Dennis Carpenter, 75; GOP State Senator Turned Lobbyist

Dennis Carpenter, a Republican who represented Orange County for eight years in the state Senate before founding one of Sacramento’s most successful lobbying firms, died Tuesday of a brain aneurysm. He was 75.

Carpenter collapsed at his ranch in Oklahoma on Sunday after complaining of a headache, according to his son Bruce. He was taken by helicopter to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, where he died.

Carpenter had struggled with a series of health setbacks, his son said, including open-heart surgery five years ago and a near-fatal brain infection.

He retired at the end of 2001 from the Sacramento lobbying firm he founded, Carpenter Snodgrass & Associates. His firm’s wide-ranging list of clients included Arco, Lockheed Martin, R.J. Reynolds, the Sacramento Kings basketball team, Edison International and Orange County.

He moved from Newport Beach to Oklahoma upon his retirement. There, he owned and operated Caney Creek Ranch, a 20,000-acre cattle spread near Tahlequah.

“He’d been in Oklahoma enjoying retirement and enjoying life,” his son said.

An affable lawmaker, Carpenter was known as much for his sense of humor as his persuasiveness during his career in the Senate and 21 years as a successful lobbyist.

“He had a very engaging personality,” said former state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach). “That was an era when there was much more congeniality in Sacramento. No matter how angry he might be, he was never nasty. I don’t think he had any enemies.”

Carpenter was born in Minneapolis, the son of a high school math teacher and a coach. An all-state football player in high school, he considered continuing his athletic career at the University of Minnesota but decided he was too small. He joined the Army instead, enlisting at age 17. By his next birthday, he’d been commissioned a lieutenant.

After the Army, he moved to California in 1948 and enrolled at UCLA, working nights at a Lockheed plant. He graduated with a political science degree in 1952 and later earned a degree from the UCLA School of Law.

Carpenter worked as an FBI agent from 1954 to 1957 and around the same time began dabbling in political campaigns. He caught the eye of Knott’s Berry Farm founder Walter Knott, who began an effort to convince the then-Democrat to change parties. Carpenter finally relented, and Knott helped elect him chairman of the county Republican Party.

Carpenter later served as chairman of the state GOP and was a member of the Republican National Committee. In 1966, he joined political consultant Stuart Spencer to work on Ronald Reagan’s successful gubernatorial campaign.

In 1970, Reagan pushed Carpenter to run in a special election for a state Senate seat in Orange County. Carpenter represented Orange County through 1978, rising to Senate minority leader. In 1976, he vied for the U.S. Senate seat eventually won by S.I. Hayakawa.

Years later, he told a Los Angeles Times reporter that it was an opportunity he wishes had turned out differently.

“If I had gotten into the U.S. Senate, I probably would have stayed there to this day,” he said, noting that lawmakers at that level “have the ability to truly influence big things.”

After leaving the state Senate to attend to a failing land development company in the Sacramento area, he opened his lobbying business, building it into one of the capital’s top firms.

In 1995, he was instrumental in the passage of a package of bills aimed at helping Orange County recover from its historic bankruptcy.

As a lobbyist, Carpenter gained the respect of legislators on both sides of the political aisle.

“He’s very effective,” former Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, told The Times years ago. “He never takes himself seriously. He’s able to grasp a volume of information and synthesize it. And he’s got integrity. He never lies to you. I don’t think there’s any better.”

Carpenter was married and divorced three times. In addition to his son Bruce, he is survived by sons Kenneth, Frank and Scott, all of Newport Beach, and 11 grandchildren.

Carpenter will be buried at a five-acre cemetery on his property in Oklahoma where his mother and brother are buried. Funeral services will be held Monday.

A memorial service in Newport Beach is planned for January.