SPECIAL REPORT / ELECTION PREVIEW : DECISION ’94 / A Voter’s Guide to State and Local Elections : Taking More Worries Than Dreams Into the Voting Booth

The Southland, a term coined by early 20th-Century boosters and perpetuated by history lovers, stretches from Ventura County to the Mexican border and east to San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The latter two, by the way, are known as the Inland Empire, another great old boosters’ phrase.

Southland and Inland Empire. I’ve loved those phrases since I moved here in 1970, a transplanted Northern Californian who got a better job in Los Angeles. The words resonate with dreams of the good and affluent life, the goal that has drawn millions here and fueled the economic growth envisioned by the pioneer boosters. Today, of course, we have more worries than dreams, and to comprehend the June 7 primary election, you’ve got to look at it through the eyes of concerned Southland residents.

Think how it looks to a 52-year-old Redondo Beach aerospace engineer, out of work with two kids in college, engaged in a fruitless job search. Or an Orange County teacher concerned about violence and racial tension in a once-peaceful suburban public school. Or an avocado farmer in Ventura County who is threatened with a water shortage. Or a young man in Watts, contemplating taking his second-rate public school education to a community college or state university where, even if he gets financial aid, he will have to compete for space in a dwindling number of classes.

When viewed in these terms, the candidates’ solutions often are too general. More than most, this is an election for specifics that needs to be examined in light of the Southland’s pressing needs.

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The governor--whether it’s Republican Pete Wilson or a Democratic successor--will have the main responsibility for guiding California from a recession that has done its worst in Southern California. The governor can’t do it without the Legislature, and all 80 Assembly seats and 20 of the 40 Senate posts will be decided this year. And the governor will need the help of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein or her Republican successor, who are on the ballot, along with every House member.

Also playing a role will be the winners of the other statewide offices--lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer, controller, secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction and insurance commissioner.

But in the end, the governor will be the key, the official responsible for guiding California through the economic recovery in a manner that leaves the state permanently strong, with long-term businesses, industries and jobs.

With the exception of Ron Unz, a computer software entrepreneur who is using his wealth to finance a Republican primary campaign against Wilson, the gubernatorial candidates’ ideas on the Southland’s economic recovery are remarkably similar.

Unz sees government’s role as minuscule. He would start by abolishing workers’ compensation and requiring all workers to buy injury protection insurance. The cost to the workers, he says, “will be minimal.” He’d slash the income tax and roll back welfare. All this, he says, would revive the economy.

The others say that with giant corporations cutting back and the economy going through massive restructuring, government must step in. The threat of layoffs, they agree, touches huge numbers of people, including their friends and families.

“My son-in-law is with AT&T;,” said state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, one of the Democratic candidates for governor. “They’re waiting, everybody’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. Let me tell you, we are in the midst of the biggest economic revolution since when we moved from the Agrarian Age to the Steam Age.”

Wilson, Brown and Democratic candidates John Garamendi, the insurance commissioner, and Tom Hayden, a state senator, want the state to assist in the development of a major Southland transportation industry.

They see the high-tech and computer companies of Orange County, the aerospace manufacturing belt of Los Angeles County, the small industrial plants of the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, and the idled defense bases of the Inland Empire harnessed for the construction of buses, commuter train cars and electric vehicles.

“Most of the studies say there would be 50,000 to 70,000 jobs in this,” Hayden said. “These are good jobs. They’re not McJobs. You need a governor who will actively shape it.”

There are other projects you hear about on the campaign trail, such as the Alameda Corridor, a proposed high-speed train-and-truck throughway connecting the Long Beach and San Pedro harbors with freight yards in Downtown Los Angeles. It would dramatically boost the capacity of the ports, opening up foreign trade opportunities for new business and industry throughout the Southland.

On other issues, the candidates are better at defining problems than coming up with solutions.

Take, for example, violence in the schools.

Garamendi defined the problem dramatically, relating an incident from when he was touring the state, working various jobs. He had been teaching in Orange County when a teacher said to him: “I’m scared, I’m frightened in this classroom. When I go out to my car in the evening, I’m scared. You’ve got to do something about the violence.”

His solution, proposed in a speech in San Francisco, was for boot-camp-style prison camps for young offenders--a plan that may have merit but doesn’t deal with the verbal violence and the pushing and shoving that add to the fright factor in schools.

It was the same for the Southland’s need for water, a fact of life here since the beginning.

I’ve written about these issues since the first time I boarded a California politician’s campaign bus almost 30 years ago, always fascinated with their challenge and complexity. But never have they seemed as important as this time, when the state is emerging from its worst economic times since the Great Depression.

And it is emerging into an uncertain new world. The candidates may talk glibly about a fascinating era of the information superhighway and multimedia classrooms. But we’re not sure just how it will all work, or how many jobs it will produce.

Given the uncertainty, this election is comparable to one that goes way back before my time, and before the time of most of the people reading this--1946.

The nation had emerged from the Depression and World War II, and California was ready to rebuild. It reelected a canny politician with great vision, Earl Warren, who charted a path that led to decades of prosperity.

That’s the job confronting not only this year’s candidates, but the voters who will choose among them.

So study your voter pamphlets. Pore over the paper. Try to find some political news on television. Go hear a speech. You’ve got a big job ahead.

About This Section

On June 7 California’s voters will choose candidates for governor, for the U.S. Senate and for seven other statewide offices. They will decide on a variety of ballot propositions, including whether to borrow money to finance earthquake recovery. Today, The Times offers this special guide to the primary elections, with reports on the candidates and issues in all statewide and countywide contests. Congressional and state legislative races are being covered in suburban editions.

Decision ‘94: The Staff

The following staff members contributed to this special report on the California elections:

* California Political Editor: Mark Saylor

* News Editors: Steve Mitchell, Keith Thursby

* Contributing Editors: Max Vanzi, Topy Fiske, Joan Goulding

* Contributing Writers: Bill Stall, Cathleen Decker, Amy Wallace, Daniel M. Weintraub, Dave Lesher, Jean Merl, Paul Jacobs, Dan Morain, Virginia Ellis, Carl Ingram, Eric Bailey, Fred Muir, Kenneth Reich, John Schwada, Cynthia H. Craft, Mark Gladstone

* Copy Chiefs: Clark Stevens, Mike Castelvecchi

* Copy Editors: Bob Browning, Sheila Daniel, Dana Farrar, Larry Harnisch, Steve Hensch, Paige Owens, Vani Rangachar, Walt Taylor, Beth Troy, Mike Wyma

* Photo Editors: Robbin Goddard, Calvin Hom, Joe Kennedy, Fred Sweets

* Researcher: Nona Yates

* Art Directors: Chuck Nigash, David Montesino

* Cover Illustration: Val Mina