CAMPAIGN JOURNAL : Candidates Fret as Voters Make Up Minds

Joan Milke Flores woke up in San Pedro on Tuesday with her mind nearly 400 miles away. Rain, she thought. Please let it rain in San Francisco.

Flores, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, fetched the morning newspaper from the stoop of her home and quickly eyed the weather page.

“San Francisco: Sunny and windy.” Darn.

“I don’t usually look at the weather forecast in San Francisco,” Flores said apologetically. “I guess that is not the right thing to do. You really want people to go out and exercise their right to vote. But if it had to rain anywhere, I was hoping it would rain in San Francisco. It is heavily Democratic.”

Across town in Hacienda Heights, fellow Republican Matt Fong could not sleep. He woke up at 4 a.m., fell back to sleep, and was up again about an hour later. By 8 a.m., he had assembled the entire family--including his two young children, whom he pulled from school for the morning--for a photo opportunity at the local polling place.

Fong, the decided underdog in the race for state controller, cast his ballot, but the family photo fizzled. The family waited, and waited, but no one from the media showed. Finally, Fong let his two children ride their bicycles home.

“I am going to go home and take off this suit for awhile and put on some shorts and relax too,” Fong said later at a Republican get-out-the-vote phone bank. “It is time to be normal for a little bit.”

Election Day can be full of the unexpected.

After months of carefully orchestrated press conferences, staged media events and planned public appearances, things sometimes just don’t go your way during those final 24 hours--no matter how hard you try, how hard you pray or how hard you hope.

Incumbent Gray Davis, Fong’s Democratic opponent, went to vote near his Westside home, only to meet an elderly polling official with a broken-down car. She had no way to deliver the ballots to the county when the polls closed at 8 p.m.

Could you help us find a driver? she asked. Davis obliged.

“I thought, I hope this is not an omen here,” Davis said later. “I mean, if I can’t carry my own precinct, I am in real trouble.”

Flores also ran into some problems at her polling place. After punching her ballot, the three-term Los Angeles city councilwoman handed it over to poll judge John Stanbery, who mistakenly tore off the top, including the portion for secretary of state. Flores had to get a new ballot and vote a second time.

“I guess I ruined the part that she cared most about,” Stanbery said.

In Huntington Beach, Wes Bannister, Republican candidate for state insurance commissioner, decided to play it safe. After speaking to a group of friendly insurance agents, he hung out at his campaign office and then popped in on the Huntington Harbor Rotary Club.

Bannister had a fish-and-rice lunch as he sat through a lecture given by a dermatologist on the damaging effects of the sun. The accompanying slide show: “Fry Now, Pay Later.”

A fellow Rotarian turned to Bannister and asked about the election. “If you were a betting man, how would you bet?” the friend asked.

“I wouldn’t,” Bannister replied. “I’d save my money.”

Election Day isn’t easy on many candidates. After a grueling campaign that often keeps them on the road for weeks at a time, they are expected to appear confident and relaxed as voters decide their fate. It is tough to hide the sweaty palms, the nervous crack of the voice or the furtive glance at the wristwatch.

Physical exercise apparently helps for some. Davis doubled his workout time Tuesday morning on his rowing machine and exercise bike. Kathleen Brown, Democratic candidate for state treasurer, played tennis with her daughter. Fong took the hose and sponge and scrubbed his two family cars.

Flores was fatigued. She took a nap.

“You feel like a rubber band,” Flores said. “You stretch it from the point you start to the point that you end.”

Family also helps. In fact, appearing with your family on Election Day is one of those unwritten rules of political etiquette that all candidates seem to pick up on. Flores voted with her daughter and son-in-law, Davis with his wife, Fong with his entire family, and Brown arrived at the Sunset Plaza Hotel in West Hollywood shortly after noon with her husband, Van Gordon Sauter, and three of her five children.

After casting their ballots, Brown and her family strolled down Sunset Boulevard and ate lunch at Cafe Mondrian. Dinner was to be a private affair at home, with guests including Brown’s father, Edmund G. Brown, and her brother, Jerry Brown, both former governors.

“I started out this campaign with good health, a loving family, and some good friends,” Brown said. “I will end up--win, lose or draw tomorrow--with good health, an even more loving family, and a whole lot more friends.”

When all else fails to calm the nerves, candidates tend to become philosophical on Election Day, casting their fates to the gods or to the winds. That way, they take comfort in knowing their destiny is no longer in their own hands.

Flores talked about the “M.T.B.” (meant-to-be) factor of her campaign, insisting that if she does not beat incumbent March Fong Eu it is because something better is awaiting her.

Davis described Election Day as “a period of reflection” for all candidates.

“My father told me when I was first getting into politics, ‘Son, do good things now, don’t wait to get into another office, don’t wait for another year. Do good things now, because the Lord will only give you so much time and you can rest assured the electorate will give you less.”