The California Right

People who think the Far Right took the ten count last November should visit California's 27th Congressional District. This grotesquely shaped hunk of Los Angeles County was designed, by a Democratic legislature, to get rid of a Republican Congressman who was a member of the John Birch Society. The voters cooperated in 1962. But in 1964, the Democratic Congressman retired, and the Republican candidate--who stands perhaps 1 to the left of Birch--won. The 27th was one of four Congressional Districts outside the South to go Democratic in 1962 and Republican in 1964. And it is no coincidence that three of the four were in California.

For the fact is that the Johnson landslide was not much of a landslide in California. Barry Goldwater got 41% of the vote there which is a lot more than his 32% in New York, 24% in Massachusetts, or 34% in Michigan. And another darling of the California Right won a major upset victory: soft-shoe artist and United States Senator George Murphy.

Murphy's surprise victory, most observers say, was the result of an issue on which he refused to take a stand: the explosive referendum on Proposition 14. This amendment to the state constitution (which was approved easily) was designed to cancel all laws against discrimination in real estate transactions. Many Republican candidates enlisted in the lavishly-financed campaign in favor of 14, with its mixture of private enterprise rhetoric and barely disguised racism. Others, like Murphy, kept quiet and let the voters guess at their personal sentiments.

Former Senator Pierre Salinger, in contrast, forthrightly opposed 14; he stated that he would rather lose the election than refrain from taking a stand. He lost.

The Far Right in California had captured the Grand Old Party and had found an issue sufficiently off-beat and emotional to muddle party lines, win a major office, and make significant gains in Congress and the Legislature. Looking to 1966, the Far Right needs a candidate for Governor, and then....

Of course, they've already got one. He's the guy that made that last-minute appeal for funds which kept Dean Burch out of the red ink. He used to do TV spots and speaking engagements for right-wing outfits like General Electric and the AMA. You remember, Ronald Reagan, the actor.

Reagan's own introduction, from a recent "autobiography," is more earthy: The story begins with the closeup of a bottom. My face was blue ... my bottom was red . . . and my father claimed afterward that he was white.... Ever since I have been particularly fond of the colors that were exhibited--red, white, and blue.

A man who would put his signature to that will stoop to anything.

But if his last refuge is patriotism, his more immediate goal seems to be the governorship of California. A recent poll shows him a solid favorite for the Republican nomination, with 33% as against 18% for Senator Thomas Kuchel, a "moderate." It's true that the "moderates" outpoll the "radicals" 50-45% in this same poll but a lead like that can vanish overnight--just ask Nelson Rockefeller.

The Right in California is capable of winning. It dominates a major party, has popular candidates and the potential to develop vote-winning issues (next time: something on Berkeley?). One can only hope that Governor Pat Brown, who has already saved us from would-be Presidents Knowland and Nixon, will once again rally his bickering forces and, bumbling, make it three in a row.