Home Of Cutting Edge Politics

From surfer slang to Valley Girls, California has long been a trendsetter in popular culture. In politics, too, the Golden State's trailblazing moves on matters such as tax cuts and term limits have been watched and imitated from afar.

As the state prepares for its June 2 primary, other states are once again watching how California tackles the issues.

Voters in America's most populous state will take up initiatives to end bilingual education and limit the use of union dues for political campaigns.

Political professionals will also be watching the success of women candidates and the political fortunes of an unprecedented number of multimillionaires running for office.

"I think California is a state where people are not afraid to experiment with new ideas," said John Franzem, a Democratic consultant in Washington. "It gets a lot of attention around the country and whatever happens there tends to reverberate around the country."

Cathy Allen, a Democratic consultant in Seattle, is watching the California election for lessons on how to prepare for Washington state's September primary.

"It is actually pretty well understood that California is two to four years ahead of the trends that beset the rest of the country," Allen said.

In 1978, Californians passed Proposition 13, a measure that made it dramatically harder to raise property taxes and gave voice to an anti-tax fervor that helped propel Ronald Reagan to the presidency two years later.

In 1990, California voters approved a term limits measure for elected officials that has been duplicated in more than half the states. In 1996, Californians voted to end affirmative action programs in state institutions.

In this year's primary, which comes months before those in most other states, voters will take up Proposition 226, which would bar unions from using their members' dues for political campaigns without the members' annual written permission.

Unions and the Democrats who typically benefit from their contributions are vigorously fighting the measure.

"If it passes it will severely cripple organized labor and the Democratic Party," Franzem said. "Both parties nationally and state by state will be watching it (as will) labor and everybody who is intensely involved in the political process."

Dave Mason of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said other states have placed similar measures on their ballots for this fall. "As with a lot of California initiatives, it has already produced copycats," he said.

California, seen as a national laboratory for how America deals with immigrants, will also consider dismantling bilingual education in the public schools with Proposition 227.

Election watchers also wonder if the number of multimillionaires running high-budget statewide campaigns in California this year will encourage more such candidates.

Democrat Al hecchi, former head of Northwest Airlines, is seeking his party's nomination for governor with an almost limitless budget, as is wealthy Rep. Jane Harman.

Republican Darrell Issa, owner of a car alarm company, is waging a big-spending campaign for the Senate seat held by Democrat Barbara Boxer, and rich candidates have entered some of the lower-level statewide contests.

"I think people are going to be watching the fate of Al Checchi very closely," said Whit Ayres, who is with a GOP polling firm in Atlanta. "If he wins, it's going to send shock waves through the nation's political system."

Also, California sent three women to Congress in special elections earlier this year, and women could capture the three highest statewide offices governor and both Senate seats for the first time in 1998.

Why do so many trends start in California?

Dan Schnur, a Republican consultant from California who is teaching a class at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government titled "California: Where Tomorrow's Politics Happen Today," said one big reason is that so many Californians are new to the state.

"Mobility inspires creativity in politics and in business and in culture," Schnur said. "It's not an accident that Hollywood and the Silicon Valley are in California. It's because the state has an unusually large number of ambitious, imaginative, creative people looking to make their mark in a way that they wouldn't be able to in a more traditional setting, and the same holds true in politics."

Written by Michelle De Armond