1982 United States Senate election in California

The 1982 United States Senate election in California took place on November 2, 1982. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator S. I. Hayakawa decided to retire after one term. Republican Pete Wilson, the Mayor of San Diego, won Hayakawa's open seat over Democratic Governor Jerry Brown and several minor candidates.

1982 United States Senate election in California

November 2, 1982

Nominee Pete Wilson Jerry Brown Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 4,022,565 3,494,968 Percentage 51.4% 44.8%

County Results Wilson:      40-50%      50-60%      60-70%      70-80% Brown:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%

U.S. senator before election S. I. Hayakawa Republican Elected U.S. Senator Pete Wilson Republican

Republican primary

Candidates

• Robert K. Booher
• Ted Bruinsma, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
• Rafael D. Cortes
• Bob Dornan, U.S. Representative from Garden Grove
• Barry Goldwater Jr., U.S. Representative from Woodland Hills and son of Barry Goldwater
• John Hickey
• Pete McCloskey, U.S. Representative from Woodside and 1972 presidential candidate
• Edison P. McDaniels
• William H. Pemberton
• Maureen Reagan, daughter of President Ronald Reagan
• John G. Schmitz, State Senator from Corona del Mar, former U.S. Representative, and American Independent nominee for President in 1972
• William B. Shockley, recipient of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics
• Pete Wilson, Mayor of San Diego and former Assemblyman

Results

1982 Republican U.S. Senate primary[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Pete Wilson	851,292	37.54%
	Republican	Pete McCloskey	577,267	25.46%
	Republican	Barry Goldwater Jr.	408,308	18.01%
	Republican	Bob Dornan	181,970	8.03%
	Republican	Maureen Reagan	118,326	5.22%
	Republican	John G. Schmitz	48,267	2.13%
	Republican	Ted Bruinsma	37,762	1.67%
	Republican	William Shockley	8,308	0.37%
	Republican	Rafael D. Cortes	8,064	0.36%
	Republican	John Hickey	7,737	0.34%
	Republican	Robert K. Booher	7,546	0.33%
	Republican	Edison McDaniels	6,945	0.31%
	Republican	William H. Pemberton	5,760	0.25%
	Democratic	May Chote (write-in)	15	0.00%
Total votes			2,267,577	100.00%

Democratic primary

Candidates

• Jerry Brown, Governor of California
• Walter R. Buchanan, perennial candidate
• Raymond Caplette
• Paul B. Carpenter, State Senator from Cypress and psychologist
• May Chote, candidate for U.S. Representative in 1976
• Bob Hampton
• Tom Metzger, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and nominee for U.S. Representative in 1980
• Richard Morgan, candidate for Senate in 1980
• William F. Wertz, follower of Lyndon LaRouche
• Gore Vidal, writer and public intellectual
• Daniel K. Whitehurst, Mayor of Fresno

Results

1982 Democratic U.S. Senate primary[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown, Jr.	1,392,660	50.67%
	Democratic	Gore Vidal	415,366	15.11%
	Democratic	Paul B. Carpenter	415,198	15.11%
	Democratic	Daniel K. Whitehurst	167,574	6.10%
	Democratic	Richard Morgan	94,908	3.45%
	Democratic	Tom Metzger	76,502	2.78%
	Democratic	Walter R. Buchanan	55,727	2.03%
	Democratic	Bob Hampton	37,427	1.36%
	Democratic	Raymond "RayJ" Caplette	31,865	1.16%
	Democratic	William F. Wertz	30,795	1.12%
	Democratic	May Chote	30,743	1.12%
	Democratic	Daniel Fallon (write-in)	6	0.00%
	Democratic	Aristotle Scoledes (write-in)	4	0.00%
Total votes			2,748,775	100.0

General election

Campaign

Wilson was known as a fiscal conservative who supported Proposition 13, although Wilson had opposed the measure while mayor of San Diego. However, Brown ran on his gubernatorial record of building the largest state budget surpluses in California history. Both Wilson and Brown were moderate-to-liberal on social issues, including support for abortion rights. The election was expected to be close, with Brown holding a slim lead in most of the polls leading up to Election Day. Wilson hammered away at Brown's appointment of California Chief Justice Rose Bird, using this to portray himself as tougher on crime than Brown was. Brown's late entry into the 1980 Democratic presidential primary, after promising not to run, was also an issue. President Ronald Reagan made a number of visits to California late in the race to campaign for Wilson. Reagan quipped that the last thing he wanted to see was both of his home state's U.S. Senate seats falling into Democrats' hands, especially to be occupied by the man who succeeded him as governor. Despite exit polls indicating a narrow Brown victory, Wilson won by a wide margin.

Results

General election results[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Pete Wilson	4,022,565	51.5%
	Democratic	Jerry Brown	3,494,968	44.8%
	Libertarian	Joseph Fuhrig	107,720	1.4%
	Peace and Freedom	David Wald	96,388	1.2%
	American Independent	Theresa Dietrich	83,809	1.1%
	Independent	Thomas Kendall (Write In)	36	0.0%
	Independent	Ben Leonik (Write In)	34	0.0%
	Republican hold

See also

• 1982 United States Senate elections

References

1. "CA US Senate - D Primary". OurCampaigns. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
2. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=37146
3. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3757