Curt Pringle
44thMayor of Anaheim
In office December 3, 2002 – December 7, 2010
Preceded by	Tom Daly
Succeeded by	Tom Tait
Minority Leader of the California Assembly
In office December 2, 1996 – June 17, 1997
Preceded by	Richard Katz
Succeeded by	Bill Leonard
61stSpeaker of the California State Assembly
In office January 4, 1996 – November 30, 1996
Preceded by	Brian Setencich
Succeeded by	Cruz Bustamante
Majority Leader of the California Assembly
In office August 22, 1995 – January 4, 1996
Preceded by	Jim Brulte
Succeeded by	Jim Rogan
Member of theCalifornia State Assembly
In office December 7, 1992 – November 30, 1998
Preceded by	Steve Clute
Succeeded by	Ken Maddox
Constituency	68th district
In office December 5, 1988 – November 30, 1990
Preceded by	Dick Longshore
Succeeded by	Tom Umberg
Constituency	72nd district
Personal details
Born	Curtis L. Pringle (1959-06-27)June 27, 1959 (age 66) Emmetsburg, Iowa, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Alexis (m. 1984)
Children	2
Alma mater	California State University, Long Beach (BBA,MPA)
Website	Official website

Curtis L. "Curt" Pringle (born June 27, 1959) is an American politician from theU.S. state ofCalifornia. He is the most recentRepublican to have served as theSpeaker of the California State Assembly. He is a formermayor ofAnaheim and a former chairman of theCalifornia High-Speed Rail Authority. Since leaving office, Pringle has operated a public relations and government affairs firm, Curt Pringle & Associates.

Pringle was born inEmmetsburg, Iowa, in 1959, but moved toCalifornia with his family at the age of nine in 1968 and settled inGarden Grove. Pringle then earned abachelor's degree inbusiness administration and amaster's degree in public administration fromCalifornia State University, Long Beach.

As a young man, Pringle worked for his family's drycleaning and drapery/window covering business. In 1986, after three unsuccessful runs for a seat on theGarden GroveCity Council, Pringle was elected to theOrange County Republican Central Committee, which is the controlling organ of the Orange CountyRepublican Party. Pringle served as vice-chair of the Orange County Republican Central Committee.

In 1988, the Republican nominee from Pringle'sAssembly district, freshman incumbent Dick Longshore, died the day after the June primary election, and, under Californian law, the Orange County Republican Central Committee members were charged with selecting a replacement nominee to run in the November general election, and out of the ten candidates, they chose Pringle.

In hisfirst campaign for the State Assembly, Pringle was accused ofvoter suppression against Hispanics in Santa Ana.^[1] The Orange County Republican Party hired a security guard firm to protect against supposed unlawful voting by illegal aliens in Pringle's district. Some^[who?] claimed this was an effort to scare Hispanic voters. The FBI investigated and no charges were filed against Pringle and the local GOP, however they agreed to pay $400,000 to settle the civil lawsuit out of court.^[2]

Pringle took office as a state assemblyman in December 1988 at the age of 29. In 1990, he was defeated for re-election byDemocratTom Umberg in 1990. After the redistricting of 1991, Pringle ran and was elected to thedistrict, Assembly in 1992. He also won re-election in 1994 and 1996 and left the Assembly, due to term limits in 1998.

Pringle worked his way up the Republican hierarchy in the Assembly. After the Assembly Republicans won a majority in the 1994 election, Pringle, the Assistant Republican Leader at the time, also was appointed the Chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. He served in that capacity for most of 1995, when the Assembly operated under a power sharing agreement with a split house. Later in 1995, Pringle was elected the Assembly Republican Leader and became the Majority Leader of the Assembly, before being electedSpeaker in January 1996. In 1996, AssemblywomanDoris Allen was recalled from office in a in as tough campaign between Republicans and several Democrats. This recall campaign was marred by the tactic of some Republicans to aid Democratic primary decoy candidate Laurie Campbell in an attempt to split the Democratic ticket and thus weaken the candidacy of Democrat Linda Moulton-Patterson who was running against RepublicanScott Baugh for Allen's former seat. Mark Richard Denny, an aide to Pringle, admitted that he illegally circulated election nominating petitions for Campbell in order to split the Democratic vote.^[3][4] In addition, Jeff Gibson, another campaign aide to Pringle, also pleaded guilty to illegally gathering nomination signatures for the Campbell campaign.^[5][6]

Willie Brown stated that Pringle was the last state Assembly Speaker to wield broad power in the office, since rule changes immediately after Pringle's tenure transferred much of the Speaker's authority to committee chairmen. Pringle, for example, issued committee assignments to both parties' members, controlled State Assembly funds, and had broad administrative authority. As Speaker, Pringle also chaired the Assembly Rules Committee.^[3]

In 2002, Pringle re-entered electoral politics with his campaign for mayor ofAnaheim, 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 citycouncilwoman Lucille King (29%). During his tenure as mayor Pringle and the Anaheim City Council over which he presided enacted a number of reforms that theOrange County Register depicted as "freedom-friendly". According to theLos Angeles Times, "Pringle has built such a strong reputation for his aggressive pro-business approach to governance (creative tax waivers, sweeping zone changes, market incentives to redevelop run-down parts of the city) that other local officials have coined a verb for his philosophy: 'to Pringle-ize.'"^[7]

As an active mayor, governing with majority support on the city council, Pringle led the effort to transform the area surroundingAngel Stadium andHonda Center (formerly theArrowhead Pond) into thePlatinum Triangle, which is meant to be Orange County's "downtown". He was also the public face for the city as it courted theNational Football League for a football franchise and fought theAngels 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 toSacramento to collectively lobby thegovernor andCalifornia State Legislature.

He has a good relationship withLos Angeles MayorAntonio 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 theOrange County Transportation Authority'sboard of directors. In August 2006, theLos Angeles Times'sWest magazine named Pringle as one of the 100 most powerful people inSouthern California. And theOC Metro magazine listed Pringle in their Hot 25 for 2006.^[8]

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.^[9] On November 7, Pringle was re-elected with 79% of the vote, the highest percentage of any local candidate in Orange County who faced opposition in 2006.

Pringle serves as a member of the Board of Trustees ofWoodbury University inBurbank, California.

After losing toPhil Angelides in the 1998 race forCalifornia State Treasurer, Pringle launched a government affairs,public relations, and entitlement firm, Curt Pringle & Associates, LLC, of which he is currently president. His firm's clients have includedARCO, theCounty of Orange, theCity of Newport Beach,Yamaha, andJack in the Box.

Curt Pringle and Associates is based in Anaheim.

Pringle was also appointed in 1998 byGovernorPete Wilson to theOrange County Fair Board, where he served for four years. He was also appointed in 2007 by GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger to the Public Employees Post Employment Benefits Commission and to theCalifornia High-Speed Rail Authority, serving four and a half years, including two years as chairman of the Authority before resigning.

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.^[10]

In addition to his political work, Pringle has served as an adjunct professor at theUniversity of California, Irvine andChapman University, where he has taught Californian politics and government.

He has been married to his wife Alexis since 1984, with whom he has two children (Kyle and Katie).

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCurt Pringle.

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