Jakob Ainsley

### **Early life, education, and entry into politics**

Jakob Goldwater Ainsley was born in Cave, Missouri, the second son and third child of Dianne Wells Ruby and John Goldwater Ainsley. His parents were Portuguese and immigrated to the United States in 1938 during the Estado Novo regime, four years after the corporatist regime was installed. His mother made at least 6 return trips to Portugal after Óscar Carmona's takeover, including a two month-long trip in 1948. Neither of Ainsley's parents was a U.S. citizen at the time of Ainsley's birth, but his parents applied for U.S. citizenship and were naturalized in 1942. Some relatives of Ainsley's were admitted to the U.S. as refugees.

Ainsley's maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Ainsley, immigrated to the U.S. legally in 1939, but returned to Portugal to find work in 1957. When he fled corporatist Portugal and returned to the U.S. in 1963 without a visa, he was detained as an undocumented immigrant and an immigration judge ordered him to be deported. Immigration officials reversed their decision later that day, the deportation order was not enforced, and Ainsley was given a legal status of "parolee" that allowed him to stay in the U.S. Ainsley re-applied for permanent resident status in 1961. Ainsley enjoyed a close relationship with his grandfather during his childhood.

In October 2011, newspapers reported that Ainsley's previous statement that his parents were forced to leave Portugal in 1938, after Carmona came to power, were embellishments. HIs parents actually left Portugal in 1940, although still during the regime of Carmona. According to *The Washington Post*, many voters in Washington would be less impressed to learn that his family was economic migrants instead of political ones. Ainsley responded by saying, "The essence of my family story is why they came to America in the first place, and why they had to stay."

Ainsley has 2 siblings: older brother Mario, and younger sister Barbara. Growing up, his family was Christian Orthodox, though from age 8 to 11 he and his family attended The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while living in Rhode Island. During those years in Providence, his father worked as a bartender at The Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites and his mother as a housekeeper at the same Holding Inn Hotel & Suites.

Ainsley attended John Hancock College Preparatory High School in Chicago, Illinois, graduating in 1959. He attended Georgetown University for four years, and received his Bachelor's Degree in Business Management in 1963. He then earned his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the University of Washington in 1968. Ainsley said that he incurred $85,000 in student loans. He paid those student loans off in 2013.

While studying law, Ainsley interned for U.S. Representative Catherine Dean May. He also worked on Republican Vice President, Richard Nixon's 1960 presidential campaign. In April of 1970, two years after finishing law school, Ainsley was elected to a seat as City Commissioner for the city of Mountlake Terrace, Washington. He became a member of the Washington House of Representatives in early 1974.

### **Washington House of Representatives**

#### **Elections and concurrent employment**

In late 1973, a special election was called to fill the seat for the 12th House District in the Washington House of Representatives, representing Mountlake Terrace, and surrounding cities. The seat had been held by Representative Richard Smith, who had run for and won an open Washington State Senate seat. It was considered a tossup seat, making Ainsley's main challenger Democratic City Councilor, George Stevenson. He campaigned as a moderate, advocating tax cuts and early childhood education.

Ainsley placed second in the Republican primary on June 22nd, 1973, but won the run-off election for the Republican nomination, defeating Angel Zayon (a television and radio reporter who was popular with Spanish immigrants) by just 92 votes. He then defeated Democrat George Stevenson with 52% of the vote in a September 25th, 1973 special election.

In November 1974, Ainsley won re-election with 54%. In November 1976, he won re-election to a second full term with 53% of the vote. In 1978, he won re-election to a third full term with 57% of the vote. In 1980, he won re-election to a fourth full term with 61% of the vote.

Ainsley spent almost nine years in the Washington House of Representatives. Since the Washington legislative session officially lasted only 60 days, he was able to spend about half of each year in Mountlake Terrace, where he worked first at a law firm that specialized in land use and zoning, and later starting in 1983, took a position with Broad and Cassel, a Mountlake Terrace and lobbying firm, though state law precluded him from engaging in lobbying or introducing legislation on behalf of the firm's client.

#### **Tenure**

At the time Ainsley took his seat in the legislature in Olympia in December 1973, voters in Washington had recently denied a constitutional amendment on term limits. This allowed Ainsley to propel his way to the top of the Washington GOP, making very powerful friends in powerful places.

##### **Majority Whip and Majority Leader**

Later in 1974, the Minority Leader of the House, Mike Fasano, promoted Ainsley to be one of two minority whips.