Wednesday, June 3, 1998
Lungren, Davis set to run
ELECTIONS: Candidates predict gubernatorial race will come to
wire
By Christy Lin
Daily Bruin Contributor
The first California open "blanket" primary, an election in
which voters could choose any candidate regardless of party
affiliation, brought several very close races to an end last night,
deciding who will face off in the November general elections.
Dan Lungren won the Republican nomination for governor while
current-lieutenant governor Gray Davis took the Democratic
nomination.
Both candidates took 35 percent of the popular vote, showing
that the general election might be a close race between the two
experienced politicians.
Outspent by millions, Davis won against flashier opponents
Congress member Jane Harman and former Northwest Airlines chief
executive Al Checchi.
Davis promised to serve with experience "money can’t buy," a
slogan he echoed throughout his campaign as a jab to his rich
opponents.
"You defied the experts," Davis told backers at a victory rally.
"You proved the pundits wrong, and you know what? I think we’re
gonna win again in November!"
Harman called Davis around 9:45 p.m. last night to congratulate
him.
"Winning is more fun, but losing with honor ain’t bad," Harman
told supporters at the Manhattan Beach Marriott. "We ran a positive
campaign, the only kind I have ever run."
Harman believes Davis ran an excellent campaign as well and
plans to join him tomorrow at the Unity breakfast to defeat
Lungren.
Lungren had no major competition in the Republican party. After
serving two terms, Pete Wilson is barred from running again.
In the race for lieutenant governor, Assemblyman Cruz Bustamante
won the Democratic nomination and Senator Tim Leslie won the
Republican nomination.
Bustamante received 34 percent of the votes and Leslie received
16 percent. Both of Leslie’s main Republican opponents were tied at
12 percent, with state Senator Richard Mountjoy of Arcadia winning
214,748 votes and wealthy business owner Noel Irwin Hentschel
garnering 215,523 votes.
Bustamante will also be the first Latino to serve in statewide
office this century if he wins the general election in
November.
A win by Leslie, who ran radio commercials detailing his battle
with cancer, would show that a brush with a disease does not have
to end a political career.
Incumbent Barbara Boxer won the Democrat nomination for the U.S.
Senate against token competition, receiving 44 percent of the
popular vote.
State Treasurer Matt Fong won a close race against car alarm
entrepreneur Darrell Issa, with 22 versus 19 percent of the popular
vote respectively.
"It’s a squeaker!" Issa said on the campaign trail about his
chances of winning. According to statewide surveys, Fong and Issa
were tied hours before the polls opened.
Fong was outspent 4-to-1 by Issa. Both were running neck-to-neck
the whole campaign, but in the end, Fong won by a bare three
percent.
The son of March Fong Eu, who served as ambassador to
Micronesia, Fong hopes to be the first Asian American senator from
California since the late S.I. Hayakawa, the former president of
San Francisco State University, served a single term from
1976-82.
Boxer, 57, is a former Marin County supervisor and member of
Congress, with one term of experience in the Senate already. She is
also a proponent of gun-control legislation the Brady Bill.
Boxer had promised to win in November, "whoever my opponent
might be!"
"California is back! Tonight, I’m asking the people to send me
back to the Senate," she told hundreds of cheering Democrats at the
Biltmore Hotel.
In the 29th Congressional District, where UCLA is located,
incumbent Henry Waxman captured the Democratic nomination with 67
percent of the vote, and Mike Gottlieb won the Republican
nomination with 18 percent.
Both Waxman and Gottlieb are UCLA alumni. As the current
Congressman representing the 29th District, Waxman is a major
proponent of tobacco legislation.
If Gottlieb is elected, he wants to use his background in
economics to build stronger relations between the interests of Los
Angeles residents and Congress.
With reports from Daily Bruin wire services.
The Associated Press
Gray Davis kisses his wife, Sharon, after receiving
nomination.