CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS/STATE SENATE : Garamendi Calls It Quits; Wife Seeks His Office

In a move to keep his state Senate seat in the family, Sen. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) has resigned so that his wife, Patti, can run for the office in a special election this fall.

The maneuver gives Patti Garamendi a significant advantage over her chief rival, Assemblyman Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton), who has long planned to run for the seat if Garamendi is elected state insurance commissioner.

Johnston, who is on the Nov. 6 ballot as a candidate for reelection to the Assembly, will be in the awkward position of running for the Senate and the Assembly at the same time.

“It’s tougher for me,” Johnston said. “It’s clever for them. But ultimately it will be enlightening for the voters because (the Garamendis) crossed the border of fair play.”

Garamendi, the Democratic nominee for insurance commissioner, is considered the favorite in his race over little-known Republican Wes Bannister. Garamendi, a 16-year Senate veteran, announced his resignation Tuesday, saying he wanted to devote all his time to his statewide campaign.

For the past week, Garamendi would not confirm reports that he planned to resign after the Legislature adjourned its 1989-90 session Saturday. However, his resignation had only been in effect for hours when ads for Patti Garamendi’s election campaign began airing on television Tuesday morning.

A rancher, businesswoman and former school teacher, Patti Garamendi has long been the state senator’s closest political adviser. As a strong-minded advocate for her husband, she sometimes alienated Democratic legislators and earned the enmity of her husband’s Senate aides.

On campaign literature she already has started sending out, she lists as part of her qualifications “16 years legislative experience working with Senator John Garamendi.”

“There’s no doubt I think Patti would make a great senator,” John Garamendi said. “She has been working on the problems of this district as much as I have. She has done the work of being a senator for the past 16 years except for voting.”

Because of the timing of Garamendi’s resignation, state law gives Gov. George Deukmejian little choice but to consolidate a special election for the Senate seat with the Nov. 6 general election. The governor has two weeks to call a special election for the district.

Johnston, a onetime aide to Garamendi, said he will formally declare his candidacy for the Senate today and begin the task of telling voters why he is simultaneously running for seats in both houses of the Legislature.

“The problem of explaining why I’m on the ballot twice is precisely the difficulty this resignation was intended to create,” Johnston said. “It’s an attempt to weaken me as a competitor.”

If Garamendi had waited to resign until after winning the insurance commissioner post, Patti Garamendi and Johnston--both Democrats--would have faced off in a special election in March.

John Garamendi said it was not his goal to aid his wife’s campaign and was not sure whether his resignation would help her. “I hope it does,” he said, “but I’m not all that clear that it does.”

He said he resigned, in part, because the consolidation of the elections would save taxpayers $500,000. Also, he said, he did not believe it was proper to collect his Senate salary while campaigning full time for another office.

Patti Garamendi, in a statement released by her campaign, said her husband’s decision to step down early “does not change my campaign in the least.”