Voters Slow Governor’s Drive to Change Balance of Power

For all the talk of dysfunctional state lawmakers, California voters did nothing Tuesday to change the balance of power or the rules of election in the Legislature.

They rejected most Republican candidates backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and defeated a measure he endorsed that promised to attract more mainstream politicians.

Territory in Democratic or Republican hands before the election remained so Wednesday. Democrats will continue to dominate both houses.

What did change Tuesday, legislative leaders said, was their sense of the governor’s power to influence voters.

“Democrats have nothing to fear from the governor and they can deal with him as equals,” said outgoing Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco). “He went after several [marginal Democratic candidates] and didn’t defeat any of them.”

Of the seven Republicans for whom Schwarzenegger stumped, two won or were winning with provisional and absentee ballots yet to be counted: incumbent Assemblywoman Shirley Horton (R-Chula Vista) and Assemblyman Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria), who will move to the Senate.

Schwarzenegger had appealed to voters repeatedly to defeat lawmakers he branded as obstructionists. On Wednesday, he took a rosy view of the election results.

“I’m very happy that our campaign was successful,” Schwarzenegger said at a Sacramento news conference, “and I’m very happy that we kept the Republican seats. We kept the exact amount. Because there was the big fear that everyone had -- ‘uh oh, another presidential election year and we’re going to lose seats.’ I said I will help them -- that that will not happen.”

Democrats will continue to dominate Republicans 48 to 32 in the Assembly and 25 to 15 in the Senate. All 56 Democratic and Republican incumbents were reelected in 80 Assembly races, as were the 10 incumbents in 20 Senate races. Most won by wide margins.

The new crop of lawmakers will include the Legislature’s first Vietnamese American member and raise the number of Latinos from 24 to 25. The elections also will bring to Sacramento the first husband-wife team -- Assemblywoman Sharon Runner (R-Lancaster) and Republican George Runner, who was elected to the Senate to represent the Antelope Valley area.

Most races were a sure bet because the Legislature had drawn district boundaries in 2000 to give either Republicans or Democrats a clear advantage.

Critics say such safe districts lead to polarization in the Legislature, because lawmakers face their toughest competition in the primary election, when they must appeal to core voters in their party rather than the entire electorate.

To encourage more competition among candidates, business groups and a bipartisan group of politicians including Schwarzenegger backed Proposition 62. The measure would have revamped primary elections by freeing voters to choose candidates of any party, with only the top two vote-getters moving on to the general election. Proponents argued that it would force candidates to be more moderate, which in turn would dampen partisan bickering in the Legislature.

Voters rejected the measure 54% to 46% and instead endorsed a political party-backed measure, Proposition 60, to enshrine the current primary system in the state Constitution.

“Most people in California are registered Democrats or Republicans,” said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. “In a highly polarized period of California politics, do they want to create a situation on the November ballot where there will be two Democrats or two Republicans? I think a lot of partisans say, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that.’ ”

A month ago, Republican strategists had talked of gaining as many as three seats in the Legislature. But their candidates fell short in the face of voter turnout that was expected to break records -- a situation that experts say helped Democrats.

Republicans invested mightily in an effort to oust Sen. Mike Machado (D-Linden) from a Stockton area seat, but candidate Gary Podesto, Stockton’s mayor, lost 53% to 47%.

Likewise, Democrats had hoped to take an open Central Coast Senate seat previously held by a Republican, but Maldonado trounced San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Peg Pinard, 53% to 43%.

“We got very close and then fell back,” Burton said.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Poizner invested more than $5 million in his campaign, making his Assembly race the most expensive in state history. But his ubiquitous advertising apparently didn’t win over the Palo Alto area’s Democratic majority. Republican Poizner appeared to be losing to Democrat Ira Ruskin, 48% to 52%, with some absentee ballots outstanding.

In the most tightly contested Assembly race, incumbent Horton leads Chula Vista City Councilwoman Patty Davis 49% to 48%, despite the San Diego County district having slightly more Democrats.

On the Santa Barbara County coast, attorney and Coastal Commissioner Pedro Nava led Republican education consultant Bob Pohl by six percentage points, despite a last-minute campaign stop by Schwarzenegger on Pohl’s behalf.

