California Primary Elections 2000

It is the first California election of the century, a door opening to the future. And it certainly represents a break from the past: The presidential contests for both major parties are alive, to one degree or another. Many adult Californians, for the first time in their lives, will be voting in a presidential primary that matters. For months, Democrats Al Gore and Bill Bradley, and Republicans George W. Bush, John McCain and Alan Keyes, have crossed the state, searching for votes.

Entering the lion's den of California conservatism Friday night, Rep. Tom Campbell (R-San Jose) received both cheers and jeers in a debate that suggested how far the right wing of the state's Republican Party may have to bend to unseat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Flanked by two conservative contenders for the nomination, state Sen.

Taking the offensive in her state Senate primary campaign, Ventura County Supervisor Judy Mikels on Friday declared Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) a hypocrite who postures as a taxpayer advocate but acts as a spendthrift of public money. Mikels, who trails McClintock badly in fund-raising, accused the veteran assemblyman of allowing his state staff to travel to political events outside his 38th District and charging taxpayers for the trips.

Hello, California. The nation's costliest political ad wars begin here today, with Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain of Arizona set to blitz viewers with millions of dollars worth of TV commercials in key markets across the state. Bush, using a one-two punch, will air one ad harshly criticizing McCain for an ad he has already pulled in South Carolina and a second seeking to position himself rather than McCain as the genuine Washington outsider.

Less than nine weeks before the California primary, Vice President Al Gore's campaign has shuffled its state leadership and plans to publicly shift into higher gear next week by establishing a political beachhead in Los Angeles. Although there was consensus that the resignation of Gore state manager Kathy Bowler was health-related, some political activists said her departure was one more stumble by a campaign that has been fighting off perceptions of weakness for months.

All right, so presidential candidates are again fawning over voters in New Hampshire. And in Iowa, as always, politicians are gabbing for hours with farmers about topics like subsidizing ethanol. In South Carolina, contenders for the White House are weighing in on whether a Confederate flag should continue to fly over the statehouse. And in New York, not a day goes by without some mention of a U.S. Senate race that isn't even officially underway.

Californians will vote Tuesday in a blanket primary. Any registered voter can cast a ballot for any candidate from any party. The names of all the candidates will appear together on a single ballot. In the presidential race, Secretary of State Bill Jones' office will tally the popular vote, but only votes cast by members of a candidate's party will count in awarding delegates to the national conventions. Democrats will decide which candidate gets the Democratic delegates, for example.

Gov. George W. Bush has been fretting that Democratic voters are going to crash the Republican party in South Carolina on Saturday and create mischief. Maybe they'll later act out in other states too, he suggests. The Texan professes to worry that Democrats--who he seems to think spend their leisure time digesting political polls and watching C-SPAN--are cynically plotting to help nominate the Republican presidential candidate most likely to get beaten in November.

The state budget is as good as signed. The governor's race has yet to ignite. There is a vacuum of sorts, and politics abhors a vacuum. So into the gap rushes California's quadrennial exercise in salving its neurotic insecurity. You might know it by its more common name--the debate over the early primary. Let us reminisce: Not since 1972 has California helped choose a major party's presidential nominee.