Courken George Deukmejian, Jr. (born July 6, 1928) is an
American Republican
politician from California, the
thirty-fifth Governor of California (1983-1991), and a former California
Attorney General (1979-1983).
Early life
Deukmejian (pronounced duke-MAY-jee-unn) was born in Menands, New York, where he
spent his childhood. He is the son of Armenian immigrants from Iran. His father was a rug merchant, while his mother worked in Montgomery
Ward and later for New York State. Deukmejian graduated a B.A. in
Sociology from Siena College in 1949. He then earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from St. John's University in 1952. From 1953 to 1955, he served as a lawyer in the
U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's
Corps.
He moved to California in 1955. His sister, Mrs. Anna Ashjian, was there, and introduced him to
Gloria Saatjian, whose parents were also Armenian immigrants. They married in
1958 and had three children, two daughters, born in 1965 and
1970 and one son, born in 1967.
Political beginnings
In California, Deukmejian entered politics after a short period of private practice. He was elected to represent Long Beach in
the California State Assembly in 1962. In
1966, he became a State Senator. By
1969, he was the majority leader in the State Senate. He
first ran for Attorney General of California in 1970, finishing fourth in
the Republican primary. He won the election for Attorney General in 1978 and served from
1979 to 1983. During this time, he led a high-profile campaign
against marijuana in northern California, at one point descending by helicopter along with flak-jacketed, gun-toting agents on a
marijuana farm.[1]
Governorship
In 1982, he was elected to his first term as Governor
of California, beating out Lt. Governor Michael Curb in the Republican primary, and
then defeating Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in the general
election. Deukmejian's victory over Bradley in 1982 came despite opinion polls leading up
to the election which consistently showed Bradley with a lead, and despite exit polling
conducted after voting closed which led some news organizations on the night of the election to make early projections of a
Bradley victory. The discrepancy between the polling numbers and the election's ultimate results would come to be termed "the
Bradley effect".
Deukmejian defeated Bradley by a 61% to 37% landslide in their 1986 rematch. Deukmejian served
as governor from 1983 to 1991. He is generally regarded as a
moderate-to-conservative Republican.
His governorship was a radical departure from his predecessor. Deukmejian vowed to not raise taxes, appeal to the business
community by repealing some consumer and environmental protection. He presented himself as law and order candidate proposing new
efforts to fight crime. He faced a Democratic-dominated California State
Legislature during his two terms as governor. In addition, he was the sole Republican statewide office-holder until
Thomas W. Hayes was elected California
State Treasurer in a special election.
The Deukmejian administration entered office during a national recession. California had a
$1.5 billion budget deficit with an unemployment rate of
11.2%. He first halted the hiring of new state employees and banned out of state travel for those in government. He rejected the
legislature's demands for a tax hikes, and instead pared $1.1 billion from its budget by selective vetoes of spending items.. One
year later, further cuts along with a booming defense industry, created a billion dollar surplus
for 1985. At one point his approval ratings had reached 76%. His 1985 budget increased spending in
education, highway construction and environmental projects. However, health and welfare program spending was criticized. [1][2]
However, just three years later Deukmejian faced his own billion dollar deficit. He supported a raise in the state minimum
wage in 1989. In 1990, he supported $648 billion in new taxes in efforts to balance the budget.[3]
Deukmejian largely made his career by being tough on crime. When he was in the legislature, he wrote California's
capital punishment law. As governor, he orchestrated the removal of three justices of
the California Supreme Court in the 1986
election, due to their consistent opposition to the death penalty in any and all
circumstances. One of them (the best known) was Rose Bird, the first female Chief Justice of
the Court (and the first one to be voted off). Under Deukmejian, the California prison population mushroomed -- as of 12/31/82,
the total prison population stood at 34,640 inmates. By the end of 1991 the population had reached 97,309. He increased spending
for the building of new prisons.
In 1988, then-Vice President
George Bush considered Governor Deukmejian as a possible running mate for the
Presidential Election that year. During a trade mission to
South Korea in August, Deukmejian sent a letter saying he "cannot be considered" for nomination, refusing to leave the
governorship to Democratic Lieutenant Governor Leo T. McCarthy.[4]
In 1991, in his last two hours in office, he vetoed the property tax exemption bill passed by
both houses of the Legislature which applied to companies building thermal solar plants in California. Although the Legislature
enacted the exemption in early 1991, companies would still face significant levels of property tax
and other taxes. This exemption was focused towards the SEGS (Solar
Electric Generating Stations) plants built by Luz Limited International (LUZ) in the late 1980s.
His veto resulted in the bankruptcy of LUZ and a worldwide halt in the construction of solar thermal power plants for fifteen
years.
Post governorship
Deukmejian was a partner in a Los Angeles law firm from 1991 to 2000, when he retired. He reentered public life by serving on special commissions, including one to reform the
California penal system, and a charter-reform commission in his hometown of Long
Beach. He is overseeing a revamping of the UCLA Willed Body
Program after a scandal involving the sale of human body parts donated for science.
Quotation
- "Attorneys General don't appoint judges – Governors do."
Deukmejian explaining why he ran for Governor instead of running for a second term as Attorney General
References
External links
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