George Deukmejian | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait,c. 1983–1991 | |
| 35thGovernor of California | |
| In office January 3, 1983 – January 7, 1991 | |
| Lieutenant | Leo T. McCarthy |
| Preceded by | Jerry Brown |
| Succeeded by | Pete Wilson |
| 27thAttorney General of California | |
| In office January 8, 1979 – January 3, 1983 | |
| Governor | Jerry Brown |
| Preceded by | Evelle J. Younger |
| Succeeded by | John Van de Kamp |
| Member of theCalifornia State Senate | |
| In office January 2, 1967 – January 8, 1979 | |
| Preceded by | Gordon Cologne |
| Succeeded by | Ollie Speraw |
| Constituency | 31st district (1977–1979) 37th district (1967–1977) |
| Member of theCalifornia State Assembly from the39th district | |
| In office January 7, 1963 – January 2, 1967 | |
| Preceded by | John C. Williamson |
| Succeeded by | James A. Hayes |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Courken George Deukmejian Jr. (1928-06-06)June 6, 1928 Menands, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 8, 2018(2018-05-08) (aged 89) Long Beach, California, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Siena College (BA) St. John's University, New York (JD) |
| Signature |  |
| Nickname | "The Iron Duke"[1][2][3] |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1953–1955 |
| Rank |  Captain |
| Unit | Army JAG Corps |
Courken George Deukmejian Jr. (/djuːkˈmeɪdʒən/[4]dyook-MAY-jən; June 6, 1928 – May 8, 2018) was an American politician who served as the 35thgovernor of California from 1983 to 1991. A member of theRepublican Party, he was the state's first governor ofArmenian descent.
Born inNew York, Deukmejian moved to California in 1955. He was elected to theState Assembly in 1962 to representLong Beach.[5][6] Four years later he was elected into theState Senate and later served as the Senate's minority leader. In1970, Deukmejian unsuccessfully ran forAttorney General of California, finishing fourth in the Republican primary. In1978 he secured the nomination and defeatedYvonne Brathwaite Burke to become the state's 27th attorney general. As attorney general, he led a veto override against GovernorJerry Brown, who had vetoed legislation to authorize thedeath penalty inthe state.
After Governor Brown did not seek reelection in1982, Deukmejian won the Republican nomination for governor and facedLos Angeles mayorTom Bradley in the general election. Although opinion polls showed that Bradley had a favorable lead in the race, Deukmejian narrowly won the election outright. In1986, Deukmejian defeated Bradley again for a much larger victory. As governor, Deukmejian made a name for being tough on crime, presenting himself to be in favor of "law and order". Under his administration, the California prison population nearly tripled, and he increased spending for the building ofnew prisons.
Deukmejian retired from front-line politics in 1991 and was succeeded as governor by fellow RepublicanPete Wilson.
Deukmejian was born on June 6, 1928, inMenands, New York.[7] His parents wereArmenians born in theArmenian highlands, who emigrated from theOttoman Empire (present-dayTurkey) to the United States in the early 1900s. His father, Courken George Deukmejian (Armenian:Կուրկէն Ժորժ Դէուքմեճեան), whose sister was killed during theArmenian Genocide,[8][9] was a rug merchant born inAintab (present-dayGaziantep).[10] Deukmejian's mother, Alice Gairdan (Armenian:Ալիս Գայրդան Դյուքմեջյան),[11] was born inKarin (present-dayErzurum); in the United States she worked forMontgomery Ward and later for New York State.[12]
Deukmejian attended local schools. For college, he graduated in 1949 with aB.A. insociology fromSiena College.[11][1] He earned aJuris Doctor (J.D.) fromSt. John's University in New York City in 1952.[13] From 1953 to 1955, he served in theU.S. Army, assigned to theJudge Advocate General's Corps (JAG).[14][15]
Deukmejian moved to California in 1955 where his sister, Anna Ashjian, was living and there was a large Armenian community. She introduced him to his future wifeGloria Saatjian, a bank teller whose parents were also immigrants fromArmenia.[12] They married on February 16, 1957.[16] He and his wife had three children: two daughters, born in 1964 and 1969; and one son, born in 1966.[1]
Deukmejian entered politics in California after a short period of private legal practice inLong Beach alongsideMalcolm M. Lucas.[17] In 1962, Deukmejian was elected to represent Long Beach in theState Assembly.[18]
In 1966, he was elected as astate senator, serving from 1967 to 1979.[18] He was a high-profile advocate forcapital punishment.[19] By 1969, he was theMajority Leader of the California State Senate.[18]
