California Elections : Deukmejian, Bradley Aren’t Alone in Race for Governor

State parole board hearing officer Charles (Chuck) Pineda bills himself as “Harvard-trained to fight crime,” and he is “hoping to dispatch” Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in the June 3 Democratic primary and go on to become California’s first Latino governor since 1875.

Saratoga engineer William H. R. (Bill) Clark, a candidate in the Republican gubernatorial primary, thinks Gov. George Deukmejian is a “counterfeit conservative” and spendthrift who is “playing games with toxic cleanup”--a problem that could be resolved by “a couple of good chemists.”

While Bradley and Deukmejian are widely acknowledged as certain winners in their respective primaries, they and their parties are not the only choices on the gubernatorial section of the ballot. Besides Pineda, the lesser known hopefuls in the Democratic primary are perennial candidates Eileen Anderson of Los Angeles, Hugh G. Bagley of Keyes, and Frank L. Thomas of Thousand Oaks. Clark is Deukmejian’s only rival in the Republican primary.

In addition, candidates from the Peace and Freedom, American Independent and Libertarian parties are on the ballot, but only the Peace and Freedom race is contested.

Democrat Pineda, 46, of Sacramento, says crime is the primary concern of Californians, and he calls for implementing the death penalty, forcing convicts to make restitution to their victims from their prison wages, an early detection program in schools to spot potential delinquents and a more stringent system for keeping track of violent criminals when they are released from prison.

Four years ago, running for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor with only $7,000 and what he calls a part-time campaign, Pineda captured almost 10% of the primary vote. Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy overwhelmed him with 74% of the vote.

Pineda, who completed a year-long fellowship at Harvard University’s Center for the Advancement of Criminal Justice, has been campaigning for a year, and he says he has 2,000 volunteer “coordinators” working on his behalf. His campaign, however, has only been able to raise about $3,000, he said.

Unburdened by any realistic chance of winning, Hugh Bagley, a flea-market owner in Keyes, makes do with even less. He sells mock $58 bills (“One dollar for each of California’s 58 counties”) for 50 cents each, thereby collecting enough money “to get to the next town,” he said.

As California’s governor, Bagley, 54, would make driving a right so that no one could ever lose his license, since revoking a driver’s license is “just a way to keep the poor man down,” he said. He would also establish “freedom zones”--areas free of most city, county and state laws, and he would create a “state guard” to determine if arrests made by police are warranted.

An election without Eileen Anderson, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Los Angeles,” somewhere on the ballot has been a rarity in the last 17 years. Her campaign headquarters are on the sidewalk at the corner of Temple and Main streets in downtown Los Angeles where she sings and dances in green tights every day.

Anderson still wants to bore tunnels through the San Gabriel Mountains and set up giant fans to blow away the smog. She also wants to use lottery money to help the homeless.

“I’m down among the people, and I see them dirtier, hungrier and sadder,” she said. “I’m the only friend they have.”

Attempts to reach candidate Thomas were unsuccessful.

Clark, 46, the Republican challenger, faced off against Deukmejian four years ago, capturing 2% of the GOP primary vote. He assails Deukmejian for spending “more in four years than (former Gov.) Jerry Brown spent in eight.”

Clark said he hasn’t raised any money for his campaign, adding that he prefers to “see people put their money in charities rather than spend it on a campaign. We get the best politicians money can buy.”

Peace and Freedom Party candidate Cheryl Zuur, 32, a restaurant hostess and union shop steward at a San Francisco hotel, would abolish the University of California Board of Regents and replace it with an elected council of students, faculty and campus employees.

“We have to put a stop to the rapid trend of excluding minority and working-class people from attending universities by increasing tuition and dismantling affirmative-action policies,” she said, adding that she would also abolish tuition.

Maria Elizabeth Munoz, Zuur’s opponent in the primary, is a fourth-grade teacher in East Los Angeles, and she thinks the socialist Peace and Freedom Party needs to be a “tool used in the struggle for decent housing, jobs and peace.”

Munoz, 29, said she is part of a new, national independent “Rainbow Movement” of people from different racial groups and economic strata, and her campaign supports peace, a national health-care plan and bilingual education. She opposes capital punishment and excessive military spending.

Gary V. Miller, 43, of Arcadia, is unopposed in the American Independent Party’s primary, and he said he would work with lending institutions to persuade them to voluntarily bring down interest rates on credit cards. He would also set up “a very aggressive program to help convicts re-enter society” as a key to bringing down crime. Miller is a Mt. San Antonio Community College board member and a former West Covina City Council member.

Libertarian Party candidate Joseph Fuhrig of Newark breezily answers his phone with the greeting: “Traveling Capitalism Show.”

“That’s the formal name of my business--of everything I do,” said Fuhrig, 39, an economics professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco and a self-described “professional witness” in lawsuits. As governor he would veto every spending bill passed by the Legislature, forcing the lawmakers to muster a two-thirds vote to override him.

“That would mean the California Legislature would require a greater consensus to spend a dime,” he said.

It should be noted that spending bills already require a two-thirds majority for passage.

Fuhrig said he doubts he’ll be able to put his practices to work any time soon. Said he: “Frankly, I don’t think my chances are too good.”