Al Alquist, 97; Former Senator Oversaw State Budget, Earthquake Readiness Legislation

Al Alquist, a former state senator who during 30 years in office brought the steady hand of a railroad yardmaster, which he was, to the unwieldy task of overseeing the state budget, has died. He was 97.

Alquist, who was among the first class of full-time legislators elected to the state Senate in 1966, died Monday from complications of pneumonia at a Sacramento nursing facility, his wife said.

“He believed that working people had a right to be in the middle class, and he had absolutely no need for those who wasted the taxpayer’s dollar,” said Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, a former colleague in the Senate. “He started as a Roosevelt-Truman Democrat and evolved as the country and his district did.”

The senator who represented Santa Clara County helped establish the California Energy Commission and the Seismic Safety Commission.

He also left his stamp on every major piece of earthquake preparedness legislation, before term limits forced him to retire in 1996.

One controversial bill that Alquist wrote prevents illegal immigrants from obtaining driver’s licenses or state-issued identification cards. Alquist said the law was needed because illegal immigrants used the documents to establish “proof” of lawful residence so they could apply for benefits such as food stamps that are available to U.S. citizens. The 1993 bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican.

Often wearing suspenders that were a reminder of his railroad days, Alquist carved a role for himself as the Senate’s chief budget writer, heading one of the Legislature’s two budget committees for most of his tenure.

“He was a citizen legislator who came up through the community and never forgot who he represented,” his wife, state Sen. Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara), told The Times.

“My dear husband and the Model T were born in the same year, 1908. The difference being my husband never outlived his usefulness,” said his wife, 61, who was elected to her husband’s old Senate seat in 2004.

Alquist labored on riverboats on the Ohio and Mississippi during the Depression, trained Navy fliers in World War II, worked on the unsuccessful 1956 presidential primary campaign of Estes Kefauver and finally found a home in the California Legislature in 1962.

As an Assemblyman, Alquist commuted from San Jose to Sacramento, fitting a full-time yardmaster’s schedule into his nights and weekends. Once elected to the Senate, he became a full-time lawmaker.

Alfred Ernest Alquist was born Aug. 2, 1908, in Memphis, Tenn. He was the eldest of eight children of a Swedish immigrant who spent years working for the railroad to pay off the cost of his ocean passage. At 12, Alquist began his 40-year railroad career by carrying water to crews.

After moving to San Jose with his first wife, Mai, in 1947, he became a dispatcher and yardmaster for Southern Pacific Railroad. Mai died in 1989 after 55 years of marriage.

In 1993, Alquist married Elaine White, who was then an aide to another senator. He died on the couple’s 13th wedding anniversary.

In addition to his wife, Alquist is survived by a son, Alan, from his first marriage, two stepsons and five grandchildren.