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Candidate Profile from Congressional QuarterlyMike Thompson (D) of NapaOpen Seat
Thompson knows the North Coast's 1st District intimately. He has represented all but a tiny sliver of it in the state Senate, all while becoming a top power broker. During his years in Sacramento, Thompson accrued a considerable amount of power, most recently serving as chairman of the Budget Committee. Although not officially a member of the Senate leadership, Thompson is said to wield more power over the state's $70 billion budget than any other rank-and-file legislator. Thompson has developed a reputation in Sacramento as a thoughtful and independent-minded moderate who successfully built coalitions across party lines to reach agreements on budget matters and other legislation. He sponsored a bipartisan welfare overhaul that provided recipients with day care, job training and education to move them off the rolls. He also got passed a measure that cut the salaries of some state officials and another that required health insurance companies to cover preventive care for children. Thompson says the central concerns of his district education, health care, Social Security, Medicare and oil drilling will top his congressional agenda. In addition, he is interested in addressing the issue of civility and "rabid partisanship" in the House, something he says voters have brought up consistently along the campaign trail. Although Thompson says he would appreciate a slot on either the Appropriations or Commerce committees, he admits that his chances of obtaining such seats immediately are small. Instead, he is shooting for seats on the Agriculture Committee key in his largely rural district and the Budget Committee, an interest that he brings from Sacramento.
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