During his time in Congress, Ose was named a "Hero of the Taxpayers" by Americans for Tax Reform, a "Guardian of Small Business" by the National Federation of Independent Business and earned a "Tax Fighter" award from the National Tax Limitation Committee. In 2001, Ose voted for one of the largest tax cuts in American history, a $1.35 trillion tax reform package that ended the marriage penalty tax, lowered the estate tax and increased child tax credits. As Chairman of a House Government Reform Committee, Ose held hearings to promote legislation to change rules governing gifts to presidents. In an effort to complete construction of a border fence originally started in 1996, Ose, along with David Dreier, co-authored a bill that would grant the United States Secretary of Homeland Security authorization to ignore all laws he or she deemed "necessary to ensure the expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section". According to The Sacramento Bee, during his congressional tenure, Ose appeared regularly in lists of the wealthiest members of Congress. This was based on the value of his real estate holdings purchased in the 1980s. According to financial disclosures his net worth is between $51.5 million and $175 million. Ose honored a self-imposed term-limit pledge and declined to run for re-election to the U.S. House in 2004.
In 1998, Ose decided to run for California's 3rd congressional district. In the open primary, he ranked first with 30% of the vote. His next closest competitor, Democrat Sandie Dunn, received 23% of the vote. Ose and Dunn qualified for the general election, in which Ose defeated Dunn by a margin of 52%–45%--one of the few bright spots in a mostly bad year for Republicans, particularly in California. Ose won re-election in 2000 with 56% of the vote and again in 2002 with 62% of the vote.
2014
On September 3, 2013, Ose formally announced his candidacy for his old district, which had been renumbered as the 7th district, in hopes of facing freshman Democrat Ami Bera, who unseated Dan Lungren in 2012. On June 3, Ose qualified for the November general election by ranking second in the open primary with 26% of the vote. He defeated Republicans Igor Birman and Elizabeth Emken. Bera ranked first with 48% of the vote and faced Ose in the general election. The Rothenberg Political Report rated the contest as a "Pure Toss-up"; and even eight days after the November 4 election, the race was still undecided, with Bera leading Ose by just 711 votes at the time with 19,000 ballots yet to be counted. Ultimately, Ose lost the race to Bera by 0.8%.
Ose hinted in 2017 that he was considering running for Governor of California in the 2018 election, telling the Los Angeles Times that he was "gravely concerned" about the state's future, elaborating "there's no other way to describe it – we've gone backwards. I don't care whether you're talking about housing or quality of jobs that are available or road maintenance or the homeless question. There's nobody in office today that's doing anything about it." He announced he would run in January 2018. In February, however, Ose determined this was not the right time. While discussing his decision to not pursue the office at that time, Ose told Fox Business' Stuart Varney: "Cost of housing is out of control, K-12's failing, homeless everywhere, traffic gridlock, no jobs, it's just like...go down the checklist and they're 0 for life." Ose then formed Rebuild California Foundation, a 501 Tax-Exempt Educational Organization, to research and propose solutions for the top issues affecting the lives of everyday Californians.
Personal life
Ose is married to Lynnda Ose. They have two daughters, Erika and Emily, who attended Ose's former high school, Rio AmericanoHigh School. Their main residence is in the unincorporated area of Sacramento County. In 2011, when budget constraints forced the closure of Gibson Ranch Park in Sacramento County, Ose applied to run the facility as a private operator. Since Ose began managing the park in April 2011, the regional park has been open daily and has welcomed about 250,000 visitors.
