Bob Epple

Robert "Bob" Epple (November 18, 1948 – April 13, 2011) was an American attorney and politician from California and a member of the Democratic Party.

Epple first ran for elective office in 1980, when he challenged entrenched GOP state senator Bill Campbell in what was then a safe Republican district.

He then served as an elected member of the Cerritos College Board of Trustees from 1981 until 1988, when he ran for the California State Assembly.

Epple challenged incumbent assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-La Mirada) in the 1988 election. Democrats considered Grisham vulnerable after he lost a special state senate election the year before against then Norwalk councilman Cecil Green within roughly the same geographic area. With help from Sacramento Democrats and Speaker Willie Brown, Epple narrowly defeated Grisham.

Reelected easily in 1990, Epple had a much tougher time in 1992, when he opted to run in the newly drawn 56th Assembly District, based around Cerritos, Bellflower, Downey and part of Long Beach. Although he represented a portion of the new district before reapportionment, he had to move there to seek reelection, mainly to open up a his old Norwalk-based 63rd district (which had been redrawn as a majority-Latino district) for a Latino candidate. He faced conservative businessman Phil Hawkins, in what became one of the most expensive California legislative races that year. Epple managed to only barely beat Hawkins by 542 votes. When they faced off in a rematch two years later, Hawkins beat Epple by more than 10 points in a strong year for Republicans nationally.

In 2004 Epple's wife Cheryl, then an elected member of the Cerritos College Board of Trustees, died suddenly of a heart attack. He replaced her on the board and was reelected in 2005 and 2010.

On April 13, 2011 Epple died after a long battle with leukemia.