Again, Rest of Nation Faces Westward to Test Political Wind

As usual, California seems to be incapable of holding an election that non-Californians don’t notice. And Tuesday’s was extremely noticeable.

Certainly the White House had to notice it. It will note that Republican Gov. Pete Wilson fought off challenger Ron K. Unz, from the party’s right wing, for the gubernatorial nomination. The thought of Wilson, battered by the economy, somehow winning a second term in November and emerging as a plausible GOP candidate for the presidency from electoral-vote-rich California has got to be scary for President Clinton.

Washington--reeling from the unflattering imagery of the recent indictment of then-House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski--was watching for any anti-incumbent tide here. It looks as if the answer was mixed. Some familiar figures lost--most notably state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), who in an April recall survived an ambush by the gun lobby but was gunned down Tuesday for the state treasurer’s job by better-financed Phil Angelides, a rising young star in the state Democratic Party. Tony Miller, the first openly gay candidate to run for statewide office, upset two familiar faces in the Democratic primary for secretary of state.

But incumbents prevailed in the state’s three congressional primaries singled out for national scrutiny. In Riverside, Republican incumbent Ken Calvert won his primary in spite of a sex scandal. In Ukiah, incumbent Democrat Dan Hamburg prevailed despite a strong challenge. In Diamond Bar, Republican Jay C. Kim--the first Korean American to serve in Congress--won his primary despite allegations of financial impropriety.

Political observers at large will also take note of the electorate’s defeat of the four statewide bond measures. Once again, the state that gave birth to the tax revolt with Proposition 13 is sending out a warning signal about government spending. Alas, the measures defeated--they carried Los Angeles County, but not the state--represented, on the whole, needed infrastructure investments.

Orange County voters showed their customary unwillingness to spend new money, which is understandable. But in one unfortunate instance, they even recalled City Council members who already had spent it in an effort to close a $3-million city budget deficit, which is sad. This happened in Fullerton, where the three council members who last July imposed a 2% utility tax in a 3-2 vote were dumped even though the utility tax was due to lapse next year--and was needed to avoid cutting fire and police services. At the same time, local revenue-raising measures in Pasadena, Altadena and Hawthorne--for libraries and schools--did get voter approval.

But voters statewide rejected a bond measure to fund California’s 10% share of the total Jan. 17 earthquake repair bill--the deal with the federal government, which ponied up 90%. That was unfortunate--but hardly surprising. We only reluctantly supported the bond measure when the Legislature failed to enact a temporary state sales tax hike to cover the state’s matching-funds obligation. Now the Legislature has to go back to the drawing board and find financing of some kind. It would be nice to see--though we’re not holding our breath--Kathleen Brown and other top Democrats announce support for whatever sensible measure might be agreed on--to give Gov. Wilson the political cover needed to sign a temporary revenue measure without getting clobbered with it during the fall campaign.

Brown especially should be sympathetic. Because although she won, handily, the right to be the Democratic nominee for governor, she like Pete Wilson looks to have a lot of convincing to do among the party faithful. In aggregate she got less than half the Democratic vote; in the governor’s case a third of the Republican vote went to a total newcomer. So both candidates have internal party problems to overcome. It would be nice if certain issues, such as meeting our obligation for Washington’s massive earthquake relief, could be kept on a high plane. Dream on.

Of course that won’t be the only hot race this fall. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein appears to be facing a serious challenge from Rep. Michael Huffington (R-Santa Barbara), who will run a well-financed campaign out of his own pocket.

Maybe it will take a hot campaign or two to get out the vote in this state. On Tuesday Californians broke an unenviable record. In a year when South Africans stood in lines that wound for miles in order to exercise the privilege of voting, Californians stayed away from the polls in unprecedented numbers. Secretary of State-elect Tony Miller put voter turnout statewide at 32.9% of registered voters (which comes to less than one-fourth of eligible voters), far below the previous record low, 38.8% in 1990. The numbers were no better in Los Angeles County and worse in Orange County. But rather than merely bemoan the decline of an engaged democratic society, we all need to take a look at what feeds voter apathy and hope the passion meter will be higher come November.

But turnout cannot and should not depend on passion alone. When more Californians see a connection between what’s going on in their often busy and stressed-out lives and what’s on the ballot, they will return to the polling booths. Until then, one-fourth will continue to make the decisions for the other three-fourths, in a nation where that really shouldn’t happen.