Given the conservative mood of California Republicans over the past four years, Senator Thomas Kuchel had become almost an anachronism, the last high-level moderate in a state party dominated by George Murphy and Ronald Reagan. In last week's G.O.P. primary, voters decided to retire Kuchel. By nearly 67,000 votes out of 2,168,117 total cast, he lost the Republican senatorial nomination to California Superintendent of Public Instruction Max Rafferty, a granitic conservative.
While the election clearly marked a step to the right within the state party, Tommy Kuchel, 57, had also brought trouble on...
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