Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 was the governor

Governor of California

The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...

 of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

for two terms, once in 1967 and again in 1971. He left office in 1975, declining to run for a third term. Robert Finch

Robert Finch

Robert Hutchison Finch was a Republican politician from La Canada Flintridge, California. Born in Tempe, Arizona, he was the son of Robert L. Finch, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives....

, Edwin Reinecke

Edwin Reinecke

Edwin Reinecke, who went by Ed Reinecke, is a retired California politician. He was born in Medford, Oregon, and served in the Navy during World War II. He graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1942 and then attended the California Institute of Technology, where he completed a degree in...

, and John L. Harmer

John L. Harmer

John L. Harmer is a former California politician who served in the California State Senate as a Republican from 1966 to 1974. He went on to serve briefly as the 40th Lieutenant Governor of California from 1974 to 1975, after the resignation of Edwin Reinecke on October 4, 1974. Departing Governor...

 served as lieutenant governors

Lieutenant Governor of California

The Lieutenant Governor of California is a statewide constitutional officer elected separately from the Governor who serves as the "vice-executive" of California. The Lieutenant Governor of California is elected to serve a four year term and can serve a maximum of two terms...

 over the course of Reagan's time as governor.

Nomination and election

California Republicans were impressed with Reagan's political views and charisma after his "Time for Choosing" speech, and nominated him as the Republican party candidate for Governor in 1966.

Reagan's campaign emphasized two main themes: "to send the welfare bums back to work", and regarding burgeoning anti-war and anti-establishment student protests

Free Speech Movement

The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and...

 at the University of California at Berkeley, "to clean up the mess at Berkeley". He was elected, defeating two-term governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown

Pat Brown

Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown, Sr. was the 32nd Governor of California, serving from 1959 to 1967, and the father of current Governor of California Jerry Brown.-Background:...

, and was sworn in on January 2, 1967 at 9 minutes past midnight. In 1988, Reagan explained that this time was chosen because his predecessor, Governor Brown, "had been filling up the ranks of appointments and judges" in the days before his term ended. Professor Marcello Truzzi, a sociologist at Eastern Michigan University who studied the Reagans' interest in astrology

Astrology

Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...

, regarded this explanation as "preposterous", as the decision to be sworn in at that odd time of day was made six weeks earlier, and was based on advice from Reagan's long-time friend, the astrologer Carroll Righter

Carroll Righter

Carroll Righter was known as the "astrologer to the stars." He wrote a syndicated daily advice column for 166 newspapers around the world, and was reputed to be an advisor to Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Righter, who liked to be called the "gregarious Aquarius,' began doing charts for Hollywood...

.

Reagan was elected to his first term

California gubernatorial election, 1966

The California gubernatorial election, 1966 was held on November 8, 1966. The election was a contest between incumbent Governor Pat Brown, the Democratic candidate, and actor Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate. Reagan mobilized conservative voters and defeated Brown in a...

 as Governor of California on November 8, 1966 with 57.65% of the vote.

First term (1967–1971)

In his first term, he froze government hiring and approved tax hikes to balance the budget. Shortly after the beginning of his term, Reagan tested the presidential waters in 1968

United States presidential election, 1968

The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial United States presidential election. Coming four years after Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson won in a historic landslide, it saw Johnson forced out of the race and Republican Richard Nixon elected...

 as part of a "Stop Nixon" movement, hoping to cut into Nixon's Southern support and be a compromise candidate if neither Nixon nor second-place Nelson Rockefeller

Nelson Rockefeller

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...

 received enough delegates to win on the first ballot at the Republican convention

1968 Republican National Convention

The 1968 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Dade County, Florida, from August 5 to August 8, 1968....

. However, by the time of the convention Nixon had 692 delegate votes, 25 more than he needed to secure the nomination, followed by Rockefeller with Reagan in third place.

Reagan was involved in high-profile conflicts with the protest movements of the era. On May 15, 1969, during the People's Park protests at UC Berkeley, Reagan sent the California Highway Patrol

California Highway Patrol

The California Highway Patrol is a law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and also acts as the state police....

 and other officers to quell the protests, in an incident that became known as "Bloody Thursday". Reagan then called out 2,200 state National Guard

United States National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...

 troops to occupy the city of Berkeley for two weeks in order to crack down on the protesters. When the Symbionese Liberation Army

Symbionese Liberation Army

The Symbionese Liberation Army was an American self-styled left-wing urban militant group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army...

 kidnapped Patty Hearst

Patty Hearst

Patricia Campbell Hearst , now known as Patricia Campbell Hearst Shaw, is an American newspaper heiress, socialite, actress, kidnap victim, and convicted bank robber....

 in Berkeley and demanded the distribution of food to the poor, Reagan joked, "It's just too bad we can't have an epidemic of botulism

Botulism

Botulism also known as botulinus intoxication is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by botulinum toxin which is metabolic waste produced under anaerobic conditions by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and affecting a wide range of mammals, birds and fish...

."

Early in 1967, the national debate on abortion was beginning. Democratic California state senator Anthony Beilenson introduced the "Therapeutic Abortion Act", in an effort to reduce the number of "back-room abortions" performed in California. The State Legislature sent the bill to Reagan's desk where, after many days of indecision, he signed it. About two million abortions would be performed as a result, mostly because of a provision in the bill allowing abortions for the well-being of the mother. Reagan had been in office for only four months when he signed the bill, and stated that had he been more experienced as governor, it would not have been signed. After he recognized what he called the "consequences" of the bill, he announced that he was pro-life

Pro-life

Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...

. He maintained that position later in his political career, writing extensively about abortion.

Reagan wrote that many supported him during the campaign because he was running against the establishment, but once he got elected, he became the establishment. He made addresses to people which were similar to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's fireside chats

Fireside chats

The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944.-Origin of radio address:...

 to increase his popularity.

Second term (1971–1975)

Despite an unsuccessful attempt to recall him in 1968, Reagan was re-elected in 1970

California gubernatorial election, 1970

The California gubernatorial election, 1970 was held on November 3, 1970. The incumbent, Republican Ronald Reagan, won re-election over Democrat and Speaker of the Assembly Jesse "Big Daddy" Unruh...

, defeating "Big Daddy" Jesse M. Unruh on November 3 with 52.85% of the vote. He chose not to seek a third term in the following election cycle. One of Reagan's greatest frustrations in office concerned capital punishment

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

, which he strongly supported. His efforts to enforce the state's laws in this area were thwarted when the Supreme Court of California

Supreme Court of California

The Supreme Court of California is the highest state court in California. It is headquartered in San Francisco and regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts.-Composition:...

 issued its People v. Anderson

California v. Anderson

The People of the State of California v. Robert Page Anderson, 493 P.2d 880, 6 Cal. 3d 628 , was a landmark case in the state of California that outlawed the use of capital punishment...

decision, which invalidated all death sentences issued in California prior to 1972, though the decision was later overturned by a constitutional amendment. The only execution during Reagan's governorship was on April 12, 1967, when Aaron Mitchell's sentence was carried out by the state in San Quentin's gas chamber.

Reagan wrote that the tax increase, in combination with the spending cuts, had created revenue surpluses, so he gave four tax rebates to the people, which he claimed to have amounted to over $5 billion.

During his Governorship, Reagan was sent to many nations by Nixon as a special envoy.

Governorship legacy

Reagan's terms as governor helped to shape the policies he would pursue in his later political career as president. By campaigning on a platform of sending "the welfare bums back to work", he spoke out against the idea of the welfare state. He also strongly advocated the Republican ideal of less government regulation of the economy, including that of undue federal taxation.