Backer of Plan to Divide California Will Run for Lt. Governor

The Northern California lawmaker who wants to divide California into three parts announced Tuesday he would promote his cause by running for lieutenant governor of the one California that has existed since 1850.

Assemblyman Stan Statham (R-Oak Run) declared his candidacy in a message videotaped in front of the state Capitol in Sacramento, saying, “A vote for Stan Statham as lieutenant governor will be a vote for three new Californias.”

Statham, 44, a former disc jockey and television news anchor in Chico, is the first Republican to formally announce for the post being vacated in 1994 by Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy of San Francisco.

The Democratic primary for the state’s No. 2 office next June is expected to be one of the more lively battles on the ballot. Two-term Controller Gray Davis and former state party Chairman Phil Angelides, a Sacramento developer, both have said they will run.

Several Republicans have been mentioned as potential candidates, but none besides Statham has expressed serious interest in running.

Statham is a moderate Republican who was first elected to the sprawling 2nd District seat in northeastern California in 1976. He has been promoting the idea of splitting California for several years and is the author of a bill to put the issue on the statewide ballot in the November, 1994, general election.

Statham’s measure passed the Assembly 46-26 and is before the state Senate. The vote, if Statham wins it, would be advisory only. Part of his campaign for lieutenant governor will be directed at the Senate and Gov. Pete Wilson to persuade them that they should allow California voters to formally express themselves on the three-state issue, he said.

Statham described his candidacy as “a backup guarantee” that voters will have some manner in which to register their sentiments on the proposed California split.

“Running for statewide office will assure that the voters have a loud voice in the most far-reaching decision ever to be made by our Legislature,” he said.

Statham is one of the more senior Republicans in the lower house of the Legislature, but he has not been viewed as a power in the Legislature because he represents a largely rural district and has more moderate views than most of the Republican minority in the Assembly.

Statham said that many of his friends and supporters urged him to run for governor next year as a more-effective means of promoting his three-state crusade. But he said he would not challenge Wilson, whom Statham said, “has worked hard to correct California’s problems against almost impossible odds.” Wilson plans to seek reelection.

“Gov. Wilson and I both want to bring California back to life,” Statham said. “But California has grown too large and complex for a single state government to manage.”