Charles M. Shortridge

ark.cdlib.org

Date	Party	Office	Votes	Result
11-08-1898	Republican	SD-30	3454	Win
11-04-1902	Independent	SD-28	2557	Win
11-06-1906	Independent	SD-28	1794	Loss

Candidate Biography:

Charles Morris Shortridge
Born: August 24, 1857 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa
Children: Gloria J. Shortridge
Married: Adele McLeod (in 1881), Elizabeth Wright (in 1899),  Delmas Walter Martin (in 1908)
Children: Vesta, Charles Jr., Clara May and Gloria J. Shortridge
Family: Brother of US Senator Samuel M. Shortridge
Died: June 30, 1918 in Berkeley, CA

1875-1883: Staff, San Jose Daily Mercury
1884-1898: Editor and Proprietor, San Jose Daily and Weekly Mercury (purchased paper from J. J. Owen)
1895-189?: Manager, San Francisco Call
1901: Building and Loan Commissioner
1906: Attempts to buy the San Jose Mercury News from Hayes brothers (E. A. Hayes).

• LEGISLATION: Authored a bill (which passed the legislature), naming San Jose the new state capitol (it was vetoed).
• LEGISLATION: Author of SB 600 (Chapt 612, Stats of 1905) which provided the first regulation of California motor vehicles which included "vehicles propelled by any power other than muscular power... [including]motor cycles, motor bicycles, traction engines, or road rollers."
• The Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, in downtown Los Angeles, was named for Senator Shortridge's sister Clara who was the first woman admitted to the California bar and the first female clerk for the Assembly Judiciary Committee. The Foltz Criminal Justice Center was the location of the Richard Ramirez, O.J. Simpson, and Phil Spector murder trials.

Source: California Blue Book (1903)