The 1978 California gubernatorial election occurred on November 7, 1978. The Democratic incumbent,

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...

, defeated the Republican nominee

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

Evelle J. Younger and

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

candidate

Ed Clark Edward E. Clark (born May 4, 1930) is an American lawyer and politician who ran for governor of California in 1978, and for president of the United States as the nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1980 presidential election. Background C ...

in a landslide.

Primary election results

In the Republican gubernatorial primary, California Attorney General Evelle Younger (who was the only Republican elected to a statewide office in the post-Watergate Democratic onslaught in the 1974 California general election) defeated Ed Davis (State Senator and former Los Angeles Police Chief), Ken Maddy (State Senate Minority Leader from Fresno), and Pete Wilson (mayor of San Diego). Incumbent Jerry Brown had only minor opposition in the Democratic Primary. The primary election included

Proposition 13 Proposition 13 (officially named the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) is an amendment of the Constitution of California enacted during 1978, by means of the initiative process, to cap property taxes and limit property reassessmen ...

, the initiative authored by

Howard Jarvis Howard Arnold Jarvis (September 22, 1903 – August 12, 1986) was an American businessman, lobbyist, and politician. He was a tax policy activist responsible for passage of California's Proposition 13 in 1978. Early life and education Jarvis ...

which sought to drastically reduce property taxes and change the way property taxes were calculated. Younger and most Republicans supported Proposition 13 while Brown and most Democrats opposed it. The initiative passed with 64.8% of the vote; it is still in effect, and many other states passed similar laws.

Republican Party

Democratic Party

American Independent Party

Peace and Freedom Party

General election

The primary battle left Younger short of money, while Brown had a much larger campaign fund and won reelection in a landslide.

Results by county

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

* Alpine * Amador *

Butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

* Calaveras * Contra Costa *

El Dorado El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...

* Kern *

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

* Marin * Mariposa *

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

* Napa *

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

* Orange * Riverside * San Benito *

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

* San Joaquin *

San Luis Obispo ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

* Santa Barbara * Stanislaus * Tuolumne * Ventura

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

* Del Norte * Imperial

Analysis

Jerry Brown's landslide victory ended three of the remaining four very long streaks of Republican dominance in California counties. Brown was the first Democrat to ever carry Alpine County in a gubernatorial election since its establishment in 1864. The same was true for Orange County; it had always backed the Republican candidate since its establishment in 1889. Meanwhile,

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa M ...

backed a Democratic candidate for the first time since 1882. After this election, the lone county with a long history of backing Republicans was Mono County, which had never backed a Democratic candidate since its founding in 1861 and would not vote Democratic until

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. Conversely, Jerry Brown remains the most recent Democrat to carry any of the following counties: Butte County, Calaveras County,

El Dorado County El Dorado County (; ''El Dorado'', Spanish language, Spanish for "The Golden ne), officially the County of El Dorado, is a List of counties in California, county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, ...

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populo ...

Kern County Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County compris ...

, Lassen County, Madera County, Mariposa County, Placer County, Plumas County, Shasta County, Sierra County, Siskiyou County, Tehama County,

Tuolumne County Tuolumne County (), officially the County of Tuolumne, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 55,620. The county seat and only incorporated city is Sonora. Tuolumne County comprises the ...

, and Yuba County.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:California Gubernatorial Election, 1978

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

1978 United States gubernatorial elections Gubernatorial November 1978 in the United States