California gubernatorial election, 2002

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California gubernatorial election, 2002 had a general election that occurred on November 5, 2002. Democrat Gray Davis defeated Republican Bill Simon by 5% and was re-elected to a second 4 year term as Governor of California. Davis would be recalled less than a year into his next term.

The 2002 gubernatorial primary occurred in March 2002. Gray Davis faced no major competitor in the primary and won the nomination. Simmon defeated former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan in the Republican primary. Gray Davis ran a series of negative ads against Riordan in the primary. Riordan was seen as a moderate and early state polls showed him defeating Gray Davis in the general election.

1 The Primary
2 General Election
3 General election results
4 By County
5 References
6 External links

[edit] The Primary

During the 2002 election campaign, Davis took the unusual step of taking out campaign ads during the Republican primaries against Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan. Davis claimed that Riordan had attacked his record and that his campaign was defending his record.^[1] Polls showed that, as a moderate, Riordan would be a more formidable challenger in the general election than a conservative candidate. Polls even showed that Riordan would defeat Davis.^[2] Davis attacked Riordan with negative ads in the primary. The ads questioned Riordan's pro-choice stance by questioning Riordan's support of pro-life politicians and judges.^[3]^[4] The ads pointed out Riordan's position of wanting a moratorium on the death penalty as being to the left of Gray Davis, who strongly supported it.^[5]^[6]^[7]

In 2000, the United States Supreme Court in California Democratic Party v. Jones struck down California's blanket primary.^[8] With the end of the blanket primary, only non-partisans and registered Republicans could vote for Richard Riordan in the 2002 primary. The end of the blanket primary made it more difficult for the more moderate Riordan. It has long been known in politics that primary voters are much more ideological and strongly liberal or strongly conservative than those who vote in the general election.^[9]

Additionally, the Republican primary included negative attacks between Bill Jones and Riordan. Jones highlighted in his attack ads against Riordan that Riordan had contributed money Davis in past campaigns and had called Bill Clinton "the greatest leader in the free world." Riordan's counter ads highlighted that Jones had also contributed money to Davis. By late February 2002, Riordian's strong lead in the Republican Primary had began to slip. In the previous months of the campaign, Riordan focused his ads and energies on campaigning against Gray Davis and defending himself from Davis' attack ads.^[5]

Davis's negative ads against Riordan appear to have contributed to Riordan's defeat in the Republican primary by the more staunchly conservative candidate Bill Simon.

[edit] General Election

Davis was re-elected in the November 2002 general election following a long and bitter campaign against Simon, marked by accusations of ethical lapses on both sides and widespread voter apathy.^[10] Simon was also hurt by a financial fraud scandal that tarnished Simon's reputation.^[11] Davis' campaign featured several negative ads that highlighted Simon's financial fraud scandal.^[12] Simon tried to attack Davis for fundraising in the Lieutenant Governor's office during his time as Lt. Governor, but the plan backfired when Davis produced evidence that the picture was taken in his Los Angeles home.^[13] The 2002 gubernatorial race was the most expensive in California state history with over $100 million spent.^[14] Davis's campaign was better financed; Davis had over $26 million in campaign reserves more than Simon in August 2006.^[12] Davis gained re-election with 47.4% of the vote to Simon's 42.4%. The Simon-Davis race led in the lowest turnout percentage in modern gubernatorial history, allowing a lower than normal amount of signatures required for a recall.^[15] Davis won the election but the majority of the voters disliked Davis and did not approve of his job performance.^[16]^[17]

[edit] General election results

Election results by county.

2002 California gubernatorial election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Gray Davis (incumbent)	3,533,490	47.3	-10.7
	Republican	Bill Simon	3,169,801	42.4	+4.0
	Green	Peter Miguel Camejo	393,036	5.3	+4.1
	Libertarian	Gary David Copeland	161,203	2.2	+1.3
	American Independent	Reinhold Gulke	128,035	1.7	+0.6
	Natural Law	Iris Adam	88,415	1.1	+1.1
Majority			363,689	4.9	-14.7
Turnout			7,473,980
	Democratic hold		Swing	-14.7

