Urban, Rural Voters Divided Over Splitting State in Two : California: San Francisco Giants are striking out in bid for San Jose stadium. Runoff appears likely in San Diego mayor’s race. Bond measures falter.

Underscoring the differences between rural and urban Californians, a proposal to split the state in two got a warm reception in the northern hinterlands Tuesday but was headed for defeat in three Bay Area counties.

In other local contests around California, early results showed San Jose voters rejecting a plan to spend taxpayer money to build a stadium for the San Francisco Giants, and tobacco interests losing most of their campaigns to overturn anti-smoking laws in three cities and two counties.

In San Diego, the race to succeed retiring Mayor Maureen O’Connor seemed destined for a November runoff between slow-growth advocate Peter Navarro and county Supervisor Susan Golding.

With 60% of the precincts reporting, Navarro--an underdog with no political experience--held a modest lead over Golding, a veteran on San Diego’s political scene. City Councilman Ron Roberts was a distant third.

Signaling bad news for California’s universities and low-income home buyers, two statewide measures on the ballot were failing, incomplete returns showed. The fate of a third proposition, to provide $1.9 billion for public school construction was too close to call.

Public debate over splitting California dates at least as far back as 1859, when Los Angeles Assemblyman Andres Pico nearly triumphed in his bid to divide the state at the Tehachapi Mountains. Since then, dozens of similar rebellions have flared and dimmed, ignited by issues ranging from bad roads to rising taxes.

This year, divisionist fever sprang from California’s rural outback, where the sting of recession has pushed disenchantment with the status quo to new extremes. Of the 31 counties that voted on dividing the state Tuesday, only three--San Francisco, San Mateo and Solano--are in urban areas.

Boosters sold their idea on grounds that California has grown too large and diverse to be run by a single government. The movement’s head cheerleader, Assemblyman Stan Statham (R-Oak Run), argued that the state is already divided in many ways and said a formal parting would bring benefits for all.

In communities such as Quincy, Susanville and Red Bluff, his message struck a chord, dovetailing with the growing sense of estrangement such remote territories feel from California’s big cities.

“We’re the forgotten corner up here,” said Lassen County Supervisor Jim Chapman, who endorsed putting the idea to a vote. “We’ve had it with those losers in Sacramento.”

In urban areas, Statham met a skeptical and often sarcastic audience. Critics accused the assemblyman of playing politics--he stood for reelection Tuesday--and of pushing a concept harmful to efforts to solve California’s woes.

Tuesday’s vote was advisory only, designed to gauge public support for a 51st state. To carve up California, Statham and his sympathizers would need approval from the Legislature and Congress.

In an interview Tuesday night, Statham pledged to introduce legislation later this month to accomplish his goal. Asked to interpret the voters’ message, he replied: “They’re saying please get us out of California and do it yesterday.”

In San Jose, backers of the plan to build a 48,000-seat, grass-field stadium for the Giants billed the project as the city’s ticket to the municipal big leagues. Mayor Susan Hammer argued that landing the ballclub would “put San Jose on the map” by creating jobs, national publicity and other economic benefits.

Stressing that the 2% utility tax increase would cost the average household just $2.90 per month, supporters spent nearly $1 million on the campaign and enlisted help from former Giants greats Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda and Vida Blue.

Opponents lacked such star power, and had only $12,000 in their bank account. But they pressed their message that a cash-poor city should not spend money on sports during tough economic times.

“These are difficult elections to win,” Giants Vice President Corey Busch said, “because you have to convince the non-baseball fans that there is something in it for them.”

Busch refused to concede defeat or speculate on the team’s future: “We’ll cross that bridge if we’re forced to, but our desire is clearly to stay in the Bay Area.”

Tuesday marked the fourth time in six years that team owner Bob Lurie has asked Bay Area taxpayers to build a new home for his team. Largely because of the wintry conditions at Candlestick Park, the team’s attendance has been below 2 million in all but one of its 33 seasons in San Francisco.

At the other end of the state, two political neophytes and two government insiders dominated the spirited campaign to succeed San Diego Mayor O’Connor, who held the office since 1986.

Golding, a career politician, stressed her leadership qualities in the contest. Councilman Roberts tried a different tactic--downplaying his incumbent status and instead selling himself as a self-made businessman and dedicated crime-fighter.

Navarro, a UC Irvine economics professor who has led the fight to manage growth in the state’s second-largest city, based his candidacy on his image as an agent of change. A fourth candidate, politically unknown financier Tom Carter, was a long shot.

Two counties and three cities voted Tuesday on whether to uphold local laws restricting smoking in workplaces and restaurants, and the fight over Sacramento County’s ordinance created by far the most sparks. A coalition of medical groups urged approval of the prohibition, but they were outspent more than 30 to 1 by tobacco companies, which invested $2.5 million in the campaign.

By contrast, the opposition was nearly invisible in the battle over the two state bond measures--Proposition 152, the $1.9-billion school construction measure, and Proposition 153, which sought $900 million in bonds for California’s higher education system.

The campaign over Proposition 154 also was quiet. The measure sought to allow low-income renters who buy a residence to delay paying increased property taxes linked to reappraisal of the home.

Times staff writers Leonard Bernstein in San Diego and Judy Pasternak contributed to this story.