The 1994 United States Senate election in California was held November 8, 1994. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator

Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...

won re-election to her first full term. By a margin of 1.9%, this election was the closest race of the 1994 Senate election cycle.

Democratic primary

Candidates

*Ted J. Andromedas *

, incumbent Senator since 1992 *Daniel O'Dowd, founder and president of

Green Hills Software Green Hills Software is a privately owned company that builds operating systems and programming tools for embedded systems. The firm was founded in 1982 by Dan O'Dowd and Carl Rosenberg. Its world headquarters are in Santa Barbara, California. ...

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

*John M. Brown *Wolf G. Dalichau *

William E. Dannemeyer William Edwin Dannemeyer (September 22, 1929 – July 9, 2019) was a conservative Politics of the United States, American politician, activist, and author, known for his LGBT rights opposition, opposition to LGBT rights. He served as United State ...

, former U.S. Representative from Fullerton and candidate for Senate in 1992 *

Michael Huffington Michael Huffington (born September 3, 1947), is an American politician, LGBT activist, and film producer. He was a member of the Republican Party, and a congressman for one term, 1993–1995, from California. Huffington was married to Arianna H ...

, U.S. Representative from Santa Barbara *Kate Squires

Results

Other nominations

Peace & Freedom Party

Libertarian Party

American Independent Party

Green Party

While there was no primary election for the Green Party, Barbara Blong got the nomination of the party and represented them in the general election.

General election

Candidates

(D), incumbent U.S. Senator *

(R), U.S. Representative *

Elizabeth Cervantes Barron Elizabeth Cervantes Barron (March 14, 1938 – February 10, 2020) was a frequent candidate for political offices on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. Personal life Cervantes Barron was born in Los Angeles, California, and was the mother of 3 ch ...

(PF) * Barbara Blong (G) * Richard Benjamin Boddie (L) * Paul Meeuwenberg (AI)

Campaign

After one term in the House representing Santa Barbara and

San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly hal ...

counties, Huffington spent $8 million by the end of August and a total of $28 million during the entire campaign. He became wealthy off oil and gas. The race saw personal attacks on Huffington's wife,

Arianna Huffington Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (née Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou, el, Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου ; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of ''Th ...

, who was very involved in the race (the media dubbed her the "Sir Edmund Hillary of social climbing," according to '' The Almanac of American Politics''). Huffington was called a hypocrite for supporting

Proposition 187 California Proposition 187 (also known as the ''Save Our State'' (SOS) initiative) was a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public ed ...

and then breaking the law for employing illegal aliens, a story which came out in the race's final days. A grand total of $44 million was spent in the election. At the time, it was the most expensive campaign in a non-presidential election in American history. Chris Cillizza of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' named the election one of the nastiest senate elections in modern history.

Results

On election day it was a very close race, but Feinstein won Los Angeles County, which may have pulled her ahead. Her sizable win in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area may also be credited to her slim statewide victory. A large number of absentee ballots left the results in doubt for over two weeks. On November 18, Senator Feinstein declared victory. At that time, she was ahead by 147,404 votes, with only 156,210 remaining uncounted ballots. Huffington had not conceded at that point, saying that there was evidence of voter fraud and calling for an investigation. He had already filed a legal complaint, which had already been dismissed. As of December 23, Huffington still contended that there may have been voting fraud and had not conceded.

Overall

By county

Final results from the Secretary of State.

References

External links

* JoinCaliforni
1994 General Election
{{United States elections, 1994

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

1994 California elections

Democratic primary

Candidates

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Results

Other nominations

Peace & Freedom Party

Libertarian Party

American Independent Party

Green Party

General election

Candidates

Campaign

Results

Overall

By county

See also

References

External links