John Vasconcellos, veteran legislator, dead at 82
John Vasconcellos, a visionary politician whose record 38 years in the California Legislature spanned an era from Ronald Reagan to Arnold Schwarzenegger, died at his Santa Clara home Saturday at the age of 82.
Mr. Vasconcellos was known both as a tough state budget wonk who long chaired the Assembly's Ways and Means Committee and as a New Age liberal whose 1986 "California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem, Personal and Social Responsibility" became a national symbol for the state when cartoonist Garry Trudeau mocked the committee for weeks in his "Doonesbury" comic strip.
It was a combination that brought him respect - albeit with some head-shaking - from both the politicians in Sacramento and the voters in his Silicon Valley district, who sent him to the Legislature from his first election to the Assembly in 1966 until he was forced out of the state Senate by term limits in 2004.
Read More: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/John-Vasconcellos-veteran-legislator-dead-at-82-5503449.php
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