Senate confirms Cox as SEC chairman

The U.S. Senate on Friday confirmed Rep. Chris Cox as the new

chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, nearly two months

after President Bush nominated him for the post.

Cox, who has represented Newport Beach in the U.S. House since

1988, could not be reached for comment on the confirmation. It’s not

clear when he will resign his congressional seat, but once he does,

the political dominos will start to fall as candidates seek to

replace him, in some cases leaving more legislative vacancies.

Throughout his tenure, the 52-year-old held prominent posts in the

Republican Party -- he chaired the U.S. House Policy Committee for a

decade and he led the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee since

its inception -- and he has often been mentioned for higher offices.

But those never panned out. He scrapped plans for a 1993 U.S.

Senate run after Michael Huffington vowed to pour buckets of money

into the race. In 2001, Cox withdrew his name from consideration for

a judgeship on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals when faced with

opposition from California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.

But by most measures, the Orange County congressman has been a

success. Boxer and Feinstein introduced him at a Senate banking

committee hearing Tuesday, a prelude to Friday’s easy confirmation

vote. And he’s known to some Newport constituents as a friend of the

Upper Newport Bay and a champion of limits on John Wayne Airport --

two of the biggest issues in the community.

Going to California

Cox’s grandparents were from Santa Monica, and his father grew up

in Southern California -- something he didn’t forget and later

reminded his family of after they moved to Minnesota. Cox was born

there, in St. Paul in 1952, but as a child he would visit his

grandparents in California, and his father reinforced a desire for

sunnier climes.

“Every time my father sent me out to shovel snow, he told me I

wouldn’t have to do this if I lived in Southern California,” Cox

said.

So for college he went to USC -- his father’s alma mater. Because

he changed his major a number of times, he decided to pick up extra

courses to keep from getting set back. But there was nothing to worry

about -- he graduated in three years with a double major in English

and in political science.

Later, while enrolled at Harvard Law School, Cox wandered into the

campus business library, liked the looks of it, and applied to the

business school.

“I was a liberal arts major in college, and it was part of my

education that I wanted to pursue,” he said. “I really enjoyed it too

-- the law school was something of a grind.”

But it paid off, in a manner of speaking. After graduating in 1977

from Harvard’s business and law schools, Cox got a job in Hawaii as a

clerk for Judge Herbert Choy on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals --

where years later, he sought a seat on the bench.

Although Cox loved Hawaii, his law career took him to Los Angeles,

where he joined the firm Latham & Watkins in 1978. He began living in

Orange County shortly thereafter. Minus a one-year teaching stint at

Harvard, Cox worked for the firm until 1986, when he was hired as

White House counsel under President Reagan.

“One day early on in my tenure, someone came to my office and

closed the door and said, ‘Nobody else in the White House knows this,

but we need to tell you.... President Reagan has decided to bomb

Libya,’” Cox said.

In 1988, Cox was having lunch with Dana Rohrabacher, a fellow

Orange Countian who was then a presidential speechwriter. Both men

had read that the congressmen in their districts were retiring, and

they discussed it.

“By the time we had finished lunch, we had both decided to run for

Congress,” Cox said.

In the race for an open seat that year, Cox beat out 13 other

Republicans and has been the 48th District’s congressman ever since.

He’s enjoyed his work, and he had no reason to expect the SEC

nomination. In fact, he spent much of this year on two major pieces

of homeland security legislation.

“It’s bittersweet in that sense because I’ve been pouring a lot of

energy into homeland security.... Just as I am poised to move forward

on the solutions to the problems I’ve been studying for the last

three years, that is violently interrupted by a different course,” he

said.

More a statesman than a showman

No one is likely to remember Chris Cox as a one-hit wonder, or for

a specific bill he wrote or an issue he backed. Few pieces of his

legislation may stand out, but the impression he makes on many people

is that of a smart, hard worker who listens -- more of a statesman

than a showman.

With his posts as chairman of the first U.S. House Homeland

Security Committee and a longtime member of Republican leadership,

Cox was able to play a national role, and he was free to do that

because his district didn’t need a lot of attention or funding, said

Adam Probolsky, an Orange County political pollster.

“Realistically, he’s the guy that made things happen in D.C., and

that’s what Orange County is looking for in Congress,” Probolsky

said.

As Republicans move further right and Democrats go left, Cox has

tried to work across the aisle -- he’s more of a Barry Goldwater than

a Tom Delay, said UC Irvine political scientist Louis De Sipio.

“He was a consensus builder, and this is not a consensus-building

age,” De Sipio said.

Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva, who has known Cox for years

and counts him as a friend, said the congressman always made time to

meet with him.

Sometimes it was an early breakfast when Cox had just stepped off

a plane, Silva said, adding, “I’ve met with him as late as 7 or 8

o’clock at night in his office when he’s still working.”

Just one big dispute

No one disputes that Cox was a hard worker and that he

accomplished some big things: He brought in federal money every year

for restoration of the Upper Newport Bay -- though not always as much

as the city of Newport Beach hoped for -- and he was instrumental in

forging an agreement that capped flight totals at John Wayne Airport,

a top priority to voters living in the flight paths.

In such a heavily Republican district, the conservative Cox could

do little wrong. Even Frank Barbaro, the chairman of the county

Democratic Party, praised Cox’s work in the House of Representatives

in spite of their philosophical disagreements.

But to some constituents, Cox made one major error -- an error

about the size of a jumbo jet. He didn’t support a commercial airport

at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which is now slated to become a

massive development of homes, commercial and industrial parcels and

public open space.

When it comes to the airport issue, “I think Chris Cox is the

worst congressman Newport Beach could have had,” said Phil Arst, a

leader in the city’s slow-growth Greenlight movement, which also

pushed for an El Toro airport.

“I think he did a lot of small things for Newport -- maybe we

should be grateful for that,” Arst said. “But the big, overwhelming

one, he let us down.”

But with the air station sold for development, an airport at El

Toro finally seems to be a dead issue.

The things that make Cox well suited to his new position at the

SEC are the things he’ll likely be remembered for as a congressman:

his intellect, his education, his work experience and his drive to

get things done.

“Chris is an individual that was far more interested in policy

than politics, and that’s rare,” said Thomas Tucker, a founding

member of the New Majority, a fundraising powerhouse for moderate

Republicans. “I think his legacy is one of statesmanship.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail

at alicia.robinson@latimes.com.