Many loyal fans of Congressman Doug La Malfa, were shocked and stunned to receive word that in the early morning of January 6, 4:00 a.m. he had passed away, totally unexpectedly.
According to Erin Ryan of Redding, who has served as his assistant since 2013 when he was first elected to Congress, La Malfa went into the hospital in Chico, CA on Monday, Jan. 5, with a tear in his artery, which turned out to require emergency double bypass surgery, but his heart failed and he died at 4:00 a.m.
La Malfa had just a few weeks earlier on December 13, spoken for our Sonoma County Eagle Forum Christmas potluck and party. We were all so impressed with hm and were looking forward to his representing our new district, District 2 – if the newly voted in Proposition 50 is ruled legal by the federal judges who are examining it. Here is a picture of him surrounded by some of our Eagle Forum members and friends at the party.
Doug was only 65. He was a rice farmer on the family farm in Oroville that had been in the family for four generations. He left behind a wife, a son, and three daughters and one granddaughter. According to Erin Ryan, his son Kyle has been running the family farm for past two years. Kyle is married and has one small daughter. Another daughter was married last year. Doug’s passing was a total shock to the whole family.
Doug had served in Congress since 2013. He served on the Agricultural Committee, the Committee on Natural Resources, and Transportation and Infrastructure. He was the chair of the Subcommittee on Forestry under the Agriculture Committee and participated in matters related to water management and wildlife conservation.
Before that time, Doug had been elected to three terms as a member of the California Assembly. He was elected in 2002, 2004, and 2006.
La Malfa was known as a true conservative and always stood for and voted for conservative values. He was pro-life, pro-family and pro-property rights. He fought hard to save the four dams on the Klamath River from coming down because he knew their destruction would greatly harm the farmers and ranchers and all the fish and wildlife in the area, which is exactly what happened.
Erin Ryan stated that because of LaMalfa’s strong pro-life stand, the liberal feminist women often said that LaMalfa was against women. How could that be true when he had a wife and three daughters and even a granddaughter? Ryan said what she especially admired about him, “He was exactly as he appeared to be. There was no pretense about him.”
Who will replace him? Ryan said that someone will be appointed to take his place, and then there will probably be a special election to officially replace him next March. If that person is a Republican, he or she would probably just serve until the election of November 2026, because of the passage of Prop 50. If that is held up to be legal in court then it would change La Malfa’s district from District 1 to 2, which is much more of a democrat district and whoever replaces him as a Republican would have a very hard time to be reelected.
A short video clip of Doug LaMalfa speaking at our Eagle Forum meeting can be found on the website, eagleforumca.com./media/videos. It was recorded by Sarah Hillhouse.
We were so happy that Doug was able to attend our Christmas potluck and party. The picture of us with him and the video means even more to us now that it was our last time to be able to hear him speak.
Our condolences and prayers for the LaMalfa family. A truly great man has been taken much too early in his life, one who will be greatly missed for the service that he has given to his God, family and Country.