RUNNERS ENGAGED IN A REAL-LIFE RELAY MARRIED POLITICIANS JUGGLE JOBS, FAMILY.

Byline: Ben Schnayerson Staff Writer

Politics kept George and Sharon Runner apart for eight years. Now it may reunite them - and give them a foothold in history.

The conservative duo has a chance to be the first husband and wife in the Legislature if they win their elections in November.

While one or the other of the Runners has represented the High Desert in the Assembly for nearly a decade, one has been working and taking care of their daughter in Lancaster.

``I think it will be great that we will be together again after eight years of not being together four days a week,'' Sharon said. ``There is more to life than politics, but it does pretty much consume our conversation.''

The 50-year-old mother of two is running for her second term in the Assembly to represent Victorville, Adelanto, Lancaster, Palmdale and other desert cities in the 36th District.

Her 52-year-old husband, who termed out in 2002 after six years representing the 36th District, is running for the 17th state Senate District seat held by Pete Knight, R-Palmdale. It was vacated when he died in May. That district includes Hesperia, Victorville, Apple Valley, Adelanto, Barstow and Needles.

Both districts are heavily Republican, and the Runners each have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars since last spring. Because their opponents haven't raised enough to have a file on the Secretary of State's Web site, the couple have a good shot at bringing their union to the Legislature.

Being apart was particularly tough the first year George served in the Assembly, Sharon said. She wanted to move up to Sacramento.

These past two years, it's been George who's been raising 16-year-old Rebekah. ``It has been good the last two years to have her dad at home ... teaching her to drive,'' Sharon said.

``Once the election is over, she'll be coming up with us and doing independent study.''

Their 27-year-old son, Micah, is a project manager for Sacramento's economic development department. Sharon sees him often.

Family, Sacramento politics and the district's needs are a regular juggling act for legislators. The Runners have a fourth ball: their relationship.

They try to get away to a small cabin in Strawberry, outside Sacramento. They go to their church in Lancaster every week. And they talk on the phone as much as they can, having at least one long conversation a day.

``Our first commitment is to each other,'' George said. ``The vocations, whether they be political or other jobs ... are secondary.''

Before they entered Sacramento's world, the Runners were exclusively in Lancaster, but still political.

George was on the City Council and served as mayor. He and Sharon founded the Desert Christian Schools more than two decades ago, and he is currently chairman of the school board. He also lobbies and is a consultant for the cities of Lancaster and Victorville.

Sharon has been involved in a long list of organizations in the Antelope Valley, including the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, the United Way and the Antelope Valley Republican Women's Club. She also was a real estate agent.

Sacramento Republicans are excited to have both Runners in their ranks.

``They refer to her as the funner Runner,'' Sharon said.

``If she were ever to run against her husband, George, she would win,'' said Assemblyman Russ Bogh, R-Yucaipa.

George acknowledges that his wife might be the more diplomatic of the two.

``They say that Sharon is a much better legislator than I was,'' he said. ``But she is the one they have to deal with so what else are they going to say?''

While they may differ in personality, they're united on policy.

As an assemblyman, George pushed a bill requiring kids under 18 to get their parents' permission if they wanted a piercing. The bill was later changed so that parental permission was not required for ear-piercings. But it became law.

``Before somebody sticks a needle through the skin of my 12-year-old, I think I have a right to know that,'' he said in 1997.

He also got a bill passed that allows reserve police officers to carry concealed weapons even when they are outside their jurisdiction.

George proposed a bill requiring divorcees to present a parenting plan for their kids, and another requiring kindergartners to be 5 by Oct. 1 instead of Dec. 2. Neither became law.

He strongly opposed and voted against a bill that would have required the Air Resources Board to craft tough new rules on vehicle emission. It never became law.

``There are too many Democrats who fold to pressure (from) overzealous environmentalists,'' George said in 2002.

George also pushed legislation for the Amber Alert system that his wife continued to carry when she was elected to the Assembly in 2002.

When Sharon took over, she proposed a bill to limit possession of iodine - a key ingredient of methamphetamine. It became law.

She also wanted to increase fines for drunk driving, though that bill has stalled.

When some contractors with the San Bernardino County Coroner's Office had sex with the body of a dead 4-year-old girl they were transporting from the High Desert to the morgue in San Bernardino, Runner introduced a bill to give coroners more power to screen contractors.

After the protests in Phelan over a group home that was set to house registered sex offenders, Runner proposed a bill to give counties more control over placing sex offenders.

Both of those bills are pending.

She also had a bill, similar to her husband's, to require kindergartners to be 5 by Sept. 1 instead of Dec. 2. That idea is now part of the California Performance Review.

Sharon's opponent, Democrat Horton Scioneaux, a 69-year-old college instructor, admits the district is heavily conservative and doesn't give himself much of a chance.

``This is a rock-ribbed Republican district,'' he said.

But Scioneaux thinks Sharon and George are too socially conservative. He classified them with the religious right.

Sharon calls herself a ``principled pragmatist.''

``I think (religious right) is a label,'' she said. ``We are definitely conservative in our values.''

George's Democratic opponent, Jonathan Daniel Kraut, said the Runners can't work well with those on the other side of the aisle.

``They don't like working with what they call 'liberals' and are unable to solve problems,'' said Kraut, a 49-year-old education consultant.

George contests Kraut's comments, saying that he regularly had to work out budgets with Democrats while he served in the state Legislature.

But there is little love lost when it comes to their counterparts on the other side of the aisles, especially if their couple status is compared to a certain Hillary and Bill.

``Somebody said that in the past and I said no way do I want to be compared to the Clintons,'' Sharon said.