Simon, Davis prevail in primaries
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 5, 2002 9:00 p.m.
The Associated Press Businessman Bill Simon,
left, cruised over former L.A. mayor Richard
Riordan. Simon will run against Gov. Gray Davis,
right.
By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Bill Simon completed a highly improbable comeback Tuesday,
winning the Republican gubernatorial primary election over former
L.A. mayor Richard Riordan.
Simon will run against Gov. Gray Davis, who easily won the
Democratic primary.
Simon had 49.5 percent of the Republican vote after 88 percent
of the precincts had reported. Riordan had 30.4 percent and
Secretary of State Bill Jones, 17.9 percent.
While many believe he is too conservative to win a general
election, Simon said the GOP has a good future in California, and
he looks forward to serving the state as governor.
“We need now to be united and inclusive as Republicans to
beat the Democrats,” Simon said.
The L.A. businessman came from 30 points behind in polls to
overtake the more moderate Riordan, who was encouraged by the White
House to run for the governorship.
Riordan, conceding defeat, agreed and endorsed Simon against the
current governor.
“I told (Simon) I would join him in our crusade to get rid
of Gray Davis,” Riordan said.
“Simon is the hope to bring glory back to the Golden
State,” he added.
In another election, Democratic voters in L.A.’s 30th
Congressional district, which includes UCLA, elected UCLA alumnus
and political veteran Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, by an
overwhelming margin over another UCLA graduate, 34-year-old
Democrat Kevin Feldman of West Hollywood.
Waxman will face Tony D. Goss, the only Republican who ran in
the 30th district.
Waxman was first elected to Congress in 1974. Feldman, who only
received 10 percent of the vote, managed to win a small following
on campus, visiting UCLA a few times during his campaign.
Voters in the Central Valley, meanwhile, voted U.S. Rep. Gary
Condit out of office in favor of State Assemblyman and former
Condit aid Dennis Cardoza, D-Modesto.
Condit allegedly had an affair with Washington intern and former
USC graduate student Chandra Levy before she disappeared last
April.
California voters also:
“¢bull; Elected State Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, to
challenge Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who ran unopposed in
the primary.
“¢bull; Sen. Sen. Jack O’Connell and Katherine H. Smith,
the president of the Anaheim school board, to a runoff for the
office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The governor, lieutenant governor and the superintendent of
public instruction all sit on the UC Board of Regents.
On propositions, Californians:
“¢bull; Voted “yes” on Propositions 41 and 43,
designed to help votes be counted more thoroughly and
accurately.
“¢bull; Voted down Proposition 45, which would have extended
term limits for state assemblymembers and senators.
In the governor’s race, Riordan emerged as the early
favorite in the race and appeared to have the primary
locked-up.
But Simon successfully cornered votes from the state’s
more traditional conservatives, some of whom were turned off by
Riordan’s stances on abortion rights and gun control.
Riordan, though, pinned the blame for Simon’s comeback on
Davis, who spent millions of dollars on television adds criticizing
Riordan.
Riordan’s campaign said the former mayor was the
Republican that Davis feared most, which is why the governor ran
ads against him. Davis “hijacked” the republican
primary, Riordan said Monday.
Davis said after he voted in L.A. Tuesday that Riordan fired the
first shot, turning the primary election into a general election by
attacking Davis.
The governor, who gave an acceptance speech at the Biltmore
Hotel in Los Angeles, congratulated Simon for his victory, saying
he looked forward to a “hard-fought and spirited
campaign,” but wasted no time switching his criticism from
Riordan to Simon.
“I believe his ideas are out-of-step and out-of-touch with
most Californians,” he said. “We need to move forward,
not backward and certainly not to the right.”
Taking the stage, Davis led a crowd in chanting “four more
years.”
“Cuatro,” he said, switching languages. “Not
tres, not cinco, cuatro. Cuatro años. Muchas
gracias.”
With reports from Daily Bruin wire services.
