California Lt. Gov. Gray Davis (D) will face Attorney General Dan Lungren this fall. (AP)

By William Booth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thrusday, June 4, 1998; Page A16

LOS ANGELES, June 3 — California voters will be offered the clearest of choices this fall when they select the next governor of the nation's most populous and powerful state: Republican Dan Lungren and Democrat Gray Davis are near-perfect representations of their parties and positions.

With their selections as party nominees Tuesday night, the two career politicians promise competing visions and ideologies for the state's future.

Lungren, the state attorney general, is a self-described "conservative Republican" who opposes abortion and most gun control, favors school vouchers and wants to convert California's $4 billion budget surplus into tax breaks. Using Reaganesque rhetoric, Lungren speaks of California as the best of all possible worlds, a sunny city on a hill.

Davis, the lieutenant governor, with overwhelming support from union members and hard-core Democrats, is a staunch supporter of abortion rights who worked as chief of staff for then-Gov. Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. and says his number one priority as governor would be to fix California's ailing schools and reinvest in the state's infrastructure.

Lungren comes across as a loose, confident California native who rides horses. Davis is a stiff workaholic and even makes jokes about it.

Both candidates and their parties are already working to cast the other in the harshest light. Lungren will try to convince voters that Davis is a tax-and-spend liberal, while Davis will cast Lungren as right-wing extremist who is hostile to California's women, workers and minorities.

"It is a classic Democrat versus Republican matchup. Davis is a little left of center and Lungren is a little right of center and they are both going to be vying for that big political middle," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the California Field Poll. "It might be a very interesting race for the voters, especially if policy issues become central."

In Tuesday's election, Davis captured 35 percent of the total votes cast, to Lungren's 34 percent. Davis soundly defeated his Democratic challengers – Los Angeles area Rep. Jane Harman and airline tycoon Al Checchi, who together spent an estimated $60 million on television advertisements. Davis spent about $10 million.

The morning-after analysis suggests that Checchi's barrage of negative ads a month ago may have hurt Harman, but boomeranged and made voters dislike the multimillionaire businessman as well. Exit polling revealed that 64 percent of voters had a negative impression of Checchi, who vowed not to run attack ads, who repeatedly said he wanted to inspire the populace a la the Kennedy brothers, but then went for the jugular with some of the record-breaking $40 million he spent on TV spots.

Left standing was Davis, who finished with a 70 percent favorable rating.

On the ballot, too, were a pair of controversial initiatives. Proposition 227, which would effectively end bilingual education in the state, was widely supported with 61 percent of the vote. But the measure failed to garner approval from Latino voters. According to the exit polls, only 37 percent of Hispanics voted to end bilingual education, as opposed to 67 percent of whites, 57 percent of Asians and 48 percent of blacks. Latino opposition to the measure, which was surprising given earlier surveys that showed broad support among Hispanics, may make ending bilingual education a divisive and ethnically polarized endeavor.

Latino civil rights groups filed suit in San Francisco today, claiming the measure is unconstitutional. Also, about 1,500 bilingual teachers around the state have pledged not to stop teaching in the students' primary languages, most often Spanish.

The other measure, Proposition 226, which would have required unions to get the annual permission of each member before spending their dues on political campaigns, was defeated by 53 percent voting no.

The vote was California's first experiment with a "blanket" or "free-for-all" primary, whereby voters of any party could cross party lines to vote for any candidate.

Exit polling done by the Los Angeles Times and CNN found that relatively few voters were confused by the process. Instead a majority said they liked being able to choose candidates from any party. And cross party lines they did.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D), elected in 1992, is defending her seat for the first time. (AP)

In a tight race for Republican nominee for Senate, state Treasurer Matt Fong narrowly defeated his opponent, car alarm mogul Darrell Issa, with 22 percent of the vote to Issa's 19 percent. Fong will face Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) in November.

Fong got a substantial boost from crossover votes – about 24 percent of his support came from Democrats, which could be a problem for Boxer. According to the exit polls, Fong's supporters also tended to be self-described "moderates" of both parties. Issa, who spent about $7 million of his own fortune on TV spots, got the hard-core conservatives.

Despite all the money and millionaires running, California voters may be more inclined than ever to hit the cruise-control and not shake things up. Receding into memory are the brutal recession, the Los Angeles riot and earthquakes.

Yet the exit polls found that change is not out of the question. About 64 percent of all voters questioned – and 74 percent of those who call themselves independents – told pollsters it was time for a change. Republicans have held the governor's office for the last 16 years.

In other closely watched races, Los Angeles-area Rep. Jay Kim (R) was the first House incumbent this year to be defeated. Kim, the first Korean American in Congress, was convicted along with his wife of misdemeanor campaign finance violations. He ran his campaign from Washington, where he wears an ankle bracelet to monitor his movements. Kim was defeated by state Assemblyman Gary Miller.

Conservative firebrand and former representative Robert K. Dornan won the Republican nomination for his old seat in Orange County, where he will again face Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D), who defeated him two years ago with a razor-thin margin.

And in Oakland, Jerry Brown won – without a runoff – the mayor's race.