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Entering his fifth term in the legislature, after previously serving on the Madera County Board of Supervisors, Frank Bigelow brings staunch conservative views to his work.
Running for re-election in 2018, the Republican, among other things, opposed single-payer health care, rent control, and high-speed rail. His conservatism is also evidenced with Bigelow receiving 100 percent ratings from the National Rifle Association and two anti-abortion groups, the California Pro-Life Council and Life Priority, while getting just 20 percent approval from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.
Described in a March 24, 2004 Fresno Bee article on his family as “an articulate man with a gentle touch,” Bigelow has been popular in his district, running unopposed for re-election in the most recent cycle.
Background
The 66-year-old Bigelow was born in Fresno and has three children with his wife of 42 years, Barbara.
Bigelow has worked since 1973 for the Ponderosa Phone Company, which his family established informally in 1908 when it strung phone wire between two houses in O’Neals, California. In the 2004 article about his family, the Fresno Bee wrote about Bigelow’s beginnings with the company and making the best of menial tasks early on, which follows his life philosophy: “Life isn’t difficult. It really is quite simple.”
Committees
Appropriations (vice chair)
Governmental Organization (vice chair)
Health
Insurance
Water, Parks and Wildlife
Select Legislation
AB 524: Bigelow’s bill would have designated deputy sheriffs in Mono, Del Norte, and San Mateo counties as peace officers. While the bill passed the assembly 79-0 and the state senate 40-0 in September 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it the following month.
“I understand these counties' desire to add additional capacity to their law enforcement efforts, but these discussions merit additional scrutiny in a more comprehensive manner,” Newsom wrote in his veto. “A number of bills have been enacted over recent decades-and several in recent years-applying this bill's provisions to specific counties, but this is a piecemeal approach that I cannot support.”
AB 187: This bipartisan bill, which Bigelow and Democratic Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia co-sponsored, authorized establishing a mattress recycling organization within California. The bill passed and was signed into law in the fall of 2019.
District Boundaries and Office Locations
Bigelow’s sprawling, rural, and conservative district encompasses all or parts of Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Placer, and Tuolumne. It also includes Yosemite National Park and all or part of five national forests: Eldorado, Inyo, Sierra, Stanislaus, and Toiyabe.
