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Vacancies in half a dozen statewide offices in this week's California primary resulted in opening up the political vineyards to a new crop of candidates-among them a Latino political pro, a gay bureaucrat, a businesswoman and political novice-all promising spirited races in November.
The winners in these so-called "down-ballot" races below the rank of governor had faced a number of obstacles in Tuesday's primary.
Few had name familiarity with voters across the state or abundant money to reach them. Many ran in multicandidate primaries and won without a clear majority. The two opposing candidates in the November runoff for the nonpartisan office of state superintendent of public instruction, for example, together received only about one-third of the votes cast in the primary.
Now the winners shift their attention to the one-on-one battles ahead, and many are already outlining the issues and attack strategies they hope will carry them into office. The Democratic nominee for state insurance commissioner, Sen. Art Torres of Los Angeles, captured 46% of the vote in a three-way primary to become the first Latino to win a major party statewide race in more than 120 years.
To get to the general election, Torres had to survive the attacks of his chief challenger, Assemblyman Burt Margolin, whose radio ads pummeled Torres for two drunk-driving convictions. He said he is braced for more of the same.
"It's a no-brainer (to raise that issue)," Torres said. "But I'll keep talking about the things that I think are important. I'm the only candidate that won't take money from the insurance industry. . . . I'm effective, competent, qualified . . . and I'm also a Latino."
On the Republican side, Assemblyman Chuck Quackenbush of Cupertino, who won with 38% of the GOP primary vote, promised a fall campaign emphasizing issues and leaving it to the media to raise questions about Torres' driving record. His nearest Republican rival, insurance agent Wes Bannister, got 21% and former state consumer affairs director Jim Conran, 19%.
For the coming campaign, Quackenbush said he will discuss ways of luring more companies into the state.
"Our insurance market is the worst in the world right now," Quackenbush said. "I want to talk about...