Richard “Dick” Rainey, a former Contra Costa County sheriff and legislator who served terms in the state Senate and Assembly, died on July 4. He was 82.
Rainey, a Walnut Creek resident, died from melanoma, his family said.
His lengthy career in law enforcement culminated with his election as sheriff in 1978. Rainey later went on to win the District 15 Assembly seat in 1992 as a Republican candidate, representing parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
He was elected to the Senate District 7 seat in 1996, campaigning as a moderate conservative who was tough on crime but actively involved in bipartisan legislative efforts.
As a senator, Rainey worked on the successful effort to enact California’s tough-on-crime “three strikes” law in 1996, which required people convicted of three violent or serious felonies to serve prison terms of 25 years to life. Californians softened that law in 2012.
Although a career in politics is not what many people would have predicted for the son of Oregon loggers, Rainey often defied expectations, according to family members and former associates who remember him as a quiet, reserved man who spoke with sincerity.
“He carried himself with a lot of authority, but he was never demanding,” his stepson Kevin McNulty said in an interview. “He basically said, ‘Here’s how it is,’ and you would listen to everything he said.”
Rainey was born on Dec. 5, 1938, in Medford, Oregon. He grew up very poor, according to family members, and spent much of his youth traveling with parents to lumber camps. One night, Rainey woke up when a civet sneaked into the family tent. His father promptly shot and killed the skunk-like animal, which gave off a smell Rainey would remember for the rest of his life.
Seeking a new kind of life after high school, Rainey joined the U.S. Navy, where he served four years. Afterward, he was hired to the Compton Police Department and settled down with his first wife, Michelina.
In 1964, Rainey accepted a job at the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, where he would spend the next 28 years of his career. While working, he went to school part-time and earned an associate’s degree at Sacramento State University and a bachelor’s at Golden Gate University.
Rainey was elected sheriff in 1978 and helped oversee construction of a new jail in Martinez and another one in Richmond. Over time, he grew frustrated with state lawmakers for reducing inmates’ sentences and allowing early releases from prison.
“Dick felt that people were not paying their time, and victims were left for the rest of their lives in pain,” said Paula Miller, who served as campaign manager for Rainey’s 1992 Assembly run.
Rainey and his three children suffered a personal loss when Michelina died in the mid-1980s. His daughter, Gina Rainey, recalled how she could approach her father about anything during her teenage years — always finding a compassionate listening ear.
“Even if it was something that would make a parent cringe,” Gina said in an interview, “he and I would go into the garage and we’d figure out how to get through it.”
Rainey was never outspoken or showy, family members and associates said. He was genuine and mindful, communicating what he thought needed to be done in a way that radiated honesty, they said.
While sheriff, Rainey crossed paths with Sue McNulty, the mayor of Moraga, which had recently incorporated into a city. Instead of forming a police department, McNulty was looking to contract with the sheriff’s office for public safety.
But those contract talks soured, and one of McNulty’s first moves as mayor was to tell the sheriff to forget it. Years later, the two married after a courtship sparked by a chance encounter at a Fourth of July event.
“We started talking and there was something that just clicked,” said Sue, whose last name is now Rainey. “I looked at him and that was it — the whole world disappeared except for Richard. He didn’t know he was toast. Every place he went, he turned around and there I was saying, ‘Hello.’ “
Her four children from a previous marriage found him to be a warm, fatherly presence who brought a sense of even-tempered discipline to the household.
“He was a very tolerant man, and he and my mom really gelled together,” Kevin Mcnulty said. “When he came into our lives, he changed it for the better.”
The couple spent years playing tennis together and traveling to their timeshare in Mexico two or three times a year. Sue Rainey later served as mayor of Walnut Creek and retired from politics in 2010.
Dick Rainey meanwhile lost his Senate re-election campaign by 8 points to Democrat Tom Torlakson.
He later went on to serve as regional director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the George W. Bush administration, a job that required him to wake up three hours earlier for regular telephone conferences with officials in Washington, D.C.
In retirement, he played golf and spent time with his 12 grandchildren, even braving the technology of Nintendo Switch games to be close to them.
When he was diagnosed with melanoma in 2019, Rainey found that tumors had spread across his body. But he soldiered on for another two years, before his passing on the Fourth of July.
“He was so reliable and was always there for you,” Sue Rainey said. “I was fortunate to be able to share my life with him.”
A memorial for Dick Rainey is being planned to take place at the city’s Lesher Center for the Arts in the coming weeks.
