Candidates Make Final Bids for Today’s Primary Vote

After a record-shattering primary that set new marks for money and mercurial sentiment, Californians today pick nominees for governor and U.S. Senate and decide the fate of two nationally watched ballot initiatives on bilingual education and organized labor.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Despite good weather--the only chance of rain is a late sprinkle in the far north--fewer than half the state’s eligible voters--about 42%--are expected to turn out.

Voters will participate for the first time in a free-for-all blanket primary that lets everybody vote for anybody, regardless of party affiliation. They will choose among 17 candidates for governor from seven political parties.

Four of the candidates--Democrats Al Checchi, Gray Davis and Jane Harman and Republican Dan Lungren--are the major contenders to succeed Gov. Pete Wilson, who is prevented by law from seeking a third term.

The Republican Senate contest pits Matt Fong against Darrell Issa for the right to face Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer in November.

Voters will also choose nominees for five state constitutional offices. Three of those races--for lieutenant governor, attorney general and treasurer--have no incumbents, guaranteeing fresh faces in Sacramento.

Also, at least four new members will join the state’s 52-seat congressional delegation, including new representatives from the South Bay and East Los Angeles areas, replacing Harman of Torrance and longtime Democratic Rep. Esteban Edward Torres, who is retiring.

Two other Southern California congressional races, with precariously perched incumbents, have drawn close attention.

Rep. Jay Kim (R-Diamond Bar), who pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations, is fighting to stave off a spirited challenge from two opponents in the GOP primary.

In Orange County, former Rep. Bob Dornan (R-Garden Grove) faces three opponents, hoping for the right to run a rematch against incumbent Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana), who narrowly bested Dornan in one of the biggest political upsets of 1996.

Elsewhere, voters in Los Angeles County will decide whether to give Sheriff Sherman Block a fifth term and will choose among Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and three opponents. Supervisor Gloria Molina is unopposed for a third term.

County Assessor Kenneth Hahn faces three challengers, and more than 30 Assembly and state Senate seats are also up for grabs in local races.

In Oakland, former governor and three-time presidential aspirant Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. faces 10 opponents in the race for mayor, but recent polls suggest that he could win the majority needed to avoid a November runoff.

Election eve saw a mad dash to the finish, with front-runners striding confidently, underdogs scrapping defiantly and those responsible for the nuts and bolts--identifying supporters and making sure they turn out--readying their battle plans for today’s finale.

Davis Claims Things Are Looking Up

In the governor’s race, the Democrat to beat--Lt. Gov. Davis--called himself “the luckiest person on planet Earth” during a midmorning radio interview on KABC-AM (790) in Los Angeles. “The Lord is smiling and I thank him,” he said.

As recently as six weeks ago, his candidacy was considered half-past dead, with Davis mired in third place in the polls and rivals Checchi and Harman lavishly outspending him. Indeed, in just one of the quirks of this most topsy-turvy campaign season, each of the major Democrats has spent time in first place in the polls--and each has placed last at some point.

The oddities hardly stop there. Defying all expectations, the candidate who spent the least money--Davis--is today the one best positioned, thanks to his 23 years of Sacramento experience. More than money, his long government resume seems to have counted with voters, who polls suggest favor incumbency over insurgency.

Davis’ status as the campaign pauper is relative. The $9 million he has spent would have tied the record for a California primary--set in 1994 by Democrat Kathleen Brown--if not for two things: Al Checchi’s wallet and Jane Harman’s pocketbook.

Checchi has sunk roughly $40 million into his first run for office. On Monday he devoted the final day of his 18-month odyssey banging the drum for education, the issue on which he entered the campaign and one that ranks first among voters, according to polls.

On the morning show on KTLA-TV Channel 5, Checchi addressed the matter of his vast personal wealth and the impact his prodigious spending had on the campaign. “I’m putting my money where my mouth is,” he said.

Harman, whose campaign bankroll has topped $15 million, spent the last day of the primary pushing gun control, which emerged as her signature issue in the last week of the campaign.

Her backdrop was Banning High School in Westchester, near where a student was recently shot and wounded in a gang fight.

As governor, Harman vowed, she would outlaw the manufacture of cheap handguns and give maximum funding to anti-gang programs.

“As a mother of two school-age children . . . I want every school campus in California to be safe. I want every corridor to and from school to be safe,” Harman said.

The major Republican hopeful, state Atty. Gen. Lungren, stopped by a phone bank in Sacramento during the lunch hour to meet with campaign volunteers and personally place a few get-out-the-vote calls. His relatively leisurely pace reflected the fact that he faces no serious opposition for the GOP nomination, making him one of today’s few sure bets.

