STATE : Hayes Confirmed as Treasurer

SACRAMENTO — After brief debate, both legislative houses without dissent today confirmed Gov. George Deukmejian’s choice of state Auditor General Thomas Hayes as state treasurer to replace Jesse Unruh, who died of cancer 17 months ago.

A mood of bipartisan harmony sharply contrasted with rejection by the Democrat-controlled upper house last February of Deukmejian’s choice of Republican Dan Lungren, a former congressman from Long Beach, to take over the office held for 13 years by the legendary Democrat Unruh. Today’s vote in the 40-member Senate was 34 to 0 after just 10 minutes of debate. The Democrat-dominated, 79-member Assembly, where members spent about 15 minutes praising Hayes as qualified, fair and reasonable, voted approval 65 to 0.