[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 88 (Tuesday, June 28, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H5260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             MIKE GORDON: A CALIFORNIA LEADER LOST TOO SOON

  (Ms. HARMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. HARMAN. Madam Speaker, the seaside community of El Segundo in my 
congressional district, rich in so many ways, is a great deal poorer 
following the death on Saturday of its longtime Mayor and State 
assembly representative Mike Gordon. Those of us who knew Mike well and 
the countless others whose lives he touched are devastated by his 
unexpected and untimely passing.
  In the course of my public career, few people have had a more 
profound impact on me and the policies I pursue than Mike Gordon. He 
was a natural politician, drawn to people, and driven to solve their 
problems, no matter how big or small.
  Mike Gordon was a big thinker, one who could see around corners, 
anticipating the needs of his community and forging, in a strong but 
sensitive way, its future. He was a mayor, an assembly member, a 
baseball coach, community activist, party leader, good husband, father, 
and friend. And when he succumbed to brain cancer in the early morning 
hours of June 25, he was just 47 years old.
  When Mike received his dire diagnosis 3 months ago, the broader world 
of California politics was just opening to him. Years of consensus 
building and goodwill and enormous potential were cut cruelly short.
  I grieve for his family: his devoted wife, Denise; and four children; 
Ryan, Erika, Amanda, and Gordy; and for our larger loss.
  Madam Speaker, Gordy Gordon designed a rubber bracelet which said ``I 
am helping Mike fight.'' Though Mike lost that physical fight, we who 
survive him will carry on the fight for the beliefs we share.

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