Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Assemblyman Bill Hoge
In the fall of 1988 as the SMCC Pro-life Committee
was getting off to a start I realized several things.
This was a moment in history where I wanted to
step up to the plate and get involved. Perhaps in
some small way it was the same feeling that millions
of American men experienced in late 1941 after the
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. This was a
chapter of my life that was a long time in coming
since that fateful day in 1971 when I stood in front
of the pro-life display table in the campus student
union building. The teachings of Francis Schaeffer
(who I attended a lecture by him at Biola University
shortly before his death in 1984) as well as other
factors made a definie impact on my thinking.
Perhaps at this time I began to see life like chapters
in a book. While I thought that pro-life activities
were not necessarily something that I be in
permanently I wanted the experience of putting
my shoulder to the plow in this effort to deal with
one of the great moral issues of our time.
In 1993 while living in South Pasadena one of my
housemates at the time, Dean Stuckenschmidt,
another former Campus Crusade staffer, and I
got involved in another political campaign. This
time we voluteered to help in a race for the
California State Assembly.
A local businessman, Bill Hoge was running
for the position. Dean and I did volunteer office work,
placing yard signs and some precinct walking.
Hoge won the general election that year
and two years later ran again and won
that election also. Perhaps the major
thing I learned about that election was the
balancing act a political candidate has to
perform to weld together numerous and
disparate constituent supporter groups in
order to win an election. Once while in his
office I remember some folks coming in the
help with the campaign. Their main issue of
was anti-gun control and the freedom to bear arms.
As a conservative I was interested in a number
of issues, but on top of my list were abortion
and other pro-life matters. Bill Hoge had to tie
these different concerns together in a team to
help him win the election. For two elections he
did a good job of doing just that. I enjoyed
working for a campaign that won the election!
(Bill Hoge was in the California Assembly during
1993-1994 and 1995-1996.)
was getting off to a start I realized several things.
This was a moment in history where I wanted to
step up to the plate and get involved. Perhaps in
some small way it was the same feeling that millions
of American men experienced in late 1941 after the
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. This was a
chapter of my life that was a long time in coming
since that fateful day in 1971 when I stood in front
of the pro-life display table in the campus student
union building. The teachings of Francis Schaeffer
(who I attended a lecture by him at Biola University
shortly before his death in 1984) as well as other
factors made a definie impact on my thinking.
Perhaps at this time I began to see life like chapters
in a book. While I thought that pro-life activities
were not necessarily something that I be in
permanently I wanted the experience of putting
my shoulder to the plow in this effort to deal with
one of the great moral issues of our time.
In 1993 while living in South Pasadena one of my
housemates at the time, Dean Stuckenschmidt,
another former Campus Crusade staffer, and I
got involved in another political campaign. This
time we voluteered to help in a race for the
California State Assembly.
A local businessman, Bill Hoge was running
for the position. Dean and I did volunteer office work,
placing yard signs and some precinct walking.
Hoge won the general election that year
and two years later ran again and won
that election also. Perhaps the major
thing I learned about that election was the
balancing act a political candidate has to
perform to weld together numerous and
disparate constituent supporter groups in
order to win an election. Once while in his
office I remember some folks coming in the
help with the campaign. Their main issue of
was anti-gun control and the freedom to bear arms.
As a conservative I was interested in a number
of issues, but on top of my list were abortion
and other pro-life matters. Bill Hoge had to tie
these different concerns together in a team to
help him win the election. For two elections he
did a good job of doing just that. I enjoyed
working for a campaign that won the election!
(Bill Hoge was in the California Assembly during
1993-1994 and 1995-1996.)
# posted by Dino Don @ 9:23 AM 
