George Deukmejian

George Deukmejian
File:GeorgeDeukmejian.jpg
35th Governor of California
In office January 3, 1983 – January 7, 1991
Lieutenant	Leo T. McCarthy
Preceded by	Jerry Brown
Succeeded by	Pete Wilson
Personal details
Born	(1928-07-06) July 6, 1928 Menands, New York
Political party	Republican Party
Spouse	Gloria Saatjian
Profession	Politician

Courken George Deukmejian, Jr. (born July 6, 1928) is an American Republican politician from California, and was elected as the thirty-fifth Governor of California (1983–1991), and California Attorney General (1979–1983).

Early life

Deukmejian (Template:PronEng) was born in Menands, New York, where he spent his childhood. He is the son of Armenian immigrants from Iran. His father was a drug 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.

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 $843 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