Features

Controller may spoil Democratic hopes for statewide sweep

By Seth Hettena The Associated Press
Wednesday November 06, 2002

LOS ANGELES — California Democrats hoping for their first sweep of statewide offices in more than a century found only the Republican nominee for state controller standing in their way Tuesday night. 

With more than two-thirds of precincts reporting, well-funded Democratic incumbents won their races for attorney general, treasurer and lieutenant governor. Democrats also were elected as insurance commissioner, secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction. 

Only state Sen. Tom McClintock, the Republican nominee for state controller, threatened to spoil the Democrats’ party — they haven’t swept all statewide offices since 1882. 

But McClintock, a veteran lawmaker, saw his lead dwindle as the evening wore on. Both he and Democrat Steve Westly, a dot-com millionaire who poured more than $5 million of his own money into his campaign, had 45 percent of the vote. 

Democrat John Garamendi defeated Republican challenger Gary Mendoza, 46 percent to 42 percent, to recapture the office he held as the state’s first insurance commissioner from 1991-1994. 

The state GOP had considered Mendoza a good bet to win and directed more than $1 million to his campaign in the final week. 

The only current Republican statewide officeholder, Secretary of State Bill Jones, has to give up his seat because of term limits. 

After trailing early in the race for secretary of state, Assembly Majority Leader Kevin Shelley, D-San Francisco, beat Republican Keith Olberg, a former Assemblyman, 46 percent to 42 percent. 

Gov. Gray Davis and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante became the first pair of top office holders from the same party to win re-election in 40 years. 

Bustamante beat Sen. Bruce McPherson, a moderate Republican from Santa Cruz, 49 percent to 42 percent. 

Attorney General Bill Lockyer was already looking beyond his race against Republican state Sen. Dick Ackerman to a potential run for governor in four years. Lockyer won with 51 percent of the vote to Ackerman’s 40 percent. 

Treasurer Phil Angelides beat Greg Conlon, who struggled with a record as a former public utilities commissioner who advocated electricity deregulation, 49 percent to 41 percent. 

In nonpartisan races, three members of the California Supreme Court, justices Marvin Baxter, Carlos Moreno and Kathryn Werdegar were voted to another term. In the contest for superintendent of public instruction, teacher-turned-legislator Sen. Jack O’Connell, D-San Luis Obispo, defeated Katherine Smith, an Anaheim School Board president, 61 percent to 39 percent. 

In 1998, only two Republicans kept statewide office, Jones and Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, who was forced to resign in scandal in 2000. 

Republican leaders feared another poor showing could stall efforts to rebuild the party in the nation’s most populous state, leave few viable candidates for future statewide races and hurt their chances to help President Bush in 2004.