Reagan Elected on Lt. Governor's Mistakes

The California constitution’s quirky definition of the role of the lieutenant governor can create headaches for governors, whether the lieutenant is of the same party or not.

Seeking to replace Edmund "Pat" Brown, Ronald Reagan chose to base part of his attack on Brown’s lieutenant governor, Glenn Anderson.

It was about 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1965, when a highway patrol officer arrested a suspected drunken driver near the Watts section of Los Angeles.

Word of the arrest and rumors of mistreatment by the officers spread quickly through the neighborhood. Within a half-hour more than a thousand people surrounded the scene.

The incident sparked the Watts riots, six days of civil unrest that left more than 30 people dead and more than a thousand injured.

LAPD officials asked to place National Guard troops on standby 22 hours after the first arrest.

With Brown in Greece, Anderson had to decide how to proceed.

Anderson was in Santa Barbara when he was first alerted to the situation on Thursday afternoon. He returned to his home near Los Angeles that evening, but flew to Berkeley early Friday.

It was in Berkeley that afternoon when the formal request for troops was made. Anderson had a National Guard plane fly him first to Sacramento, then back to Los Angeles.

He then went to the governor’s office and ordered the activation. The formal request was made about 11 o’clock in the morning on Friday, Aug. 13. Anderson did not authorize their deployment until six that evening.

The troops did not actually appear on the streets until after 10:00 p.m. on Friday (51 hours after the initial incident).

Almost 14,000 guardsmen were eventually sent to the city streets. It was a rough time for them. Ten members of the guard were injured quelling the disturbance.

A coroner’s inquest found seven people had been killed by Guard troops in justifiable homicides.

In December of 1965, a commission appointed by Gov. Brown to review the response to the riots was very critical of Brown’s running mate: "We believe that this request ... for the National Guard should have been honored without delay."

The panel concluded, "Although we are mindful that it was natural and prudent for the Lieutenant Governor to be cautious in acting in the absence of Governor Brown, we feel that, in this instance, he hesitated when he should have acted."

It was a time of civil unrest in the Golden State. Almost 800 students at the University of California in Berkeley were arrested in December of 1964 during a protest over free speech on campus.

In September of 1965, farmworkers’ union founder Cesar Chavez led a strike against grape growers and organized a 300-mile march to Sacramento.

In his book "Governor Reagan," author Lou Cannon looked back at California going into the 1966 election:

"Many Californians who had previously voted Democratic blamed their grievances on government and no longer believed that they lived in the Golden State of their dreams and memories."

Does this sound familiar?

He continued: "California was a nation-state, to be sure, but a nation-state on the brink, a state hungering for reform and a new sense of direction. ... As a leading Democratic legislator would say in hindsight, California was ripe for Ronald Reagan."

During one of his first speeches as governor in January 1967, Reagan said the mistakes of his predecessors would not be repeated:

"Those with a grievance can seek redress in the courts or legislature, but not in the streets. Lawlessness by the mob, as with the individual, will not be tolerated. We will act firmly and quickly to put down riot or insurrection wherever and whenever the situation requires."

For Glenn Anderson, being scolded in the report dealt his career a minor setback. He admitted his inaction was one factor that cost him and Brown re-election in 1966. In 1968, he was elected to the U.S. House and served 12 terms. He retired in 1992 and died two years later.

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