[edit] By County

County	DEM #	DEM %	GOP #	GOP %	GRN #	GRN %	LIB #	LIB %	AI #	AI %	NL #	NL %	Totals
Alameda	216,058	62.9%	76,407	22.3%	37,919	11.0%	6,558	1.9%	3,622	1.0%	3,319	0.9%	340,975
Alpine	229	40.9%	247	44.2%	40	7.2%	15	2.6%	17	3.0%	12	2.1%	560
Amador	4,437	34.2%	6,997	54.0%	740	5.8%	246	1.8%	338	2.6%	220	1.6%	12,978
Butte	19,437	31.6%	32,706	53.3%	5,963	9.7%	1,050	1.7%	1,497	2.4%	802	1.3%	52,640
Calaveras	5,052	33.3%	8,104	53.4%	875	5.8%	434	2.8%	489	3.2%	240	1.5%	14,573
Colusa	1,243	27.2%	2,996	65.5%	131	2.9%	48	1.0%	118	2.6%	39	0.8%	4,503
Contra Costa	140,975	53.3%	94,487	35.7%	16,676	6.3%	5,894	2.2%	3,905	1.4%	2,931	1.1%	255,932
Del Norte	2,922	43.3%	3,093	45.9%	207	3.0%	165	2.4%	239	3.6%	124	1.8%	6,357
El Dorado	16,402	29.5%	32,898	59.1%	3,418	6.1%	1,072	1.9%	1,203	2.1%	736	1.3%	55,729
Fresno	59,019	38.0%	85,910	55.3%	3,508	2.2%	3,560	2.3%	2,214	1.4%	1,260	0.8%	151,087
Glenn	1,685	25.9%	4,268	65.5%	187	2.9%	96	1.4%	200	3.1%	81	1.2%	6,517
Humboldt	19,499	45.5%	16,118	37.6%	5,170	12.1%	961	2.2%	547	1.2%	612	1.4%	40,711
Imperial	11,644	53.3%	8,789	40.3%	546	2.5%	258	1.1%	360	1.7%	252	1.1%	21,849
Inyo	2,114	33.7%	3,567	56.8%	210	3.3%	142	2.2%	159	2.5%	96	1.5%	5,693
Kern	46,250	33.7%	82,660	60.3%	1,965	1.4%	1,839	1.3%	3,002	2.2%	1,568	1.1%	135,384
Kings	7,776	36.7%	12,212	57.6%	298	1.4%	246	1.1%	491	2.3%	192	0.9%	21,208
Lake	7,424	46.8%	6,459	40.7%	965	6.0%	336	2.1%	451	2.8%	258	1.6%	15,697
Lassen	2,429	31.6%	4,512	58.7%	155	2.0%	166	2.1%	317	4.2%	115	1.4%	7,694
Los Angeles	953,162	55.9%	594,748	34.9%	72,886	4.3%	39,934	2.4%	25,160	1.4%	19,067	1.1%	1,689,828
Madera	8,217	31.4%	15,998	61.2%	517	2.0%	517	1.9%	651	2.5%	269	1.0%	24,027
Marin	49,512	56.3%	24,520	27.9%	10,710	12.1%	1,502	1.7%	917	1.0%	890	1.0%	77,255
Mariposa	2,126	32.8%	3,720	57.4%	215	3.4%	130	2.0%	193	2.9%	101	1.5%	6,250
Mendocino	10,832	43.5%	8,331	33.5%	4,119	16.6%	581	2.3%	680	2.7%	359	1.4%	24,902
Merced	18,071	44.6%	19,191	47.4%	792	1.9%	1,379	3.4%	749	1.8%	374	0.9%	40,556
Modoc	900	26.7%	2,161	64.0%	54	1.5%	67	2.0%	145	4.3%	54	1.5%	3,381
Mono	1,064	36.0%	1,552	52.6%	154	5.3%	64	2.1%	76	2.5%	46	1.5%	2,956
Monterey	47,052	54.1%	31,532	36.3%	3,794	4.4%	2,191	2.5%	1,402	1.6%	1,003	1.1%	85,485
Napa	17,516	47.8%	13,483	36.8%	3,570	9.8%	774	2.1%	824	2.2%	505	1.3%	36,672
Nevada	13,338	34.0%	20,573	52.4%	3,297	8.4%	743	1.8%	817	2.1%	546	1.3%	39,314
Orange	222,149	34.7%	368,152	57.5%	16,670	2.7%	14,668	2.2%	10,393	1.6%	8,374	1.3%	620,737
Placer	28,495	29.7%	58,623	61.1%	4,657	4.9%	1,500	1.5%	1,556	1.6%	1,222	1.2%	84,464
Plumas	2,598	33.1%	4,310	54.9%	380	4.9%	182	2.3%	264	3.3%	124	1.5%	7,858
Riverside	121,845	40.3%	159,440	52.7%	5,995	2.0%	6,601	2.2%	5,530	1.9%	2,987	0.9%	302,398
Sacramento	129,143	40.9%	147,456	46.7%	22,232	7.1%	6,634	2.0%	6,245	1.9%	4,668	1.4%	306,712
San Benito	6,049	48.9%	5,163	41.8%	504	4.1%	275	2.2%	208	1.6%	174	1.4%	10,421
San Bernardino	116,757	41.3%	142,513	50.4%	6,754	2.3%	6,485	2.2%	6,884	2.5%	3,751	1.3%	282,922
San Diego	268,278	40.6%	342,095	51.8%	18,184	2.8%	13,742	2.0%	11,246	1.7%	7,662	1.1%	660,056
San Francisco	143,102	66.3%	33,214	15.4%	33,495	15.5%	3,048	1.4%	1,639	0.7%	1,649	0.7%	216,028
San Joaquin	53,747	43.6%	58,239	47.2%	4,630	3.8%	2,540	2.0%	2,736	2.2%	1,546	1.2%	120,362
San Luis Obispo	29,732	36.4%	43,552	53.4%	4,189	5.2%	1,618	2.0%	1,531	1.8%	1,033	1.2%	81,655
San Mateo	99,803	58.0%	51,497	30.0%	13,537	7.9%	3,205	1.8%	2,144	1.2%	2,020	1.1%	167,695
Santa Barbara	50,741	44.4%	52,832	46.2%	5,785	5.1%	2,586	2.2%	1,401	1.2%	1,141	0.9%	112,594
Santa Clara	199,399	55.4%	116,862	32.5%	24,097	6.7%	9,430	2.6%	5,951	1.6%	4,652	1.2%	358,673
Santa Cruz	43,469	56.1%	20,598	26.6%	9,409	12.1%	1,777	2.2%	1,166	1.5%	1,164	1.5%	76,367
Shasta	15,292	31.5%	28,625	59.0%	1,283	2.6%	942	1.9%	1,664	3.5%	753	1.5%	48,223
Sierra	420	29.3%	805	56.0%	72	5.1%	67	4.6%	50	3.4%	24	1.6%	1,438
Siskiyou	4,972	31.9%	9,112	58.4%	437	2.8%	386	2.4%	440	2.9%	252	1.6%	15,599
Solano	46,385	52.4%	33,516	37.9%	4,038	4.6%	1,316	1.4%	2,174	2.5%	1,092	1.2%	88,521
Sonoma	73,079	50.4%	43,408	30.0%	19,599	13.6%	3,097	2.1%	3,529	2.4%	2,312	1.5%	121,147
Stanislaus	41,908	43.6%	46,091	48.0%	2,967	3.1%	1,385	1.4%	2,732	2.8%	1,111	1.1%	92,676
Sutter	5,782	29.9%	12,024	62.1%	620	3.3%	242	1.2%	463	2.3%	239	1.2%	19,370
Tehama	5,000	32.5%	9,010	58.6%	361	2.4%	254	1.6%	537	3.5%	230	1.4%	15,392
Trinity	1,833	37.3%	2,421	49.2%	272	5.6%	140	2.8%	165	3.3%	93	1.8%	4,914
Tulare	21,294	34.1%	37,172	59.5%	1,090	1.7%	1,208	2.0%	1,180	1.9%	553	0.8%	60,652
Tuolumne	6,846	38.2%	9,251	51.6%	773	4.4%	328	1.8%	476	2.6%	267	1.4%	17,941
Ventura	83,557	43.3%	91,193	47.2%	6,563	3.4%	5,787	3.0%	3,733	1.9%	2,483	1.2%	193,316
Yolo	21,983	47.5%	17,484	37.8%	4,934	10.6%	543	1.1%	842	1.8%	566	1.2%	46,352
Yuba	3,447	29.8%	6,904	59.6%	428	3.6%	249	2.1%	373	3.2%	202	1.7%	10,937

