Barry Goldwater Jr.

In office

California's 27th congressional district opened up in January 1969 when Edwin Reinecke resigned to accept an appointment as lieutenant governor of California. The district at the time covered eastern Kern County and parts of northern Los Angeles County. In primaries for the following special election, Goldwater was nominated by the Republicans and John Van de Kamp was nominated by the Democrats. Goldwater won the special general 57%-43%, serving for the remainder of the 91st Congress, and was re-elected twice. He then was redistricted to the 20th congressional district ahead of the 1974 election, and was elected to another four terms in that district.

During his time in Washington, Goldwater served on the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, the Joint Committee on Energy, and the Committee on Science and Technology. He drafted a number of bills while serving in the House, most notably the Privacy Act of 1974, which prevents the distribution of private information from government and businesses.

With his district merged with that of Bobbi Fiedler due to redistricting after the 1980 census, Goldwater retired from the House to run for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in 1982. He lost the primary to San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson, who would go on to win the general election and who eventually became governor. Goldwater attributed his loss to a poorly ran campaign.^{[citation needed]}

Advocacy

In the 1980 presidential election, Goldwater campaigned for Ronald Reagan, a family friend, who won the election against Jimmy Carter. Ahead of the 2003 recall election to replace Gray Davis as Governor of California, Goldwater supported Arnold Schwarzenegger, and had a public debate with President Reagan's son Ron Reagan.^[1]

On November 16, 2007, Goldwater endorsed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas for the GOP nomination in 2008.^[2] On January 5, 2008, Goldwater announced he would go to New Hampshire to campaign for Paul,^[3] after the latter's 10% showing in the Iowa caucuses two days earlier. Paul would garner 8% of the vote in New Hampshire. Goldwater also spoke in support of Paul at the Kansas GOP caucus.

On September 4, 2008, a list of electors in Louisiana using the label "Louisiana Taxpayers Party" paid $500 and filed papers^[4] with the Secretary of State's office^[4] to get on the ballot. They were pledged to Paul for president and to Goldwater for vice president.^[4] The ticket received 9,368 votes in Louisiana, finishing third in the popular vote.^[5]

In 2015, Goldwater was chairman of TUSK – Tell Utilities Solar won't be Killed – "that aims at pushing solar from a different perspective: a Republican one".^[6] The group favored net metering. In the same policy area, the Goldwater Institute, a non-profit political think tank which studies and publishes findings on public policies that align with the conservative values promoted by Goldwater's father, "sued to have [Arizona]'s renewable energy standards and tariffs throw[n] out in a move that would have slowed solar development to a crawl".^[7] The effort failed, The Arizona Corporation Committee with Barry's urging found a compromise from all interest parties.