CAMPAIGN DATELINE / PAUL FELDMAN : A window on the California elections. : A Land of Landslides for Senate Candidates

Those double-digit leads registered in recent polls by Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are bound to shrink as Election Day approaches, right?

Not necessarily so, if California election history is a reliable yardstick.

Of the 13 U.S. Senate elections that have been decided by margins of 10% or more, 10 of those cases--including Democrat Alan Cranston’s reelection victories in 1974 and 1980--were won by margins of19% or higher.

If it’s any consolation to Republican Senate candidates Bruce Herschensohn and incumbent John Seymour, the landslide winners have most often been incumbents rather than first-timers such as the Democratic duo.

Four candidates have won their first Senate runs by double-digit margins--Democrats William Gibbs McAdoo and Clair Engle, and Republicans Hiram Johnson and Richard M. Nixon.

Where the Voters Are

Below are the three California counties with the highest percentage of registered voters, and the three with the lowest percentage. Also included are figures for six Southland counties, according to the secretary of state’s September Report of Registration. Highest Percentage

% REGISTERED COUNTY TO VOTE S.F. 94.35 Sierra 91.02 Alpine 87.93

Lowest Percentage

% REGISTERED COUNTY TO VOTE Merced 57.87 Yuba 57.42 Kings 55.71

Southern California Perspective

TOTAL ELIGIBLE % REGISTERED COUNTY TO VOTE* TO VOTE Ventura 484,185 69.63 San Diego 1,890,433 69.61 Orange 1,728,382 66.64 Los Angeles 5,593,681 62.12 San Bernardino 1,055,114 60.38 Riverside 925,690 60.33

*September, 1992, estimate by the Population Research Unit, State Finance Department, based on 1990 Census.

Compiled by Times researcher Tracy Thomas

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Big winners: Front-runner Bill Clinton and incumbent George Bush might also take note that California could be dubbed the “Landslide State” in presidential elections.

Since 1900, 17 of 23 winners in the Golden State have won by margins of 10% or more.

On all but one of those occasions, the winner in California was elected President. The exception was 80 years ago, when Gov. Hiram Johnson was the vice presidential candidate on the Bull Moose third-party ticket, which carried California even though the Democrats won the national election.

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Draconian alert: A group of 57 Oroville-area residents have launched a drive for a state ballot initiative mandating the automatic ouster of any governor or Legislature not enacting a state budget by the June 30 deadline.

The proposed constitutional amendment, for which 615,958 signatures would be needed to qualify for an upcoming state ballot, calls for a mid-September special election to replace the tardy officials. Rather than paying the state’s bills with IOUs again, an interim budget 10% smaller than the previous year’s would immediately be put in place.

Sponsors of the proposal contend that the state’s recent 63-day budget stalemate was intolerable and would have resulted in job terminations for anyone foolish enough to act similarly in the private sector.

“This is a drop-dead bill and it’s intended to be,” said Oroville attorney Donald J. Blake Jr., who initiated the initiative. “Several folks said, ‘Don’t you think that depriving them of their pay would be sufficient?’ My response is it’s not. Most of these politicians . . . are not worrying about making next month’s house payment. This hits them where it counts.”

ELECTION SHORTS You’re the target: Looking forward to a fresh batch of slate mailer cards cluttering your mailbox just before Election Day and telling you whom to vote for? This fall, political consultants have come up with a new twist or two. Seeking to take advantage of computerized data banks that target voters by age, sex and voting proclivity, consultants will distribute specialized mailers to senior citizens, abortion rights advocates and abortion opponents, likely absentee voters and people who rarely vote.

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Rifling for votes: At a recent Los Angeles conference sponsored by pro-gun lobbying groups, including the National Rifle Assn., Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Herschensohn spoke on a podium festooned with a banner that read: “Shoot for Victory.”

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Family feud-ile: How misguided was the Bush-Quayle ticket in hammering away at the issue of family values at the Republican National Convention? In Orange County, that bastion of California conservatism, only 6% of voters in a new Times Orange County Poll labeled family values as the most important issue in the upcoming presidential election. That compares to a whopping 60% who called jobs and the economy the No. 1 issue. Other issues cited as most important were education (12%); holding down taxes (9%); abortion (4%), the environment (3%) and foreign affairs (2%).

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Shake the vote: A final reminder that today is the last day to register to vote. Registration forms are available, according to Secretary of State March Fong Eu, in “public libraries, post offices, many state and local government offices, county election offices and McDonald’s restaurants throughout the state.”

EXIT LINE

“Today we are a society where our kids know the floor plan of Nordstrom better than the map of the world.”

--U.S. Senate candidate Dianne Feinstein in a speech to supporters in Century City.

Campaign Dateline appears every Monday.