Pete Wilson's California Is Not Jerry Brown's California

Back in 1994, I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley studying political science (I was a law student at UC Hastings in 1996).  It was two years after the President Bill Clinton had defeated then President George Bush in his re-election bid, returning the first Democrat to the White House since President Jimmy Carter.  In the fall of 2004, the Republicans, led by Representative Newt Gingrich, seized control of the House of Representatives, which had been dominated by the Democrats for decades.  Also that fall, Governor Pete Wilson, a Republican in a Democratic leaning state, successfully campaigned for re-election as Governor of California. 

Governor Pete Wilson's political success thrust him into the national spotlight and led to his failed - and very brief - bid for the White House in 2006.  But the strategies that had been employed by Governor Wilson and the Republicans in 1994 were redeployed in the form of Proposition 209. 

Because of my interest in political science at the time, I had paid close attention to what was happening in politics on the state and federal level.  Twenty years later, my memory of the events during those years are not as good as they used to; but I did find the following passage an accurate summary of the political climate during that time (The Initiative to Party: Partisanship and Ballot Initiatives in California):

"Going beyond the endorsements by prominent party members, the two major party organizations in California often take their own public stances on ballot measures. Parties endorse initiatives in an effort to stimulate partisan voter anxiety or excitement about the measures, which they hope will translate into increased across-the-board support for the party. According to one California GOP official, ‘get-out-the-vote’ (‘GOTV’) was one of the main reasons why the party supported Prop. 187, as it was very ‘popular’ and Governor Wilson thought it was a ‘good’ initiative that would ‘help him and the party’ (California GOP, 1998). In 1998, the state Republican Party took a formal position on all eight initiatives on the general election ballot.The California Democratic Party also supported or opposed all of the measures, except for Prop. 5, the Indian gaming measure (California Democratic Party, 1998)."  (On page 742)

 "Political parties may also promote ballot initiatives if they appear to split the electoral base of support of the opposing party. In California, the GOP attempted to do this in 1996 when it pushed for the passage of Prop. 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative. The Republican Party provided essential funding to the proponents of the measure in an effort to split Democratic support for President Bill Clinton. Disavowing his long-standing support for affirmative action, Governor Wilson and the California GOP helped save the floundering campaign to end affirmative action with their financial support. Wilson, in a teleconference call with Newt Gingrich, claimed that Prop. 209 was ‘a partisan issue . . . that works strongly to our advantage [and] has every bit the potential to make a critical difference’ to defeat Clinton (Schrag, 1998: 226). At Wilson’s behest, the California Republican Party contributed $997,034 to the Yes on Prop. 209 campaign, with the Senate Republican Majority Committee contributing an additional $90,000 (California Secretary of State, 1996). At the national level, the RNC made ‘independent expenditures’ to broadcast television ads promoting Prop. 209 (Chavez, 1998: 252)."  (On pages 742-743)

It was clear at the time that Proposition 209 was not landmark civil rights legislation, but a wedge issue used by Republicans as part of a larger electoral strategy.