[edit] References

^ 'Fight' seen in California's governor's race
^ Riordan has edge on Davis in polls Governor's mixed reviews seen to benefit challenger
^ Davis ad assails Riordan GOP rival's stand on abortion rights challenged
^ Riordan silent on abortion flap Davis ad hits GOP governor hopeful for giving to thousands to anti-choice groups
^ ^a ^b Top GOP governor candidates trade attacks Surveys show Simon closing in on Riordan's once imposing primary lead
^ Kevin Cooper Awaits DNA Test Results
^ A man for all reasons
^ Asseo, Laurie. "Court nixes 'blanket' primaries." Salon News. June 26, 2000. Associated Press writer. Accessed on August 13, 2007. http://www.salon.com/politics/2000/06/26/blanket/.
^ Maisel, Sandy. "Closing the Door on Moderation, One Seat at a Time." The Jewish Daily Forward. Friday, August 18 2006. Accessed on August 13, 2007. http://www.forward.com/articles/1076/.
^ Davis, Simon heartily disliked Voter disenchantment has soared to unprecedented level, poll says
^ Economist.com. "Gray Davis." http://www.economist.com/research/backgrounders/displaybackgrounder.cfm?bg=1922064
^ ^a ^b Carla Marinucci, Lynda Gledhill, Chronicle Staff Writers. "Davis turns up heat as Simon pares down: New ads roast GOP rival as he trims staff." The San Francisco Chronicle. Friday, August 16, 2002. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/08/16/MN76308.DTL
^ Simon's attack on Davis backfires 'Evidence' photo isn't clear proof of illegal donation
^ Cal Votes 2002
^ Polling in the Governor's Race in California
^ Davis ekes out 7-point lead over Simon Field Poll shows voters against hopeful rather than for governor
^ NEWS ANALYSIS Big challenges ahead for not-exactly-popular incumbent

[edit] External links

v • d • e Gubernatorial elections in California

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