what happened in the California congressional races of the 1970s

[freepcrusher]

it seemed that a lot of oldtime candidates started dropping like flies then

1974
Chet Holifield (32 years)
Craig Hosmer (22 years)
Chuck Gubser (22 years)
Bill Maillard (22 years)
Chuck Teague (20 years, died)
Dick Hanna (12 years)
Jerome Waldie (8 years)
Bob Mathias (8 years)
Jerry Pettis (8 years)
Vic Veysey (4 years)

1976
Al Bell (16 years)
Burt Talcott (14 years)
Thomas Rees (11 years)
Andrew Hinshaw (4 years)

1978
John Moss (26 years)
Bernice Sisk (24 years)
John McFall (22 years)
Bob Leggett (16 years)
Del Clawson (15 years)
Charles Wiggins (12 years)
Leo Ryan (6 years)
Bill Ketchum (6 years)
Yvonne Brathwaite (6 years)
Jack Krebs (4 years)
Mark Hannaford (4 years)

1980
Bob Wilson (28 years)
Harold Johnson (22 years)
James Corman (20 years)
Lionel Van Deerlin (18 years)
Charlie Wilson (18 years)
Jim Lloyd (6 years)

By 1980, the three most senior incumbents of the delegation had been part of the Class of 1962: Ed Roybal (Downtown and East LA), Gus Hawkins (South Central LA), and Don Edwards (North San Jose). During the 1970s, the delegation lost something like 500 years of seniority which arguably hurt the state in terms of clout. Is it possible the 2011 remap will have the same effect? There are far more senior congressman than there were back then with the likes of Stark, Waxman, Miller etc who have all been in office for more than thirty years.