California Gubernatorial Election, 1914

The 1914 California gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1914. The election saw Hiram Johnson re-elected in 1914 as governor of California on the Progressive Party ticket, nearly tripling his vote total from the 1910 California gubernatorial election.

Johnson was first elected governor in 1910 as a member of the Republican Party. Dissatisfaction with the conservatism of the William Howard Taft administration led many Republicans to join former President Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party. Johnson then ran as the Progressive Party's vice-presidential nominee in the 1912 presidential election. Despite losing the election, and winning California by fewer than 200 votes, Johnson was supremely popular in California.

Hiram Johnson became the first governor of California to be reelected since John Bigler in 1853, although he would not serve out his second term, resigning in 1917 to assume the United States Senate seat he had won in 1916. This was the first gubernatorial election in which Kern County, Glenn County, Lake County, and Madera County did not back the Democratic candidate. It was also the first gubernatorial election since 1855 in which Colusa County, Mariposa County, and Merced County were not carried by a Democrat. This election ushered in a four decade period of Republican dominance in the state's gubernatorial races that was only interrupted once in 1938.

Progressive Party primary

Early in 1914, it was not immediately clear if Hiram Johnson would run for reelection as governor, run for the upcoming senate seat, or retire from public office. On January 6, 1914, Johnson announced that he would indeed run for reelection under the banner of the Bull Moose Party. Following this announcement, Hiram Johnson and other members of the Bull Moose Party began a massive voter registration campaign, to get potential voters to register as Progressives.

Johnson officially kicked off his campaign in Los Angeles, where he gave a speech to a large crowd at the Simpson Auditorium. There was no party competition against the popular Hiram Johnson, as he ran for governor unopposed and secured his nomination on August 26, 1914. On September 15, the Progressive Party held their convention in Sacramento, where they adopted a party platform. The party supported a protective tariff, non partisan elections, the continuation of the work done by Hiram Johnson in his previous term, and the election of Francis J. Heney for Senate.

Republican primary

Early in the year, John D. Fredericks announced that he was willing to run for governor, but qualified the statement by stating that he was willing to acquiesce to another qualified candidate. The Republican party would fight an uphill battle due to losing the popular Hiram Johnson to the Progressive party. Republican stalwarts met at Santa Barbara in February 1914, to discuss their strategy for the upcoming elections. Phillip A. Stanton and Leroy Wright lead the meeting, which was sponsored by Rudolph Spreckels. At the meeting, Republican leadership decided to "reconstruct" the Republican party after its split with the Progressive Party. Republicans also showed hostility towards California's direct primary law at the meeting and discussed possible candidates for governor including James C. Needham, Henry Gage and John D. Fredericks.

Fredericks spent over $14,000 on his primary campaign, a considerable amount compared to his primary opponents. 12,000 of those dollars were contributed from outside sources.

Democratic primary

In early 1914, the two candidates who were rumored to be aiming for the democratic nomination were John B. Curtin, a state senator from Sonora, and State Senator John B. Sanford of Ukiah. On February 7, 1914, Curtin made his intentions clear when he announced he was seeking the governorship. Later that month, Fred H. Hall of Bakersfield also entered the race, announcing his candidacy on February 28.

Curtin began his primary campaign in the city of Stockton on May 22, 1914. He would later announce his personal platform and political beliefs that he campaigned under. He advocated for the direct election of appointed state positions, such as Directors and Commissioners of state government offices. Additionally, Curtin advocated for state funding of elementary schooling as opposed to county funding, water conservation for farm irrigation purposes, the abolishment of "useless" government positions, and "an economical administration of the affairs of the state".

General election campaign

While the campaigns were traveling across the state to appeal to the voters, there were efforts behind the scenes to stop several candidates from appearing on the general election ballots entirely due to a quirk in the laws regarding California's primary system.

The state Attorney General Ulysses S. Webb, was asked by Frank C. Jordan, the Secretary of State to clarify whether candidates can be on the November ballot, if they lose a primary election. Webb ruled that

"If a registered Progressive, seeking Republican and Democratic nominations, obtains the Progressive nomination, his name will go on the ballot, according to Webb's ruling, even though be loses the Republican and Democratic nominations. On the other hand, if he should lose the Progressive and gain both of the other nominations, he is out of the running and cannot even be an independent candidate."

As a result, members of the Republican Party threatened to file suit against the State if they allowed any progressive to run in the general election if they lost another party's primary, as the law indicated, "a candidate losing any party nomination shall not get on the November ballot."

This greatly concerned members of the Progressive Party, many of whom cross-filed as Republicans, such as John Eshleman and Friend W. Richardson.

General election results

Results by county

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Progressive

* Amador
* Calaveras
* Colusa
* El Dorado
* Glenn
* Inyo
* Kern
* Madera
* Mariposa
* Mendocino
* Merced
* Napa
* Placer
* Sacramento
* Siskiyou
* Solano
* Sonoma
* Tehama
* Tuolumne
* Yolo
* Yuba

Counties that flipped from Progressive to Republican

* Alpine
* Kings
* San Diego
* Sutter

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

* Lake

Notes

References

{{Portal bar, California, Politics

Gubernatorial
1914
California
November 1914 in the United States