Patricia Bates

She was elected from the 36th Senate district, which covers an area in south Orange County and north San Diego County with more than 1 million residents.

Patricia "Pat" Carmody Bates (born December 15, 1939) is an American Republican politician who served in the California State Senate, representing the 36th Senate district, which encompasses parts of Orange and San Diego counties.

She left office on December 5, 2022.

She graduated in 1961.

Bates began her professional career as a social worker for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services.

She was employed by the department for ten years, and became a deputy district director.

Bates lived in Long Beach before moving in 1978 to what was then unincorporated Laguna Niguel in south Orange County.

Bates's political involvement began in the 1980s, when she was involved in a group called Citizens for a Safer Crown Valley Parkway, focused on improving pedestrian safety along a road corridor in Laguna Niguel.

She was a school volunteer and a then a member of the Laguna Niguel Community Council, serving as its president from 1986 to 1987.

Bates was also elected to the five-member, quasi-governmental Community Services District in 1986.

She also served as the first mayor of Laguna Niguel, California following its incorporation in 1989, and continued to serve on the city council until 1998.

Before serving as mayor, she had been employed as a social worker in Los Angeles County.

Patricia Carmody Bates was born in Los Angeles.

She grew up in Rosemead, California, in the San Gabriel Valley, before her family moved to Long Beach when she was 12 years old.

She graduated from Wilson High School and then attended Occidental College, majoring in psychology and studying abroad at the University of Madrid in her junior year.

After Laguna Niguel was incorporated as a city, she became the first mayor of Laguna Niguel in 1989.

She received the most votes among the 23 council candidates, and was named mayor.

She remained on the city council for a decade.

She was a board member of Saddleback Community College and the South Coast Medical Center Foundation.

Bates was the council's representative to the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, which opposed proposals to build an airport at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro; she was vice chair of the Authority.

Bates was member of the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2004, representing the 73rd Assembly district.

She won the 1998 Republican Assembly primary election with an endorsement by the outgoing Republican incumbent, Bill Morrow.

While in the Assembly, Bates sponsored legislation to extend "Megan's Law" to college campuses, and to allocate $35 million for projects to improve California beaches, many of which suffered from beach erosion.

She was elected to the Board in 2006 in a contentious campaign in which she faced three other candidates, the most significant being former Laguna Niguel mayor Cathryn DeYoung.

While Bates had greater name recognition and endorsements, DeYoung had a fundraising advantage.

DeYoung's campaign spent $2.7 million (including a $2.1 million loan from DeYoung herself); Bates campaign spent almost $700,000 (including $279,000 loan from Bates herself).

The two candidates' campaigns collectively spent almost $3.4 million, making it by far the most expensive campaign for supervisor in Orange County history up to that point.

The race was characterized by harsh negative campaigning, much of it focused on illegal immigration.

DeYoung attacked Bates as "weak on illegal immigration" while emphasizing her own anti-illegal immigration stance.

Bates' campaign sued DeYoung in an attempt to block a mailer that depicted Bates' face superimposed on a Matrícula Consular; two courts rejected Bates' request.

She previously served as a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors from 2007 to 2014, and the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2004.

Bates was a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors from 2007 to 2014.

She represented the 5th district, a largely white, wealthy, and conservative part of the county, stretching from Aliso Viejo to San Clemente.

As a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Bates joined in the unanimous 2007 vote to create the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board, a civilian police oversight agency to review complaints of misconduct levied against county law enforcement, although Bates wondered at the time whether the board would become a "toothless tiger."

In 2009, Bates joined in the Board's unanimous vote to overhaul the county Planning Department, which had been criticized in an audit for serious lapses.

In 2012, Bates voted against a proposal by Board chairman John Moorlach to place a referendum on the ballot that would change supervisor term limits from a maximum of two consecutive four-year terms to a lifetime maximum of three four-year terms.

The proposal failed on a 3–2 vote.

In 2014, Bates was elected to the California State Senate.

She served as the Senate's minority leader from 2017 to 2019.

In a 2018 interview, Bates said that her experience as a government bureaucrat made her realize government's shortcomings and caused her to view some government programs unfavorably.