1966 California gubernatorial election

1966 California gubernatorial election

←  1962 November 8, 1966 1970  →

Nominee Ronald Reagan Pat Brown Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 3,742,913 2,749,174 Percentage 57.55% 42.27%

County results Reagan:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80% Brown:     50–60%

Governor before election Pat Brown Democratic Elected Governor Ronald Reagan Republican

The 1966 California gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1966. Incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Brown was defeated in his bid for re-election by Republican nominee and future President Ronald Reagan. As of the 2022 gubernatorial election, this is the last time an incumbent governor of California lost re-election, though one subsequent incumbent governor was recalled.

Background

Incumbent governor Pat Brown had been twice elected with significant accomplishments, such as the construction of the state highway system. ^[1] After his re-election victory over former vice president Richard Nixon in 1962, Brown was strongly considered for Lyndon B. Johnson's running mate in 1964. ^[2] However, Brown's popularity began to sag amidst the civil disorders of the Watts riots and the early student protests at the University of California, Berkeley including the Free Speech Movement. ^[3]

Primaries

California's liberal Republicans including George Christopher leveled attacks on Ronald Reagan for his conservative positions. ^[4] Reagan popularized the eleventh commandment created by California Republican Party chairman Gaylord Parkinson. In his 1990 autobiography An American Life , Reagan attributed the rule to Parkinson, explained its origin, and claimed to have followed it, writing, "The personal attacks against me during the primary finally became so heavy that the state Republican chairman, Gaylord Parkinson, postulated what he called the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. It's a rule I followed during that campaign and have ever since." ^[5] Parkinson used the phrase as common ground to prevent a split in the party. ^[4]

Results

1966 California Democratic gubernatorial primary ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Pat Brown (inc.)	1,355,262	51.91
	Democratic	Sam Yorty	981,088	37.58
	Democratic	Carlton Benjamin Goodlett	95,476	3.66
	Democratic	Wallace J. Duffy	77,029	2.95
	Democratic	Dale Alexander	43,453	1.66
	Democratic	Ronald Reagan (write-in)	27,422	1.05
	Democratic	Ingram W. Goad	18,088	0.69
Total votes			2,597,818	100

1966 California Republican gubernatorial primary ^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	1,417,623	64.62
	Republican	George Christopher	675,683	30.80
	Republican	Warren N. Dorn	44,812	2.04
	Republican	William Penn Patrick	40,887	1.86
	Republican	Joseph R. Maxwell	7,052	0.32
	Republican	Sam Yorty (write-in)	5,993	0.27
	Republican	Pat Brown (inc.) (write-in)	1,700	0.08
Total votes			2,193,750	100

Campaign

Polls in February 1966 showed Christopher with a seven-point lead over Brown and Brown leading Reagan by four, so Brown sought to influence the Republican primary in Reagan's favor by having operatives pass negative claims against Christopher to columnist Drew Pearson. ^[8] With the nomination of Reagan, a well-known and charismatic political outsider-actor, the Republicans seized upon Brown's sudden unpopularity evidenced by a tough battle in the Democratic primary. ^[9] Nixon worked tirelessly behind the scenes and Reagan trumpeted his law-and-order campaign message, going into the general election with a great deal of momentum. After pollsters discovered that the Berkeley student protests were a major priority of Republican voters, Reagan repeatedly promised to "clean up the mess at Berkeley." ^[10]

At first, Brown tried to smear Reagan's conservative supporters with "lame Nazi metaphors". ^[11] After Reagan deftly parried that tactic, Brown made a serious gaffe. ^[11] He ran a television commercial in which he used a rhetorical question to remind a group of elementary school children that John Wilkes Booth, another actor, had killed Abraham Lincoln. ^[11] Brown's crude comparison of Reagan to Booth based on their common background as actors—in the state that happens to be home to Hollywood—did not go over well with the California electorate. ^{[11] [12]} Within 48 hours, Reagan had overtaken Brown in the polls. ^[11]

