George Deukmejian

Courken George Deukmejian, Jr.
35th Governor of California
In office January 3, 1983 – January 7, 1991
Lieutenant	Leo T. McCarthy
Preceded by	Jerry Brown
Succeeded by	Pete Wilson
Born	June 6, 1928 (1928-06-06) (age 81) Menands, New York
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Gloria Saatjian
Profession	Politician
Religion	Episcopalianism

Courken George Deukmejian, Jr. (pronounced /duːkˈmeɪdʒən/[1]) (born June 6, 1928) is an American politician from California who as a Republican served as the thirty-fifth Governor of California (1983–1991) and as California Attorney General (1979–1983).

Early life

Deukmejian was born in Menands, New York, where he spent his childhood. His parents were ethnic Armenians from Iran ^[1]. The family name "Deukmejian" originates from the Turkish language word "Dökmeci" which means "molder." 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 in the U.S. Army, assigned to the 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 1957 and had three children, two daughters, born in 1964 and 1969 and one son, born in 1966.

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.^[2]

Governorship

In 1982, he was elected to his first term as Governor of California, having defeated Lieutenant Governor Michael Curb, a recording company owner, in the Republican primary (1,165,266 or 51.1 percent to 1,020,935 or 44.8 percent). One of Deukmejian's early primary backers was former gubernatorial candidate Joe Shell of Bakersfield, a conservative who had opposed Richard M. Nixon in the 1962 primary.

In the general election, he ran as a conservative supporter of public safety and balanced budgets. In addition, he was strongly critical of outgoing Governor Jerry Brown and promised to run a very different administration. He also strongly criticized the state Supreme Court, which was dominated by Brown appointees, notably controversial Chief Justice Rose Bird.

Deukmejian narrowly defeated Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in the general election. Deukmejian won the election by about 100,000 votes, about 1.2% of the 7.5 million votes cast. The victory 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," 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.

His governorship was a radical departure from his predecessor, Jerry Brown. Deukmejian vowed to not raise taxes, appealing 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 Democrat-dominated California State Legislature during his two terms as governor. He was the sole Republican statewide officeholder until Thomas W. Hayes was appointed California State Treasurer, following the death of Treasurer Jesse Unruh.

In 1983, Deukmejian abolished the Caltrans Office of Bicycle Facilities and reduced state spending for bicycle projects from 5 million to the statutory minimum of 360,000 per year. ^[3] In 1984, he vetoed A.B. 1, the first bill to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians, which passed the Legislature. There were rallies and protests statewide.

During his first term, Deukmejian won the voters' approval. In 1986, Bradley sought a rematch and Deukmejian defeated him by a 61% to 37% percent margin, a record not broken until 1998. Deukmejian served as Governor from 1983 to 1991. He is generally regarded as a moderate-to-conservative Republican.

The Deukmejian administration entered office during a national economic 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 tax hikes, and pared $1.1 billion from its budget by selectively vetoing 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.[2][3]

However, just three years later Deukmejian faced his own billion dollar deficit.^{[citation needed]} He supported a raise in the state minimum wage in 1989.^{[citation needed]} During Deukmejian's administration, the general fund budget grew by 98% without any increase in general tax rates. (California State general fund budget: 1982-1983 $21.7 billion; 1990-1991 $42.9 billion.)

Deukmejian largely made his career by being tough on crime.^{[citation needed]} When he was in the legislature, he wrote California's capital punishment law. As a candidate for reelection, in 1986 he opposed the retention election of three Brown-appointed justices of the California Supreme Court 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 December 31, 1982, 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 H. W. 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.

Post-governorship

Deukmejian was a partner in Sidley & Austin, a national and international law firm, from 1991 to 2000 when he retired. 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. He oversaw a revamping of the UCLA Willed Body Program after a scandal involving the sale of human body parts donated for science.

He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from California State University, Long Beach in 2008 because of his support for education, state law, and Long Beach.^[4]

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

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