Quentin L. Kopp

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Quentin Lewis Kopp (born 1928 in Syracuse, New York) is a retired California politician and judge. He served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 1971-1986, and as a member of the California State Senate from 1986-1998, representing California's 8th Senatorial District, which included the northern portions of San Mateo County and southern portions of San Francisco.

Kopp graduated from Dartmouth College in 1949 and later from the Harvard Law School.

In the 1970s, Kopp served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing the conservative West Portal neighborhood. After his colleague and political ally, Dianne Feinstein, lost the mayor's race in 1975, she agreed not to run for mayor again and support Kopp's bid for mayor in 1979. However, in 1978, mayor George Moscone was assassinated (along with gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk) at City Hall, making Feinstein, then President of the Board of Supervisors, the new mayor.

In 1979, Kopp ran for mayor against Feinstein, but narrowly lost in a runoff. This election also featured Jello Biafra (singer for the punk band The Dead Kennedys) and Sister Boom Boom (Jack Fertig). After this election, Kopp successfully authored a bill to require all future candidates for office in SF to be listed under their given names, so that "there'll be no more Sister Boom Booms."

In 1986, Kopp ran for California State Senate as an independent in a heavily Democratic district straddling south San Francisco and northern San Mateo counties. Republicans' distaste for the Democratic nominee (then Assemblyman Lou Papan) led them to financially support Kopp, who went on to win by just 1 percentage point. He twice won reelection easily.

After his retirement from the State Senate, Kopp became a judge in San Mateo County in 1999. He retired from the bench in January 2004. Currently he serves as the Chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority Board. Kopp is married to the former Mara Sikaters and has three children: his eldest son, Shepard, works for Mark Geragos' law firm. His second son is a musician who goes by the name Stark Raving Brad and lives in San Francisco. His daughter Jennifer is the executive director of the Napa Valley Grape Growers Association.

He served in political office as an independent, rather than as a member of either major political party. Along with a reputation for political outspokenness and independent views, his status as an independent contributed to his reputation as one of the leading figures in San Francisco Bay Area politics. For a time, Kopp held a time slot as a radio talk show host on KGO-AM, a popular talk radio station.

Interstate 380 in San Mateo County was named the "Quentin L. Kopp Freeway". (The road was previously named the Portola Freeway by California's State Legislature, after Gaspar de Portolà.)