Up from Death Valley

Ronald Reagan likes to recall that he began his movie career 29 years ago as "the nice guy who didn't get the girl." Last week he walked off with some thing better: an astonishingly large victory in California's Republican gubernatorial primary. The Democrats, by contrast, gave Governor Pat Brown his third-term nomination by a sufficiently meager margin to establish Reagan as an attractive even-money bet in November's general election.

With returns in from all but eight of California's 30,586 precincts, Conservative Reagan had 1,385,550 votes to 663,199 for Dairyman George Christopher, a moderate Republican and former mayor of San Francisco. The G.O.P.'s 2-to-l choice underscored the Democratic dogfight in which Brown got 1,334,286 votes v. 994,821 for his principal opponent, Los Angeles' Mayor Samuel Yorty, a feisty maverick who supported Richard Nixon in 1960 and calls Brown a "captive of left-wingers."

Beginner's Skill. By attracting more votes than Brown in a state where the Democrats enjoy a 3-to-2 registration advantage, Los Angeles' Reagan rattled political seismographs from coast to coast. In the 1958 and 1962 primaries, after all, Brown ran well ahead of William Knowland and Dick Nixon, both well-established G.O.P. leaders. Reagan, making his first bid for public office, had been accorded a modest margin by the pollsters, who had unanimously predicted a smashing plurality for Brown.

While Reagan enjoyed some good luck, notably Christopher's unexpectedly inept campaign, his success was more a case of beginner's skill. Reagan was co-chairman of Barry Goldwater's campaign in California and one of Goldwater's most effective spokesmen in 1964. This year he heeded the advice of the political-management firm of Spencer-Roberts to bring his image closer to center. Without abandoning any conservative fundamentals--his platform embraces "fiscal responsibility" and rejects open-housing legislation --Reagan conveyed the impression of a responsible, vigorous crusader with all of the ardor and none of the abrasiveness of a Goldwater. His "Creative Society" slogan projects affirmation rather than negativism.

The Murphy Precedent. As a result, Reagan made important inroads among moderate Republicans, attracting 300,000 more votes than Goldwater did in California's presidential primary two years ago. To win in November, Reagan must hold broad Republican support and attract a substantial number of Democrats as well. He has made a good start by sounding genuinely interested in building an effective coalition. "We'll go after the independents," he said last week, "because our cause crosses party lines."

So, clearly, does Candidate Reagan's personal appeal. Hollywood-handsome and remarkably youthful in appearance (he is 55), Reagan has also maintained a nice-guy, down-to-earth presence while perfecting a smooth platform style throughout a durable career as radio announcer, movie actor, lecturer and television performer (most recently as M.C. of Death Valley Days). In switching from show business to politics, Reagan undoubtedly also benefits from the precedent set by Fellow Republican, Fellow Actor George Murphy, who has settled soberly into the U.S. Senate seat from California that he won in 1964.

Brown, though an effective Governor, projects a bumbling image that has been badly overexposed. His plurality (339,465) was smaller than even that of Lieutenant Governor Glenn Anderson (612,720), an unspectacular candidate unesteemed by Brown, who faced tough opposition from Thomas Braden, president of the state board of education and Lloyd Hand, former State Department protocol chief. Brown, under a withering onslaught from Yorty, made the mistake of ignoring his opponent's charges. The Los Angeles mayor won white votes from Brown as a result of the simmering racial situation in Watts, which Yorty has yet to treat as a major problem. Statewide, moreover, there is a blurred but significant undercurrent of resentment toward civil rights activism and left-wing agitation on the Berkeley campus that can only work against Brown--a liberal on most issues--if it persists through the general-election campaign. Now Yorty refuses to support Brown unless the Governor complies with his own stringent conditions, including the repudiation of leading Democratic party officials whom Yorty dislikes.

"Doom & Darkness." Brown, 61, who tended to dismiss Reagan as a lightweight amateur earlier this year, is now trying to paint his opponent as a deep-dyed reactionary. "Like Barry Goldwater," says Brown, "he is the spokesman for a harsh philosophy of doom and darkness." To which Reagan retorts: "The Governor is about two years behind. He's still running against Goldwater."

The California campaign will in fact be fought primarily on local issues, with one of the biggest questions being how many conservative Democratic votes Reagan can attract. Some national Republican strategists see California, with its large population of newcomers, as a microcosm of the nation. Thus a Reagan victory in November would be a tremendous morale booster for the G.O.P., an even more imposing milepost on the road back from 1964 than Independent Republican John Lindsay's capture of New York's City Hall last year. For a G.O.P. conservative to take the most populous state in the nation would also dent the post-1964 cliche that only avowedly liberal Republicans can win in heavily populated urbanized regions. Meanwhile, Pat Brown is sticking to his own proven cliche: "The tougher the fight, the more I like it."

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