to achieve policy success (even if you become the guy on the sideline with a clipboard, not the star player in the game). This was probably my most enduring political success, as I helped Paul Bannai win re-election in 1974, 1976 and 1978 (in a district more lopsidedly Democrat in registration than any Marin-Sonoma district I have encountered in my 2004-2011 GOP Central Committee service).