He first ran forAttorney General of California in 1970, finishing fourth in the Republican primary.[20] He won the election for Attorney General in1978 and served from 1979 to 1983.[20] During this time, he led a high-profile campaign againstcannabis in northern California, which later became theCampaign Against Marijuana Planting.[21] Additionally, he led a veto override against GovernorJerry Brown, who had vetoed legislation to authorize thedeath penalty.[3]
Deukmejian was elected in1982 to his first term asGovernor of California. He first defeatedLieutenant GovernorMike Curb, arecording company owner, in the Republican primary.[22][23] One of his early primary backers was former gubernatorial candidateJoe Shell ofBakersfield, a conservative who had opposedRichard M. Nixon in the 1962 California primary.[24] Upon his victory,The New York Times reported,
The image that comes across of Mr. Deukmejian — a devoted family man, an Episcopal churchman, an ice cream lover — led one reporter to write, "California may have accidentally elected Iowa's Governor".[25]
In the general election, Deukmejian ran as a conservative supporter of public safety and balanced budgets.[26] In addition, he was strongly critical of outgoing Governor Jerry Brown and promised to run a very different administration.[22] He strongly criticized theSupreme Court of California, which was dominated by Brown appointees, notably controversial Chief JusticeRose Bird.[27]
Deukmejian narrowly defeatedLos AngelesMayorTom Bradley in the general election.[3] Deukmejian won the election by about 100,000 votes, about 1.2 percent of the 7.5 million votes cast.[28] The victory came despiteopinion polls leading up to the election that consistently showed Bradley with a lead, and despiteexit polling conducted after voting closed that led some news organizations on the night of the election to make early projections of a Bradley victory.[29][30] The discrepancy between the polling numbers and the election's ultimate results would come to be termed the "Bradley effect", which refers to a hypothesized tendency of white voters to tell interviewers or pollsters that they are undecided or likely to vote for a black candidate, but then actually vote for his opponent.[30]
Deukmejian's governorship was a departure from that of his predecessor,Jerry Brown.[31] He vowed not to raise taxes,[32][33] later saying that he was "business friendly".[34] In addition, he presented himself as a "law and order" candidate, proposing new efforts to fight crime.[18] He faced a Democrat-dominatedCalifornia State Legislature during his two terms as governor.[22] He was the sole Republican statewide officeholder untilThomas W. Hayes was appointedCalifornia State Treasurer, following the death of TreasurerJesse Unruh.[26] In 1983, Deukmejian abolished theCaltransOffice of Bicycle Facilities and reduced state spending for bicycle projects from $5 million to the statutory minimum of $360,000 per year.[35] In 1984, he vetoed A.B. 1, the first bill to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians, which passed the Legislature.[36]
In1986, Bradley sought a rematch, and Deukmejian defeated him by a 60% to 37% margin.[28] He was generally regarded as a moderate-to-conservative Republican.[18]
The Deukmejian administration began during a national economicrecession.[37] He halted the hiring of new state employees and banned out-of-state travel for those in government.[38] He rejected the legislature's demands for tax hikes, and pared $1.1 billion from its budget by selectively vetoing spending items.[39] One year later, further cuts, along with a nationwide economic rebound that benefited the state, created a billion dollarsurplus for 1985.[40] His 1985 budget slightly increased spending in highway construction, but cut deeply into the education, health, welfare and environmental budgets.[41] For this he was roundly criticized, and the cuts probably led to his low polling numbers at the end of his tenure as governor.[42][43] 3 years later, Deukmejian faced his own billion dollar deficit.[44] He supported a raise in the state minimum wage in 1989.[45] Deukmejian largely made his career by being tough on crime.[18] When he was in the legislature, he wrote California'scapital punishment law.[18] As a candidate for re-election, in 1986 he opposed the retention election of three Brown-appointed justices of theSupreme Court of California due to their consistent opposition to the death penalty in any and all circumstances.[46][28] The best known of these wasRose Bird, the first female Chief Justice of the Court (and the first one to be voted off).[28] Deukmejian elevated his friend and law partner,Malcolm Lucas, fromAssociate Justice toChief Justice, and appointed three new associate justices.[9] Under Deukmejian, the California prison population nearly tripled — as of December 31, 1982, the total prison population stood at 34,640 inmates.[37] He increased spending for the building of new prisons.[37]
