Representative Ernest Leslie Konnyu

Ernest Leslie Konnyu (born May 17, 1937) is an American businessman, military veteran, and former Republican legislator who represented California in both the state legislature and the United States Congress. He served as a member of the California State Assembly from the 22nd district from 1980 to 1986 and as a U.S. Representative from California’s 12th congressional district, centered in Silicon Valley, for one term from January 3, 1987, to January 3, 1989. During his time in public office, he was particularly associated with welfare reform initiatives at both the state and federal levels.

Konnyu was born Ernő “Ernie” Könnyű on May 17, 1937, in Tamási, in the Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Tamási, Hungary). He was the son of Leslie Konnyu, a poet, professor, and cartographer, and his wife Elizabeth, a bookkeeper and owner of a home secretarial school. He was the eldest of three children, with two younger siblings, Gabriela (Helen) and Zoltan (Joseph), both of whom later predeceased him. In the aftermath of World War II, the family lived in a refugee camp in Ampflwang, Austria, before immigrating to the United States in 1949, when Konnyu was 12 years old. Settling in Missouri, he attended parochial and public schools in Jefferson City and St. Louis, adapting to a new language and culture while pursuing his education.

Konnyu’s higher education and early professional formation were closely intertwined with his military service. He joined the United States Air Force in 1959 as an enlisted medic and was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he attained the enlisted rank of staff sergeant. While stationed in Germany, he attended night classes at the University of Maryland’s Wiesbaden campus. He subsequently received an Air Force scholarship to attend Ohio State University, where he majored in accounting and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 1965. That same year, after completing Officer Training School at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, he was commissioned a second lieutenant. From 1965 to 1969 he served at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada as a senior auditor, rising to the rank of captain. He continued his military affiliation in the U.S. Air Force Reserve for approximately eleven years, ultimately holding the rank of major, and received an honorable discharge upon his retirement from the Air Force in 1997. In 1959 he married Lillian Muenks of Loose Creek, Missouri, beginning a long marriage that would later be based in California.

Following his active-duty service, Konnyu embarked on a business career that paralleled his growing involvement in civic affairs. In 1969 he became controller at Valley View Investments in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The following year he moved to Arcadia, California, where he worked as an internal audit supervisor for Avon Products in nearby Pasadena. A Certified Internal Auditor, he joined National Semiconductor Corporation in Santa Clara, California, in 1974 as corporate director of internal audit, a position he held until 1980. During these years he was active in the Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees), first in Arcadia and later in San Jose. In recognition of his extensive community service, the Arcadia Jaycees recommended him for a lifetime Senatorship in Junior Chamber International, which he received in 1973.

Konnyu entered elective politics in California at the start of the 1980s. He was elected to the California State Assembly from the 22nd district, representing western and southern Santa Clara County, and served from 1980 through 1986. Within the Assembly Republican Caucus he served as Chairman for Policy and was vice chair of the Assembly Human Services Committee, where he focused on welfare policy. His most notable legislative achievement in the state legislature was authorship of the California workfare law, Assembly Bill 2580, which required able-bodied welfare recipients without small children to work or participate in job training in exchange for their welfare checks and benefits. This measure reflected his broader interest in linking public assistance to employment and training opportunities.

In 1986 Konnyu was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from California’s 12th congressional district, a Silicon Valley–based seat previously held by Republican Congressman Ed Zschau, who had left the House to pursue an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate, and before that by Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey. Konnyu won the 1986 general election with approximately 55 percent of the vote and served in the 100th Congress from 1987 to 1989. His principal legislative success in Congress was his role in advancing H.R. 1720, the Family Support Act of 1988, a major federal welfare reform law that, among other provisions, created work incentives for welfare recipients and strengthened requirements for states to provide employment and training services. During his term he also cast votes on a wide range of legislation, including voting against the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, which asserted United States title to certain abandoned shipwrecks in state waters and transferred title to the respective states to better manage and protect these cultural and historical resources. Despite his opposition, the measure was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on April 28, 1988.

Konnyu’s tenure in Congress was marked by controversy that affected his standing within his party and among constituents. In the first year of his term, three separate accusations of sexual harassment were raised by female staffers. In one reported incident, he told a staff member in a private meeting to wear “high heels and frilly” blouses and asked her to stand up and turn around so he could “see what you look like.” In another, he commented on the placement of a staffer’s name tag in a way that she felt called attention to her breasts; she was later dismissed after refusing to attend further private meetings with him. These allegations, and his responses to them, drew negative attention and contributed to friction with fellow Republicans, including senior figures in the party. His immediate predecessor, Ed Zschau, actively sought to recruit a primary challenger to Konnyu, and Pete McCloskey, who had held the seat before Zschau, publicly described Konnyu as an embarrassment. In the 1988 Republican primary, Konnyu was defeated by Tom Campbell, who went on to win the general election and serve two terms in Congress.

After leaving Congress in January 1989, Konnyu returned to private business and remained intermittently active in electoral politics. He invested in a printing business beginning in 1989 and later, in 1998, in a tax consulting service. He operated these enterprises for more than two decades, ultimately selling his business interests and retiring in 2011. During this period he sought a number of public offices. In 1994 he ran unsuccessfully for Santa Clara County Assessor in a nonpartisan race, losing to Democrat Larry Stone, who received 181,406 votes (52.51 percent) to Konnyu’s 164,045 (47.49 percent). In 2004 he won the Republican primary for California’s 24th State Assembly district but was defeated in the general election by Democratic incumbent Rebecca Cohn, who received 94,152 votes (59.42 percent) to his 55,956 (35.32 percent). He later mounted brief and ultimately abortive campaigns for higher office, including exploratory or short-lived efforts to challenge Democratic Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom in 2014, to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer in 2016, to run against Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein in 2018, and to oppose Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter in 2020.

In retirement, Konnyu has continued to reside in San Jose, California, with his wife Lillian. After more than five decades of marriage, they have remained active in local, state, and national professional, charitable, and political organizations. His life reflects a trajectory from refugee origins in postwar Europe to military service, corporate auditing and management, and a political career that included influential roles in welfare policy at both the state and federal levels, followed by continued engagement in business and civic affairs in Silicon Valley.