'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'--on a 10-speed

The following first appeared in Capitol Weekly A profile of Tom Torlakson With a shoulder rubbed raw, a gash in his thigh and blood caked onto his body, Tom Torlakson crossed the finish line. It had been about three hours since the wheels of his bike had skidded out from under him. He was midway through a Half Ironman triathlon, a grueling 1.2 mile swim, followed by 56 mile bike, and 13.5 mile run--most of which he completed while bleeding. "Take that same experience of him riding a bike and take that as a campaigner, as a legislator and you have Tom," said Andrew Acosta, a Democratic political consultant who managed Torlakson's 2000 Senate campaign. With a body and attitude built for distance sports, Torlakson still retains a boyish charm, speaking with an earnestness that is as disarming as it is rare in elected politics. And Senate insiders say the affable East Bay senator is in line for a Senate leadership position. On October 13, I joined the Antioch lawmaker for a bike ride--whizzing through the streets of Sacramento at 25 miles per hour. About five minutes in, he pointed out a pothole in the road. "I meant to call about that last time," muses the senator, who is also the chair of the transportation committee. Torlakson has a Mr. Smith goes to Washington air about him (Smith, one might recall, was also a fan of the outdoors). Besides calling about potholes, Torlakson's cycling group, to which lobbyists, staffers, legislators and journalists are all invited--often avoids long distances on bike paths, lest they exceed the 15-mile per hour speed limit. After nine years in Sacramento, Torlakson still very much remains the bright-eyed believer who introduced the maximum-allowed 40 bills in his first two-year term in the Assembly. But beneath that Boy Scout exterior is a ferocious competitor... Read the rest here.