California Elections 2002

GOVERNOR How California Voted 100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%) Democrat Gray Davis (1): 1,589,113 (81%) Anselmo A. Chavez: 164,177 (8%) Charles Pineda Jr.: 127,085 (6%) Mosemarie Boyd: 87,237 (4%) Republican Bill Simon: 1,012,428 (49%) Richard J.

Just weeks after pulling off one of the most stunning political upsets in California history, gubernatorial hopeful Bill Simon Jr. is facing growing doubts within his own Republican Party about his ability to oust incumbent Democrat Gray Davis.

Five weeks before election day, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan holds a double-digit lead over his top rivals in the GOP gubernatorial primary and runs even with Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in a prospective fall matchup, according to a Los Angeles Times poll. Republican Bill Simon Jr. seems poised to emerge as the conservative alternative to the centrist Riordan, running ahead of Secretary of State Bill Jones, and could do particularly well if voter turnout is low.

Republican nominee Bill Simon Jr. pledges that as governor he would cut taxes, balance the budget, create child-care programs at every school and preside over a freeway- and reservoir-building spree. But despite spending much of the last year touting himself as "the candidate of ideas" who will focus on the nuts-and-bolts issues Simon says Californians care about, he has put forward only sketchy plans on how he would achieve several of his ambitious goals.

In West Hollywood, Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan tells a gay and lesbian group that he might support the kind of same-sex unions legalized in Vermont. In Oakland, he tells a minority civil rights group that he will "embarrass" the Bush administration if that's what it takes to get health care money for impoverished Californians. Leaders, Riordan says, must ask themselves every day, "What's in the interest of the poor?"

Republican nominee Bill Simon Jr. pledges that as governor he would cut taxes, balance the budget, create child-care programs at every school and preside over a freeway- and reservoir-building spree. But despite spending much of the last year touting himself as "the candidate of ideas" who will focus on the nuts-and-bolts issues Simon says Californians care about, he has put forward only sketchy plans on how he would achieve several of his ambitious goals.

Political strategist Richie Ross sees his client's task as basic: He must convince voters that he's not a murderer. Didn't even conspire to commit murder. Did not hire a hit man. Had absolutely nothing to do with Chandra Levy's disappearance. Then Rep. Gary Condit can think about--maybe--running for reelection next year.

With seven months to go until California voters cast their ballots, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis reported Tuesday that he has amassed a $30.5-million treasury--10 times more than his closest Republican rival. Davis raised $5.8 million during the first six months of 2001 even as he and the state grappled with an extraordinary energy crisis, the most difficult conflict during his time in office. That meant that Davis maintained nearly a million-dollar-a-month pace.

Forget those venture capitalists and billionaire tycoons hosting lavish fund-raisers from La Jolla to Manhattan. The single biggest donor to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' campaign fortune now happens to be Gov. Davis' campaign fortune itself. A fund-raising snowball, Davis' treasury is so big it's gaining heft just by rolling forward.

Aiming a preemptive strike at his strongest potential rival, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bill Jones asserted Monday that Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has no place running in a Republican primary. Speaking to a conservative group in San Diego, Secretary of State Jones recalled Riordan's support for a number of Democratic causes and candidates, including sizable campaign contributions to their rival in November 2002: incumbent Gov. Gray Davis.

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill Simon Jr. charged Friday that Gov. Gray Davis failed to anticipate the state's fiscal troubles because he was too busy raising money for his reelection campaign. Simon attacked his Democratic opponent's ethics at a luncheon of agricultural leaders. By ignoring the state's energy and fiscal problems, Simon told them, Davis left the budget 'totally out of control' with a $17-billion shortfall.

When damaging details of Bill Simon Jr.'s political past surfaced 13 days ago, the brain trust of Richard Riordan's campaign learned about them the same way everyone else did: by reading the newspaper. The same with a 1991 videotaped interview in which Riordan condemned abortion as murder. The snippet was used to devastating effect in a Gray Davis attack ad; Riordan's gubernatorial campaign learned of the clip, again, from a newspaper.

When Bill Simon Jr. told his eldest sister he was running for governor last year, she gave him some free advice: "You're crazy!" How, she wondered, could her gentle, lighthearted brother survive in the "snake pit of politics?" The snakes may eventually get Simon, but he got through Round 1 in the pit without losing much blood.

Although President Bush encouraged Richard Riordan to run for governor, top Republican political strategists insisted Wednesday that blame for the former Los Angeles mayor's stunning loss should not be laid at the White House's doorstep. Instead, a senior administration official cited three reasons for the outcome of Tuesday's Republican primary: a devastating attack on Riordan by Gov.

Their primary campaigns behind them, Gov. Gray Davis and his Republican challenger Bill Simon Jr. plunged Wednesday into their head-to-head race for governor by sparring over energy, abortion and the state's fiscal troubles. A day after Simon easily defeated rivals Richard Riordan and Bill Jones in a nasty, low-turnout, three-way primary, the Republican nominee tried to rally his fractured party behind him.

GOVERNOR How California Voted 100% Precincts Reporting: votes (%) Democrat Gray Davis (1): 1,589,113 (81%) Anselmo A. Chavez: 164,177 (8%) Charles Pineda Jr.: 127,085 (6%) Mosemarie Boyd: 87,237 (4%) Republican Bill Simon: 1,012,428 (49%) Richard J.

Despite widespread unhappiness about the state's electricity crisis, California voters still favor Gov. Gray Davis over three potential Republican rivals, according to a Los Angeles Times poll. Of the three possible GOP challengers for the governor's seat, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan ran most competitively against the Democratic incumbent.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan plans to meet today with chief White House political strategist Karl Rove in a move that signals the mayor's growing interest in running for governor of California. For weeks, the Republican mayor has been meeting privately with strategists about a potential campaign. And in a speech on Friday to Republicans in Orange County, he tested some possible campaign themes, saying his accomplishments in Los Angeles "should serve as a model for the entire state."

Capping an election season marked by surprise and scandal, Californians go to the polls today to pick party nominees in the race for governor while Central Valley voters decide the fate of embattled Rep. Gary Condit. The gubernatorial race has been spirited, with three Republican candidates vying for the right to face Gov. Gray Davis in the fall. Davis has run largely unopposed in the Democratic primary.

If former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan beats businessman Bill Simon Jr. and Secretary of State Bill Jones tomorrow in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, it will be because he carried places like Contra Costa County. If he loses, it will be because GOP voters here and their brethren statewide believed that he wasn't one of them.