Deukmejian Wins; Cranston Ahead : Bird, Reynoso, Grodin Ousted From Supreme Court : McCarthy Defeats Curb for Lieutenant Governor

Gov. George Deukmejian was reelected convincingly Tuesday night in what supporters called a triumph of his “charisma of competence,” while durable Alan Cranston held a narrow lead in his quest for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate, with the vote count only partly complete.

The rematch of their 1982 campaign saw Republican Deukmejian easily overcome Democratic rival Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles. Deukmejian earned a second four-year term and dashed Bradley’s dream of being the first black to govern California.

In the Senate race, Democrat Cranston started behind in early tabulations but then closed in and edged ever-so-slightly ahead of two-term Republican Rep. Ed Zschau, the flashy newcomer to statewide politics. Not since 1934 have Californians reelected a U.S. senator to four six-year terms.

For California’s No. 2 office, the battle of the lieutenant governors, the incumbent, Democrat Leo T. McCarthy, defeated the former lieutenant governor, Republican Mike Curb.

Davis Leading Campbell

The tabulations showed Assemblyman Gray Davis of Los Angeles ahead of state Sen. William Campbell of Hacienda Heights for the office of state controller, the one statewide race without an incumbent seeking reelection.

The vote count in the other statewide constitutional races showed a reelection sweep for Democratic incumbents. Seeking a fourth term, Secretary of State March Fong Eu beat Republican Orange County Supervisor Bruce Nestande. Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp handily won a second term, while Treasurer Jesse M. Unruh had no major party opposition and earned a fourth term virtually by acclamation.

All the talk Election Day was a potentially record low voter turnout. With the count well under way Tuesday night, the secretary of state’s office estimated that only 54% to 60% of those registered actually voted. The record low for a gubernatorial election is 59.2% in 1942.

Another way to look at turnout is to count not just registered voters, but all adults who are eligible to register and vote. By this measure, about 10 million eligible Californians sat out the election.

Filled With Emotions

As the vote count came in, candidates and their handlers were filled with emotions that come welling up at the end of long and bruising campaigns, which began, in many cases, years ago.

“The people of this state have spoken, I respect that judgment. . . . I want you to know the indomitable spirit of this old warrior will never say die,” a disappointed Bradley said. His campaign manager, Bob Thomson, was asked if he believed his candidate could win. “Absolutely. But the mind is a wonderful, marvelous thing that helps us play tricks on ourselves.”

Deukmejian told supporters: “Our victory today in my view is a mandate for us to hold very steady on our course.”

The governor said he received a telegram from Bradley: “He wants to be helpful. . . . We want California to be the best place it can be.”

The governor’s campaign manager, Larry Thomas, said Bradley failed to capitalize on his high standing with the public. Otherwise, Thomas said, “This could have been a close election.” Bradley’s choice to attack the governor “was not credible with the electorate. It was out of sync with the mood of the voters,” Thomas added.

Zschau saw television projections that he might lose, threw up his arms and quoted baseball sage Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.” He then flew from Southern California to his home in the North.

Cranston campaign manager Darry Sragow said Zschau “was not a particularly tough opponent because of his credentials but largely because of his (financial) resources.”

In contests for the four elected seats on the State Board of Equalization, incumbent Republican Earnest J. Dronenberg was ahead of Democrat Mark F. Buckley in the district covering the far southern part of the state. A smaller, but still substantial, margin favored Democratic state Sen. Paul Carpenter over Republican H. Stanley Jones in the open district covering most of Los Angeles.

In the district that hugs the coastline from Santa Monica north to Monterey, incumbent Democrat Conway Collis opened a slim lead over Republican Claude W. Parrish. And, in the northernmost district in the state, incumbent Democrat William M. Bennett pulled ahead of his closest opponent, Republican Gene Prat.

Negative Tones

Throughout the election campaigns, substantial consternation and commentary was generated by the negative tone of the candidates.

There were charges that various candidates were captives of their selfish contributors, or soft on international terrorists, squishy on drug pushers or lackluster on law enforcement. There were spirited battles to see who could smear whom as California’s king of pollution.

“Tar Wars!” declared Kenneth L. Khachigian, speech writer for the President and adviser to Deukmejian.

The race for governor may have been the most deeply bitter of all in 1986. The second time around for Deukmejian and Bradley grew personally spiteful as well as politically bruising. Everyone around them said they had come to despise one another, and it often showed.

Deukmejian, once an advocate of requiring candidate debates by law, said his opponent was too nasty to debate. Other candidates of both parties who were looking for an excuse, embraced the Deukmejian precedent. As a result, there were no traditional side-by-side debates in any major statewide races in 1986.

Political Survivors

For voters, the gubernatorial election offered a choice between two men whose political longevity surpassed their charismatic appeal. Both have held office since the early 1960s-- Bradley, 68, as councilman and mayor of Los Angeles; and Deukmejian, 58, as legislator, attorney general and governor from his hometown of Long Beach.

