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Top: Regional: North_America: United_States: California: Government: US_House_of_Representatives: Congressional_District_03

Sites pertaining to the 3rd Congressional District for the United States House of Representatives.

Congressman Dan Lungren

Congressman Lungren first sought elective office in 1976, narrowly losing a bid for California's 34th Congressional District. Two years later, at age 32, he re-challenged the two-term incumbent and won the Congressional seat in California's historic 1978 "Prop 13" election year.

For ten years, Dan served in the U.S. Congress where he was viewed as a Republican leader in criminal justice and immigration issues. In 1985, he was cited by the US News and World Report as one of a handful of members of Congress "likely to be a future national leader." Dan left Congress in 1989 and returned to California when then-Governor George Deukmejian appointed him to serve out the State Treasurer's term of the late Jesse Unruh. Democrats, however, spared no effort to block his confirmation. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Democrats "praised Lungren's integrity, but said they were unwilling to vote for a Republican whose congressional voting record was so conservative."

California voters disagreed, and the following year elected Dan Lungren Attorney General of California, a position he held for eight years. During his two-term service as California's Attorney General (1991-1999), Dan helped author and later defended in court California's landmark "Three-Strikes-and-You're-Out" law.

Following an unsuccessful run for Governor against Gray Davis in 1998, Dan did a stint as a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and served as a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics before returning to the private practice of law.

The events of 9-11 prompted Dan's return to public service. Believing that each of us had to respond in the most effective way to the terrorist threat, he sought election to the Congress so that the lessons learned from his past governmental experience might be added to the national debate.

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