Never a fan of California OSHA, Deukmejian slashed almost all funding for the agency in 1987. His action was almost certainly illegal, as California OSHA was not a line item in the budget subject to the Governor's veto power, but he never had his day in court, as the people of California approved Proposition 97 in 1988 rejecting his action and reinstating funding for the agency.[47]
In 1988, then-Vice PresidentGeorge H. W. Bushconsidered Deukmejian as a possible running mate for thepresidential election that year.[48] During a trade mission toSouth Korea in August, Deukmejian sent a letter saying he could not be considered for nomination, refusing to leave the governorship to Democratic Lieutenant GovernorLeo T. McCarthy.[48]
Deukmejian did not seek re-election to a third term as governor in the1990 gubernatorial elections.[26] The Republicans instead nominated sitting United States SenatorPete Wilson, who defeatedDianne Feinstein in the general election.[26] He was the last governor not affected by the two-term limit that was passed by voters in 1990.[18]
On October 1, 1989, Deukmejian signed legislation authorizing the purchasing of health insurance by uninsured Californians suffering from catastrophic serious illnesses, such asAIDS,cancer,diabetes, andheart disease, to be funded throughtobacco tax revenues.[49] In 1991, in his last days in office, he vetoed the property tax exemption bill that applied to companies building solar in California.[50] This exemption was focused toward theSolar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) plants then being built byLuz International Limited (Luz).[50] The veto led to the bankruptcy of Luz.[50]
Deukmejian was a partner in the law firm ofSidley & Austin from 1991 until 2000 when he retired.[18][26] He reentered public life by serving on special committees, including one to reform the California penal system, and a charter-reform committee in his hometown of Long Beach.[51] He oversaw a revamping of theUCLA Willed Body Program after a scandal involving the sale of human body partsdonated for science.[52] In 2013, a courthouse in Long Beach was named in his honor.[2][53] Deukmejian received an honorary doctor of laws degree fromCalifornia State University, Long Beach, in 2008, because of his support for education, state law, and Long Beach.[54] In 2015, he was given theKey to the City of Long Beach.[55]
Deukmejian died of natural causes at his home on May 8, 2018, at the age of 89.[9] California GovernorJerry Brown said onTwitter: "George Deukmejian was a popular governor and made friends across the political aisle. Anne and I join all Californians in expressing our deepest condolences to his family and friends".[56] He resided in theBelmont Park neighborhood of Long Beach for over 51 years.[57] Throughout his adult life, he was a member ofAll Saints Episcopal Church in Long Beach.[58]
The son of Armenian immigrants, Deukmejian had years of public office on his resumé before winning election as governor and emerging as the most prominent Armenian American politician in the United States.
Political Consultant Don Solem explains: 'It's not so much they're afraid to say it as they think it might be taken the wrong way.' Solem said the Bradley Effect is also known as social desirability bias.
'Anyone who studies survey research will tell you one of the biggest problems we encounter is this notion of social desirability bias,' [Patrick Egan, a professor of politics at New York University] said.
| California Assembly | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theCalifornia Assembly from the39th district 1963–1967 | Succeeded by |
| California Senate | ||
| Preceded by | Member of theCalifornia Senate from the31st district 1967–1977 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theCalifornia Senate from the37th district 1977–1979 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Attorney General of California 1979–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of California 1982,1986 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of California 1983–1991 | Succeeded by |
| Under Spain (1769–1822) |  | |
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| Under Mexico (1822–1846) | ||
| Under U.S. military (1846–1850) | ||
| U.S. state (since 1850) | ||
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
