Politics

Gray Skies Over California

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 4, 1998 / 12:15 AM EST / CBS

In the California governor's race, Democrat Gray Davis' victory over Republican Dan Lungren could be an enormous boon for the Democratic Party.

The key to Davis' appeal? He painted himself as a moderate.

The Democrat is a colorless politician who waged a cautious campaign aimed at avoiding mistakes. The strategy worked.

Davis' win gave Democrats hope that they could regain control of the House of Representatives when congressional districts are redrawn after the 2000 Census.

Davis won over the moderate voters, who are the key to victory in statewide California elections. Exit polls showed moderates supported the Democrat by a margin of nearly 2-1.

Exit polls also disclosed that:

Two Republicans crossed party lines to vote for Davis for every Democrat who crossed over to vote for Lungren. Women supported Davis by a 3-2 margin. Davis won the male vote, too, but by a smaller majority.

Hispanics, the state's largest minority, supported Davis by a 4-1 margin. African-Americans supported Davis by a 7-1 margin and Asian-Americans by a 3-1 margin. Davis and Lungren split the white vote almost evenly.

Davis topped Lungren among both young and middle-aged voters, with his largest margin, more than 20 percentage points, among voters under 30. Davis and Lungren were equally popular voters 60 and older.

Davis received a 2-1 majority among voters with annual family incomes of $30,000 or less. His margin declined as family incomes rose, and he tied with Lungren among voters with annual family incomes in excess of $100,000.

Nearly three-quarters of the respondents who rated education as the most important issue in the election said they voted for Davis.

Turnout among households with union members was a third higher than among nonunion households, and they voted for Davis by a 5-2 margin.

Davis and Lungren split the white vote evenly, but turnout among households with union members was a third higher than among non-union households, and they voted for Davis by a 5-2 margin.

Lungren, as expected, was supported by three-quarters of the voters who said taxes were their top concern, and by 81 percent of the voters who described themselves as conservatives.

Davis led Lungren in every part of the state, running up huge margins in the Los Angeles and San Francisco regions. He even held slim majorities which were within the poll's margin of error in the conservative suburban counties surrounding Los Angeles and in the Central Valley.