A Fight to the Finish

Monday evening, Harman, Checchi and Lungren sparred in an eleventh-hour debate on KCBS-TV Channel 2 in Los Angeles, restating familiar campaign themes in a final forum--interspersed with their ads--that was put together hours before the three-way appearance. Davis opted out, citing a scheduling conflict.

In the Senate contest, Republican Issa finished his travels in the 30-foot motor home dubbed the “Issa-bago,” stumping for votes at a bagel shop in Fresno, at a hamburger stand in Van Nuys, on the streets of Burbank and then at party rallies in Huntington Beach and San Diego.

The electronics entrepreneur also squeezed in a side trip to the Northridge home of Grigor Ketenchiana, a dimple-cheeked 7-year-old who has become an ardent Issa supporter. The boy expressed concern that he might not be allowed to stay up late enough to see the final results of what could be a photo finish between Issa and Fong.

“I will do my best to win by the 11 o’clock news,” Issa promised.

Fong did his best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The state treasurer spent the last day of his primary battle on a multicity swing, playing piano at a Fresno senior center and teaching Political Science 101 at Cal State Bakersfield. Fong, who retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel, even took the controls of his private campaign jet for the half-hour hop from Fresno to Bakersfield and later down to Van Nuys.

Traveling with his wife of 20 years, Paula--also an amateur pilot--Fong was relaxed and low-key, stopping to sample the new steak sandwich at Carl’s Jr., the fast-food chain run by his campaign chairman. At each stop he made sure to mention his mother, former Secretary of State March Fong Eu.

“I hope we’ve earned your trust,” Fong told 35 seniors at the Windham, an upscale Fresno retirement community. “Some of you have been voting for a member of my family for a long time, my mother March Fong Eu.”

With the luxury of running largely unopposed, Democrat Boxer spent the final day of the primary with a group of Latino constituents in Sacramento, then toured an after-school program for the children of low-income working parents. She finished the day with an evening fund-raiser to build her campaign treasury for November.

The people with their names on the ballots weren’t the only ones stumping for last-minute support.

Opposing sides in the fight over Proposition 227, the anti-bilingual education initiative, squared off one last time in a debate carried live on Santa Monica radio station KCRW-FM (89.9).

Ron Unz, the author of the measure, repeatedly drew boos from an audience at the Los Angeles Central Library as he insisted that the one year of intensive English instruction prescribed by the initiative would be enough for most young children.

He said those children who still needed extra help in their primary language could get it, provided their parents submitted a request.

Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) disagreed, saying it would be difficult for parents to get the assistance their children need. He criticized Proposition 227 as a “very simple solution to a complex problem.”

Elsewhere, proponents and opponents of Proposition 226 staged their own last-ditch efforts. The measure would circumscribe the power of organized labor by requiring unions to receive annual permission from members to use their dues for political purposes.

Having invested more than $20 million in the effort to defeat the measure, organized labor showed no slack Monday, operating phone banks that placed thousands of calls, walking precincts, holding rallies and collecting absentee ballots.

Opponents also swarmed an appearance by Wilson--a key Proposition 226 supporter--at the Huntington Beach Mall, delaying his remarks for about an hour. Then they shouted Wilson down.

“Isn’t it a wonderful country?” said a grimacing Wilson, who has staked much political capital and personal prestige on the pro-226 effort, as protesters chanted outside a storefront office. “The 1st Amendment guarantees that anyone who wants to can make a first-class horse’s ass out of themselves.”

Police were called to quiet the demonstrators and clear an aisle outside the office, next to a yogurt shop and sandwich cafe.

Underscoring the wider political implications--and the importance Republicans place on the issue nationally--Republican Party chief Jim Nicholson weighed in from Washington with a promise to continue the dues check-off fight regardless of what happens in California.

“California is a big state and it’s a pace-setter,” Nicholson told reporters by telephone, but even if Proposition 226 loses, it won’t be a death knell for GOP efforts to stem union clout. “It’s just inevitable that it will spread to other states.”

Contributing to this story were Times political writer Cathleen Decker, education writer Richard Lee Colvin, staff writers Jodi Wilgoren, Tony Perry, Jean O. Pasco, Dave Lesher, Carl Ingram, Faye Fiore and Eric Bailey and correspondent Joe Mozingo.

* RETURNS ON THE WEB

Election returns and analysis will be available tonight shortly after the polls close on the Los Angeles Times Web site at: https://www.latimes.com.