With a lead that grew throughout September and October, Reagan won by over 990,000 votes, aided by traditionally Democratic working-class areas in Los Angeles and elsewhere. ^[13] Brown won in only three counties, Alameda, Plumas, and San Francisco. He narrowly won Alameda by about 2,000 votes and Plumas by about 100 votes. ^{[14] [15]}

Results

1966 California gubernatorial election ^{[14] [15]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	3,742,913	57.55
	Democratic	Pat Brown (incumbent)	2,749,174	42.27
	Other	Various candidates	11,358	0.18
Total votes			6,503,445	100.00
Turnout			{{{votes}}}	57.70
	Republican gain from Democratic

Results by county

County	Reagan	Votes	Brown	Votes
Mono	77.84%	1,205	22.16%	343
Orange	72.15%	293,413	27.85%	113,275
Sutter	70.43%	9,828	29.57%	4,126
Calaveras	67.77%	3,810	32.23%	1,812
Butte	67.48%	25,443	32.52%	12,263
Glenn	66.35%	4,676	33.65%	2,371
Inyo	66.19%	3,961	33.81%	2,023
Nevada	65.85%	7,373	34.15%	3,823
Alpine	65.78%	148	34.22%	77
Del Norte	63.99%	3,409	36.01%	1,918
San Diego	63.82%	252,070	36.18%	142,890
Santa Barbara	63.54%	50,284	36.46%	28,853
Lake	63.09%	5,499	36.91%	3,217
El Dorado	63.08%	9,189	36.92%	5,378
Tehama	63.01%	6,629	36.99%	3,891
Imperial	62.87%	12,372	37.13%	7,307
Riverside	62.77%	84,501	37.23%	50,112
Modoc	62.73%	1,946	37.27%	1,156
Kern	62.67%	64,716	37.33%	38,543
San Luis Obispo	62.55%	21,528	37.45%	12,891
Trinity	62.27%	2,050	37.73%	1,242
San Bernardino	62.19%	121,916	37.81%	74,120
Colusa	62.09%	2,806	37.91%	1,713
Mariposa	61.51%	1,811	38.49%	1,133
Santa Cruz	61.47%	26,988	38.53%	16,913
Monterey	61.06%	35,944	38.94%	22,923
San Benito	60.96%	3,565	39.04%	2,283
Ventura	60.94%	58,068	39.06%	37,224
San Joaquin	60.77%	54,647	39.23%	35,281
Sonoma	60.68%	41,516	39.32%	26,898
Yuba	60.52%	6,658	39.48%	4,344
Tulare	59.95%	33,095	40.05%	22,109
Mendocino	59.81%	10,161	40.19%	6,827
Napa	59.53%	17,740	40.47%	12,060
Amador	58.33%	2,985	41.67%	2,132
Tuolumne	58.21%	4,845	41.79%	3,479
Los Angeles	57.26%	1,389,995	42.74%	1,037,663
Marin	57.21%	40,411	42.79%	30,230
Humboldt	57.20%	19,210	42.80%	14,374
Kings	55.79%	9,957	44.21%	7,890
Santa Clara	55.40%	164,970	44.60%	132,793
Sierra	55.27%	650	44.73%	526
Contra Costa	55.13%	107,543	44.87%	87,525
Shasta	54.83%	15,155	45.17%	12,486
Placer	54.61%	14,664	45.39%	12,187
Stanislaus	54.37%	31,473	45.63%	26,418
Siskiyou	54.21%	7,057	45.79%	5,962
Madera	54.18%	7,490	45.82%	6,335
Fresno	53.96%	70,182	46.04%	59,869
Lassen	53.95%	3,190	46.05%	2,723
San Mateo	53.71%	107,498	46.29%	92,654
Merced	53.01%	14,103	46.99%	12,499
Sacramento	50.91%	109,801	49.09%	105,861
Solano	50.15%	23,187	49.85%	23,047
Yolo	50.08%	13,073	49.92%	13,032
Alameda	49.75%	189,055	50.25%	190,968
Plumas	49.18%	2,658	50.82%	2,747
San Francisco	41.11%	114,796	58.89%	164,435

