ABSTRACT
California became a state in 1850 on the heels of the great gold rush that filled the Sierra Nevada Mountains and foothills with prospectors determined to find the Mother Lode. Numerous others migrated to the state at mid-century and after in pursuit of the American Dream in the salubrious environs of the Golden State. Though California was blessed with a hospitable climate and an abundance of natural resources, federal aid would prove indispensable in making the state a thriving entity by providing many jobs and various subsidies for hydroelectric power and other water projects, timber harvesting, transportation, and ranching. State government facilitated this growth as well, but in a different fashion. After the Civil War, party politics in California came to be dominated by the "machine" politics of the railroad interests. Replete with the corruption and laissez-faire policies associated with the Gilded Age, California government would remain under the control of these powerful railroad companies (particularly the Southern Pacific) until reformers led by Republican governor Hiram Johnson broke their grip during the Progressive Era in the early twentieth century. 1
In addition to greatly diminishing the influence of the railroads' political operatives in state government, the "nonpartisan" Johnson and his fellow reformers made changes of major importance in California's electoral process between 1911 and 1917. These changes included the authorization of the initiative and referendum, the recall and women's suffrage. Cross-filing in primary elections, in which candidates could run on all party ballots and win office with a majority of the overall vote, arguably proved to be the most significant of Johnson's reforms. Until its abolition in 1959, cross-filing played a significant role in keeping Republican governors in Sacramento but at the same time helped continue the state's nonpartisan political trend through the de-emphasis of party affiliation. The nonpartisanship of the cross filing era tended to be of the moderate yet progressive and pragmatic style that typified Johnson's governance. 2
Progressive politics persisted in California in the 1920s despite the conservative inclinations of the state's Republican governors,3 but the im-
poverished misery brought about by the Great Depression the following decade led to a serious challenge to this moderate political pattern. The most significant effort the far left would ever mount for a high state office, Upton Sinclair's campaign for governor in 1934, alarmed Republicans and Democrats alike. A onetime socialist, Sinclair stunned many Democrats in California and across the nation by winning the party's gubernatorial primary. Running on an "End Poverty in California" (EPIC) platform, Sinclair faced vicious Republican attacks and lacked strong support even from his own party due to his "radicalism." In addition to the backing generated by their invective, California Republicans garnered support by acquiescing to numerous New Deal public aid measures, thus stealing much of Sinclair's potential thunder and ensuring his defeat by Frank Merriam. Run by the "full-service" management team of Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter, the Merriam campaign utilized innovative mass-media techniques and served as the prototype for later campaigns in California and the rest of the nation. That campaign also cemented a small but powerful right-wing coalition that supported conservative candidates into the 1950s.4 Though Democrat Culbert Olson won the governorship in 193 8, California politics maintained a bumpy but moderate course as the nation entered World War II and the California economy began its long-term boom with lucrative defense contracts.5
