By William Booth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 1, 1998; Page A01

LOS ANGELES, May 31 — For months the airwaves in California have been filled with millionaires spending their money to sell themselves or their positions on high-profile propositions about bilingual education and union dues for politics.

Despite all the money spent, a funny thing may happen on the way to the polls Tuesday. Californians do not appear so ready to lash out – at each other or at politicians.

Democrat Al Checchi, running for governor, told members of a school audience, "The real issue is, do you want more of the same? If so, then for God's sake don't vote for me."

Most voters tell pollsters they won't. Californians today appear to be a relatively contented people. Gone are the recessions and riots, and much of the anger.

"The voters' attitudes are finally catching up with the economic realities," said Leslie Goodman, a Sacramento political consultant. "Overall, they're feeling much better. They're beginning to feel secure in their jobs, to think about disposable income again and the longer term."

The dominant race for governor pits three Democrats, who hold mostly similar positions on the issues facing California and offer instead differences in background and style. One is a lifelong public servant, one a female legislator and the third a go-go businessman.

The most recent polls put Lt. Gov. Gray Davis in a comfortable lead, followed by Los Angeles-area Rep. Jane Harman and then Checchi, a millionaire airline tycoon. The winner Tuesday will face state Attorney General Dan Lungren (R) in the November election.

Checchi, who once led in the polls, has taken the biggest dive. Voters tell pollsters they were turned off when he went negative in a splurge of attack ads against Harman and Davis, who responded in kind.

In the Senate contest to pick who will face Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) in the fall, state Treasurer Matt Fong has gained a slight edge over car alarm entrepreneur Darrell Issa in recent days. There were last-minute allegations that Issa played the heavy in his rise to business success, and he has been accused of waving a gun around when he fired an executive. Issa vehemently denies the charges.

Two high-profile propositions are also on the ballot. Proposition 227, which would effectively end bilingual education in the state, is ahead in the polls. With some 60 percent of Latino voters also favoring the measure, the ethnic tensions of past campaigns to end affirmative action and services for illegal aliens have largely been absent.

Finally, despite massive spending by labor unions and their supporters, Proposition 226, which would require unions to get each member's permission before donating their dues to political campaigns, is favored to win. Support for the measure has been slipping day by day, however.

Just as the current campaign has been affected by the California economy, so too has it been influenced by term limits, which have set off a game of musical chairs among seasoned politicians, and by another pair of initiatives that passed in 1996.

The first was Proposition 208, which imposed mandatory contribution limits and voluntary spending limits, and also banned campaign fund-raising in the off-years of election cycles. This scared many potential candidates away from the current races. It was overturned by the courts, but not until the courts also ruled that personal spending was free speech – and this propelled the self-financed campaigns of today's millionaires.

The second initiative, enacted by voters in 1996, is California's "open" or "blanket" or "free-for-all" primary, which allows registered voters to vote for any candidate in any party. It not only allows Democrats and Republicans to switch-hit and cross party lines, but it also lets the growing number of independent voters participate in the primaries – all on the same ballot.

California Secretary of State Bill Jones predicted last week that 42 percent of California's 14.6 million registered voters will cast ballots in the primary election, the highest turnout for a gubernatorial primary in 16 years, with a record number of absentee ballot applications. Jones said the open primary is the reason for his optimistic projections.

There was some fear among insiders that activists in either party might cross lines to vote for the weakest candidates in the opposing party, setting them up for eventual failure. Most observers believe this will not be much of a factor. But some 12 percent of California voters now decline to state a party affiliation, and these independents could tip races their way. They have been heavily courted with the television ads and direct mailers.

Indeed, businessman Checchi said the open primary encourages more mainstream, moderate candidates in both parties, since they must all seek the great middle ground, where the voters are.

Consider this: In 1994, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and his Democratic challenger, Kathleen Brown, appeared to offer a real contrast. He was for capital punishment and against spending on illegal aliens. She took the opposite positions.

In the current race, all three Democratic candidates for governor support the death penalty, as does GOP candidate Lungren. Lungren alone opposes abortion rights, but he has done so in a subtle way, telling voters there is really not much a governor can do to deny the procedure to women who want it.

Garry South, campaign director for Davis, has said that for the average voter there is not much to separate the three Democrats – they are a blur, ideologically and philosophically. And so the subtle differences are emphasized: Harman is a woman, Checchi a businessman and Davis a public servant.

Gone, too, is much of the racial and ethnic rancor of previous campaigns – there is no real "wedge" issue in the June 2 primary.

All the gubernatorial candidates, including Republican Lungren, have been talking about racial healing. All are pledging to make appointments that reflect California's diverse melting pot. All vow to see to it that California's universities enroll more minorities.

"This diversity is a cause of celebration," Harman said. "But it also can create tensions. California's governor must take an active role in minimizing such tensions and building one united California."

Toward that end, all four candidates oppose Proposition 227, which would end bilingual education. Yet none of them defend bilingual education, either. While Proposition 227 would give limited-English students a year of intensive training and then put them into the mainstream, the candidates themselves would give them two years or three.

This year, Latino voters are being courted as never before, with all major candidates airing ads in Spanish, and for the first time, all four gubernatorial contenders appearing in a debate translated into Spanish, sponsored by a Spanish-language newspaper and TV network.

Yet airtime for political spots in California has become so tight that Cruz Bustamante (D), the former state Assembly speaker from Fresno who is running for lieutenant governor in Tuesday's primary, wanted to spend $700,000 this last week on TV but could get stations to give him only $500,000 worth of time.

The reason? Advertisements for the gubernatorial and Senate race, as well as the two contentious propositions, have sucked up most of the available spots, and the stations do not believe it is in their best interest – or the interests of steady customers such as makers of soft drinks and automobiles – for TV viewers to see nothing but one political ad after another, all day long.

If anything, this season's campaigns have been dominated by millionaires and their money.

Multimillionaire car alarm mogul Issa, for example, has spent more than $7 million on his advertising.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan (R), another millionaire, put $250,000 of his own money into Spanish-language TV spots urging Latino voters to support Proposition 227, the initiative sponsored by Silicon Valley software entrepreneur Ron Unz, another Republican millionaire, who has spent millions to end bilingual education in the state. Not to be outdone, A. Jerrold Perenchio, the GOP billionaire owner of the Univision Spanish-language television network, spent $1.5 million of his money to defeat the initiative that would end bilingual education.

Wilson has transferred more than $1.2 million from his gubernatorial campaign committee (he cannot run again because of term limits) to run advertisements in support of Proposition 226, the voter initiative that would greatly curtail union spending on political candidates.

And finally, there is the governor's race among three well-funded Democrats. Checchi, who is worth an estimated $700 million, has spent more than $30 million on his TV ads; Harman, who with her husband is worth about $200 million, will drop as much as $20 million on the race; and Davis, the relative public service pauper but a man with "the golden Rolodex" of donors, has raised $12 million to put on TV.

In addition to the record amounts spent on television, another mostly ignored race could be historic. Four candidates, two Democrats and two Republicans, are vying for the office of lieutenant governor. They are Democrat Bustamante, who would be the first Latino elected statewide; Tony Miller (D), the first openly gay contender for the post; Republican travel company executive Noel Irwin Hentschel, who would be the first female lieutenant governor; and state Sen. Tim Leslie (R), who could be elected despite having cancer this year.

Finally, in the race for mayor of Oakland, it looks as if former governor and former presidential candidate Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr., now an independent and living in a cooperative group house, is heading toward victory.