Sticking With Tradition

The good news for Republicans out of the Nov. 4 election was their pickup of eight governorships, raising their total to 24 out of the 50 states. The bad news was their failure to make expected, substantial gains in the West, which supported President Reagan so solidly in 1980 and 1984 and hatched the Sagebrush Rebellion in the 1970s and early ‘80s.

Going into the election, the Democrats held governorships in 10 of the 13 Western states--in part because of popular incumbents who pre-dated the Reagan landslides. The GOP hoped to change all that on Nov. 4. But Republicans managed a net gain of just one seat, and the Democratic lead now stands at 9 to 4. The GOP picked up seats in Arizona and New Mexico, but lost Oregon. The story could have been worse for Republicans except that a three-way battle in Arizona virtually handed them a gift governorship.

The results do not necessarily presage any political realignment in the West, or the stemming of its conservative tilt. Many of the Democrats are conservative when placed alongside their Eastern counterparts, and the factors in state contests vary greatly from those of national elections.

Gov. George Deukmejian’s big victory in California enhances his seniority and prestige among the Western governors, and nationally as well. Two former Carter cabinet members, Cecil D. Andrus in Idaho and Neil E. Goldschmidt in Oregon, were elected and can be expected to exert leadership in the Western Governors’ Assn. Garrey E. Carruthers, a former Reagan Interior Department official, won in New Mexico.

In Wyoming, family ties apparently did not help Republican Peter K. Simpson, a moderate and brother of Sen. Alan K. Simpson. He was upset by conservative Democrat Michael J. Sullivan, a Casper lawyer. The GOP earlier thought that it had an excellent chance of winning the seat left open by retiring Democrat Ed Herschler. A write-in campaign in Alaska by former Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel, a Republican, complicated GOP efforts to win back the governorship of Alaska, the object of an impeachment attempt last year. Democratic Atty. Gen. Steve Cowper won.

If Westerners revealed any trend this year in voting for governors, it was one of long tradition: their independence.