In some ways their politics are similar: Both championed the pro-growth traditions of California politics, and they shared an interest in international trade. And both were products of an ethnic America. Their differences were clear, as well. Bradley campaigned as a liberal-to-moderate Democrat with an activist view of government; Deukmejian presented his Administration as conservative-to-moderate with a restrained faith in government.

The question of race was never far from the gubernatorial race. Bradley, after ignoring his black base of support four years ago, campaigned earnestly in minority communities this time while also urging whites to judge “my character, not the color of my skin.”

It was a lopsided battle of money. Deukmejian, skillfully using his incumbency and his lead in public opinion polls throughout the campaign, raised almost $13 million while Bradley focused first on getting reelected as mayor and got a late start raising funds. He scraped together just over $7 million.

Different Generations

The U.S. Senate race, by contrast, offered voters a choice between two entirely different generations of politics.

Cranston, 72, represented a Democratic liberalism cast in the 1950s. Zschau, 46, was a moderate GOP entrepreneur who entered politics in the 1980s. Both men, oddly enough, called the San Francisco Peninsula suburbs near Los Altos home.

Cranston stands to be the 12th most senior member of the Senate and its Democratic whip; Zschau one of the most highly regarded members of the House of Representatives on technology development and export.

At a cost of $10 million or so apiece, their campaigns seem destined to go down as the most expensive and technically elaborate political offensives in California history. With partisan control of the U.S. Senate at stake in the 1986 mid-terms, everyone with an interest in that outcome made the trek to California for a turn on the stump, from the Republican President and vice president to Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Gary Hart of Colorado.

When the candidates could be seen through the smoke of their charges and countercharges, Zschau and Cranston offered a choice on several grounds. There was Cranston’s experience versus Zschau’s tomorrowism. There was Zschau’s faith in individual effort versus Cranston’s faith in government. And there arose questions of character, in which Cranston sought to portray Zschau’s pragmatism as a political liability.

No Dominant Issue

Just as elsewhere in the nation, no single imposing issue arose to dominate the state elections.

The strongest theme used collectively by Republicans was opposition to Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and the charge that Democrats were soft on the death penalty. Democrats united in large part behind Proposition 65, the toxics discharge initiative, and attacked Republicans as weak on environmental protection.

Perhaps the strangest campaign of all was the McCarthy versus Curb race for the lieutenant governorship. The office itself has only modest responsibilities. Indeed, after having held it for four years, Curb once suggested it be abolished or made part time. But it is only a step away from real power, and both Curb, 41, and McCarthy, 56, were driven by ambitions for higher office.

What made the race unusual was the unexpected attention devoted to Curb’s early days in the entertainment business. Curb now likes to talk about his music recording business and its mainstream artists like The Judds and Hank Williams Jr. But in the past, McCarthy charged, Curb was making bad movies. That is bad as in bad taste--motorcycle movies like “The Cycle Savages” with plots steeped in drugs and violent sex.

By this standard, all other races in California must be called conventional.

Curb Files Suit

Curb, for his part, sued his opponent and campaigned as a running mate and unwavering supporter of Deukmejian. Curb suggested that it was time voters in California stopped their quirky habit of electing a governor and lieutenant governor of differing parties. This happened in 1982 and 1978.

The state controller is the exchequer of government--the person who signs the payrolls and keeps the books. The controller is also an office that attracts political climbers who want a statewide base and more headlines. And in this race, both Davis, 43, and Campbell, 51, fill the description.

Their race, as often as not, was a case of alleged guilt by association. Campbell recalled that Davis was chief of staff for former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., and developed this jingle: “If you liked Brown you’ll love Gray.” Davis countered by trying to make hay over the fact that Campbell once carried a key legislative bill for W. Patrick Moriarty, later convicted of corruption.

Campaigns for the remaining three statewide constitutional offices were tamer affairs. Democratic Atty. Gen. Van de Kamp, 50, who viewed himself and was viewed by others as a likely candidate for governor in the future, drew an obscure opponent, San Fernando Valley attorney Bruce Gleason, 62.

Mutual Respect

If Gleason had not been welcomed onto the platform at joint appearances with the other brand-name GOP candidates, he may have remained completely unknown on Election Day. As it was, he and Van de Kamp proved to be the only major-party candidates to speak kindly of one another. “Nice guy” and “good public servant,” they said.

The race for secretary of state was a deep-background kind of contest, often unnoticed amid the multimillion-dollar television assaults in the other races.

Eu, 64, is one of California’s most durable political success stories--born behind her father’s Chinese hand laundry, going on to become a symbol of achievement for women and Asian-Americans during her three terms. Nestande, 48, eyed the other offices before settling on a try for secretary of state, charging that Eu had become inert in the job and was resting on her laurels.

No one even bothered in the race for state treasurer. And that included candidate Unruh, 64. His $1-million-plus war chest scared off any opponents as did his reputation as the former “Big Daddy” of state politics, the dean of a swaggering style of electioneering no longer fashionable in California but which is still romanticized, and feared.