References

1. Cannon 2003 , pp. 3–5
2. "California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown". Paley Center. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
3. Cannon 2003 , pp. 6–9
4. Wilcox, David C. (April 8, 2002). "The "Eleventh Commandment"". Enter Stage Right. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
5. Reagan, Ronald (1990). An American Life. Simon and Schuster. p. 150.
6. "Our Campaigns - CA Governor - D Primary Race - Jun 07, 1966" . Retrieved August 4, 2015.
7. "Our Campaigns - CA Governor - R Primary Race - Jun 07, 1966" . Retrieved August 4, 2015.
8. Cannon 2003 , pp. 146–147
9. Cannon 2003 , pp. 147–150
10. Kerr, Clark (2001). The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967, Volume 2. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 288. ISBN   9780520925014 . Retrieved July 3, 2020.
11. Reagan, Michael; Denney, Jim (2010), The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan's Principles Can Restore America's Greatness , p.  111, ISBN   978-0-312-64454-3
12. Cannon 2003 , pp. 151–152
13. Cannon 2003 , pp. 156–160
14. Anderson, Totton J.; Lee, Eugene C. (June 1967). "The 1966 Election in California". The Western Political Quarterly . 20 (2): 535–554. doi:10.2307/446081. JSTOR   446081.
15. Archived September 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine

Further reading

• Anderson, Totton J.; Lee, Eugene C. (1967), "The 1966 Election in California", Western Political Quarterly, 20#2 pp. 535–554 in JSTOR
• Becker, Jules, and Douglas A. Fuchs. "How two major California dailies covered Reagan vs. Brown." Journalism Quarterly 44.4 (1967): 645–653.
• Cannon, Lou (2003). Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN   1-58648-030-8.
• Cannon, Lou (2001), Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio (PublicAffairs, 2001)
• Cannon, Lou. "Preparing for the Presidency: The Political Education of Ronald Reagan" in A Legacy of Leadership: Governors and American History ed. by Clayton McClure Brooks (2008) pp 137–155. online
• Dallek, Matthew. The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics (2000), 1966 election;
• De Groot, Gerard J. "'A Goddamned Electable Person': The 1966 California Gubernatorial Campaign of Ronald Reagan." History 82#267 (1997) pp: 429-448 online.
• De Groot, Gerard J. "Ronald Reagan and Student Unrest in California, 1966-1970." Pacific Historical Review 65.1 (1996): 107–129. online free Archived 2023-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Edwards, Anne. Early Reagan: The Rise to Power (New York, 1987), includes 1966 election
• McKenna, Kevin. "The 'Total Campaign': How Ronald Reagan Overwhelmingly Won the California Gubernatorial Election of 1966." (Thesis, Columbia University, 2010)
• Pawel, Miriam. (2018). The Browns of California: the family dynasty that transformed a state and shaped a nation. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Rapoport, R. California Dreaming: The Political Odyssey of Pat & Jerry Brown. Berkeley: Nolo Press (1982) ISBN   0-917316-48-7.
• Rarick, Ethan (2006), California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN   9780520939844 summary
• Rarick, Ethan. "The Brown Dynasty." in Modern American Political Dynasties: A Study of Power, Family, and Political Influence ed by Kathleen Gronnerud and Scott J. Spitzer. (2018): 211–30.
• Reeves, Michelle. "Obey the Rules or Get Out": Ronald Reagan's 1966 Gubernatorial Campaign and the 'Trouble in Berkeley'." Southern California Quarterly (2010): 275–305. in JSTOR
• Rice, Richard B. The Elusive Eden: A New History of California. (McGraw-Hill, 2012). ). ISBN   978-0-07-338556-3.
• Rogin, Michael Paul, John L. Shover. Political Change in California: Critical Elections and Social Movements, 1890-1966 (Greenwood, 1970).
• Rorabaugh, William J. Berkeley at War, the 1960s (Oxford University Press, 1989).
• Schuparra, Kurt. Triumph of the Right: The Rise of the California Conservative Movement, 1945-1966 (M.E. Sharpe, 1998).

External links

• Autumn and Cardboard: The 1966 California Gubernatorial Election
• Reagan Heritage
• Bepress ^{[ permanent dead link ]} (pg 13)
• SFgate