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John B. T. Campbell III
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 48th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  December 6, 2005
Preceded by	Chris Cox
Member of the California Senate from the 35th district
In office December 2004 – December 2005
Preceded by	Ross Johnson
Succeeded by	Tom Harman
Member of the California State Assembly from the 70th district
In office December 2000 – December 2004
Preceded by	Marilyn Brewer
Succeeded by	Chuck DeVore
Born	July 19, 1955 (1955-07-19) (age 54) Los Angeles, California
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Catherine Campbell
Children	John Bayard Taylor Campbell IV Logan Campbell
Residence	Shady Canyon (Irvine, California)
Alma mater	UCLA University of Southern California
Occupation	accountant, automobile dealer, politician
Religion	Presbyterian

John Bayard Taylor Campbell III (born July 19, 1955) is a Republican U.S. politician who is currently a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing California's 48th Congressional District.

Early life

Born in Los Angeles, California, Campbell graduated high school from the Harvard School in 1972 and earned his B.A. in Economics from UCLA in 1976 and his M.S. in Business Taxation from USC in 1977. After receiving his Master's degree, Campbell became a CPA and joined Ernst & Young as a tax accountant.

Business career

In 1985, Campbell became President and CEO of Campbell Automotive Group. In 1990, he became President and CEO of Saturn of Orange County. Campbell became Chairman and CEO of Saab of Orange County in 1999.

Legislative career

Elected to represent southern Orange County's 70th District in the California State Assembly in 2000, Campbell won 60% of the vote in a five-way race to replace term-limited Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer. Campbell was reelected in 2002 with 67% of the vote.

In the 2004 race to replace the term-limited Ross Johnson in the 35th State Senate District, Campbell won the Republican primary with 61% of the vote against fellow Assemblyman Ken Maddox, who garnered only 30% of the vote. In the general election, Campbell won 64% of the vote.

As a Senator, Campbell served as Vice Chair of both the Business Professions and Economic Development Committee and the Labor and Industrial Relations Committee. He was also a member of the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee; the Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee; the Environmental Quality Committee; and the Government Modernization, Efficiency, and Accountability Committee.

On June 17, 2009, Campbell signed on as a co-sponsor of H.R. 1503, the bill introduced as a reaction to conspiracy theories which claimed that U.S. President Barack Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen.^[1]

In 2009, several watchdog groups accused Rep. Campbell of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from used car dealers, and then introducing legislation exempting them from consumer protection laws.^[2][3][4]

Elections

After Congressman Chris Cox resigned to become Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Campbell became a candidate to replace Cox in the 48th Congressional District Special Election, scheduled for October 4, 2005. Campbell received endorsements from most of the important Republican officials in the state, but faced some criticism as his stance on illegal immigration was seen as being too lenient. Campbell faced a strong third-party challenge from American Independent Party candidate Jim Gilchrist. On October 4, Campbell garnered 45.5% of the vote, below the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. He faced Democrat Steve Young, American Independent Jim Gilchrist, Libertarian Bruce Cohen and Green Bea Tirtilli in the December 6 runoff, which he won with 44.4% of the vote. Campbell was sworn in on December 7.

Campbell was re-elected to his first full term in 2006 with 60% of the vote. In 2008, he was re-elected to his third term with 55.7% of the vote.

Committee Assignments

• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
• Committee on the Budget
• Joint Economic Committee

Party leadership and Caucus membership

• Chairman of the Budget and Spending Task Force of the Republican Study Committee

References

External links

• Congressman John Campbell official U.S. House site
• Campbell for Congress official campaign site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Current Bills Sponsored at StateSurge.com
• Congressional profile at GovTrack.us
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• Green Eyeshade Blog Townhall.com blog