When you're running for office and your family is in the business of manufacturing vinyl records, it stands to reason you'd use them as campaign materials. That's what the Committee to Re-elect Assemblyman Jim Keysor did in 1972, the first time Keysor had to defend the seat he'd won in 1970. (And judging from the sticker on the front, apparently some leftovers were used in Keysor's unsuccessful bid for a state Senate seat in a special election held Jan. 30, 1973.)

Subtitled "a record of leadership," this 33-rpm long-playing vinyl record is a compilation of inaugural addresses by current U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and his five immediate predecessors: Franklin D. Rooselvelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. (While some might find it unusual to see a stop, or period, after Truman's middle initial since it didn't stand for anything, both the Truman Library and the Government Printing Office use a stop.)

The back of the album cover features photos of the assemblyman and his family, along with biographical information. It reads:

Assemblyman Jim Keysor
A Record of Leadership
On Making Government Serve

About Jim Keysor...
Full-time Legislator 41st Assembly District. Born in Salt Lake City, December 10, 1927. Attended UCLA, B.S., San Fernando Valley State College (graduate work). Married to Patricia Williams; children: Bill, twins Susan and Karen, and Julia [sic: should be Julie]. Veteran, U.S. Army, W.W. II. Member, Granada Hills Foundation; San Fernando Valley Symphony Association; San Fernando Valley State President's Club; California Arts Commission; Golden Triangle Sponsor; Special Education Advisory Council; Past President, Chamber of Commerce and Rotary; Los Angeles Watershed Commission; Executive Boards of Boy Scouts; United Way and Red Cross; American Management Association; NAACP; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; San Fernando/Sylmar Coordinating Council. Assembly Committees; Vice Chairman, Committee on Government Organization; Education; Natural Resources and Conservation; Transportation; Chairman, Special Committee on Consumer Affairs and Vice Chairman, Senate-Assembly Joint Committee on Seismic Safety. Chairman, Special Committee to Investigate the Sylmar Tunnel Disaster and author of the Tunnel and Mine Safety Act of 1972. Strong interest in legislation pertaining to education, handicapped and the environment.

This Record Not For Sale
This patriotic recording is a symbol of things that Assemblyman Jim Keysor stands for ... the characteristics that made America great. Price in our country. A strong belief in the basic American ideal. As former president of a large record manufacturing company he was able to produce this complete album at "cost of materials" only and is pleased with this opportunity to present it for your enjoyment as a free gift.

"We don't have all the answers, but we are listening, asking questions, trying to see it like it is. ... then, facing up." — Jim Keysor, Sacramento, 1972.

Committee to Re-elect Assemblyman Jim Keysor
P.O. Box 886 • San Fernando, California
Everett Burkhalter, Chairman

Art workby Nu-Arts

Assemblyman James B. Keysor Jr. (Dec. 10, 1927 – Feb. 13, 2014) represented parts of the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys (then the 41st Assembly District) from 1970 to 1978.

The lone Democrat in a family of Republicans, "Jim" was the eldest of five children and namesake of patriarch James "Bud" Keysor, who brought his vinyl record manufacturing plant from Burbank to Saugus in 1957.

In time, Jim Keysor became president and CEO of Keysor-Century Records. Active in the local business community, he served in 1967 as president of the Newhall-Saugus-Valencia Chamber of Commerce (forerunner to the SCV Chamber) and was an active Rotarian, serving as president of the local club.

In 1970, Keysor unseated the one-term incumbent Republican Assemblyman Henry "Hank" Arklin, a Newhall businessman and property owner. Keysor would beat Arklin again in a 1972 rematch.

No sooner was Keysor seated in the Assembly than the Sylmar-San Fernando earthquake of Feb. 9, 1971, shook his district, knocking down new freeway bridges and destroying Olive View hospital. Keysor served on a special three-member legislative panel that analyzed the quake effects, and he authored new seismic safety laws that remained on the books until the 1994 Northridge earthquake rendered them obsolete.

Keysor would chair another special legislative committee empaneled to investigate the "Sylmar Tunnel Disaster." Four months after the 1971 earthquake, 17 workers were killed in a methane gas explosion in a Sylmar water tunnel. It was the worst underground disaster in California history. Keysor's committee drafted new safety laws that empowered Cal-OSHA to levy fines and shut down hazardous tunnels and mine shafts.

Considered a friend to the environment, in 1972 Keysor was one of three lawmakers (out of 120) to receive a 100-percent rating from environmental watchdogs. Roughly half of the bills he carried in his freshman term were signed into law by Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan. In 1976, as chairman of an Assembly subcommittee on elections, it was Keysor's name on the legislation that established processes to qualify political parties and randomize the order of candidates' names on ballots.