After squeaking past Republican rival Dean Gardner in 2002 with fewer than 300 votes, Assemblywoman Nicole Parra (D-Hanford) beat him Tuesday by 6,170 votes, or 55% to 45%.

Democrats also retained control of a neighboring Central Valley district that includes Fresno, where Fresno County Supervisor Juan Arambula bested farmer Paul Betancourt 57% to 43%, despite a last-minute Republican infusion of cash to Betancourt’s campaign.

Democrats kept three coastal seats as well.

In the South Bay, telemarketing company owner Mike Gordon beat Greg Hill, the Republican mayor of Redondo Beach, 50% to 43%. State Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) remained in the Legislature by defeating Steve Kuykendall, a Republican and former congressman and assemblyman, in the 54th Assembly District. Kuykendall had beaten Karnette 10 years ago in a tight race for the same seat.

And Democrat Lori Saldana, a community college instructor, won the open Assembly seat in San Diego despite more than $400,000 spent by a coalition of businesses to oppose her. She leads former Assemblywoman Tricia Hunter 55% to 41%.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) said Democrats hung on to their seats, despite being opposed by a popular Republican governor, because they “campaigned on kitchen-table issues,” such as raising the minimum wage, cutting the cost of prescription drugs and halting the export of jobs overseas. In September, Schwarzenegger vetoed Democratic bills on those issues.

“There’s no question that Californians approve of the governor,” Nunez said. But “they don’t want the Legislature to be a rubber stamp” for him.

Times staff writer Peter Nicholas contributed to this report.

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The bottom line

In the ranking of Tuesday’s 10 most expensive legislative races, voters chose five contenders who raised less money.

*--* Legislative race Amount raised* Election results** Assembly District 21 Steve Poizner (R) $6.4 million 69,675 Ira Ruskin (D) $1.9 million 75,202 Senate District 5 Gary Podesto (R) $4.3 million 117,581 Mike Machado (D) $3.7 million 131,168 Senate District 15 Abel Maldonado (R) $2 million 139,756 Peg Pinard (D) $3.5 million 114,347 Assembly District 30 Dean Gardner (R) $2.1 million 28,247 Nicole Parra (D) $2 million 34,412 Assembly District 78 Shirley Horton (R) $2.2 million 56,970 Patty Davis (D) $1.8 million 55,353 Assembly District 76 Tricia Hunter (R) $700,000 53,226 Lori Saldana (D) $2.1 million 72,156 Assembly District 31 Paul Betancourt (R) $1.1 million 30,193 Juan Arambula (D) $1.3 million 40,059 Assembly District 54 Steve Kuykendall (R) $747,000 66,250 Betty Karnette (D) $1.6 million 78,428 Assembly District 80 Bonnie Garcia (R) $1.1 million 53,424 Mary Ann Andreas (D) $1.1 million 38,300 Assembly District 53 Greg Hill (R) $1.2 million 71,368 Mike Gordon (D) $724,000 84,589

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*Figures are for Jan. 1 to Nov. 1, 2004, and do not include money spent by independent expenditure campaigns.

**Absentee and provisional ballots still to be counted in some races.

Winner

Source: California Secretary of State

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Contributing to coverage of the California elections were Times staff writers Mark Arax, Patricia Ward Biederman, Amanda Covarrubias, Susana Enriquez, Richard Fausset, Jason Felch, Sue Fox, Megan Garvey, Jeff Gottlieb, Carla Hall, Evan Halper, Erika Hayasaki, Natasha Lee, Nita Lelyveld, Jack Leonard, Noam N. Levey, Caitlin Liu, Scott Martelle, Seema Mehta, Hugo Martin, Dan Morain, Sandra Murillo, Peter Nicholas, Jean O. Pasco, Tony Perry, Stuart Pfeifer, Rachana Rathi, Jordan Rau, Lisa Richardson, Lee Romney, Robert Salladay, Eric Slater, Doug Smith, Veronica Torrejon, Wendy Thermos, Nancy Vogel, Andrew Wang, Erica Williams and Janet Wilson.