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If Bush were to dump Dan Quayle for Pete Wilson, voters might be forgiven for thinking the new G.O.P. ticket was composed of clones. Drawling a speech on the hustings, the recently elected Governor of California sounds amazingly like the President. When he screws up his face, he even looks a bit like Bush. There is a political resemblance as well: both are moderates distrusted by the Republican right wing.
Conservatives' misgivings might not dissuade Bush from selecting Wilson if Republican strategists concluded that the President's re-election chances were in jeopardy. Because California's population grew 6 million, to more than 29 million during the 1980s, the state will have 54 electoral votes in the 1992 election -- nearly one-fifth the 270 needed to capture the White House. Despite a lack of charisma so glaring that the Los Angeles Times recently dubbed him Robopol, Wilson, 57, knows how to carry California. He has won three tough statewide elections, including a 49%-46% defeat of feisty Democrat Dianne Feinstein in last year's Governor's race.
Wilson would also be an appropriate choice if Bush wants to beckon to the political center outside California. Wilson is a solid supporter of a strong U.S. military and reduced government spending. But his approval of abortion and advocacy of limits on oil drilling would appeal to youngish suburbanites, who, for the first time, may be a majority of voters in next year's race. G.O.P. conservatives are not likely to abandon a Bush-Wilson ticket, but there is a political risk: if it won, Wilson would have to leave California in the hands of a Democratic Lieutenant Governor and the Democratic-led legislature.
Like countless other Californians, Wilson came from someplace else: Chicago born, he grew up in St. Louis. He got his start in politics as a law student at the University of California, Berkeley, where he organized a campus Young Republicans Club. In 1971, after serving five years in the state assembly, Wilson was elected mayor of San Diego. During three terms in city hall, he imposed restrictions on the city's untrammeled growth.
In 1982, Wilson ran for California's then vacant Senate seat and beat ex- Governor Jerry Brown. Wilson was a true-blue Reaganite in backing the Strategic Defense Initiative and Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court. But he also voted to override the President's veto of civil rights legislation.
In his four months as Governor, Wilson has sought to establish himself as a tough fiscal manager. Confronted by a stagnating state economy, a $12.6 billion budget gap, and a drought that has threatened California agriculture, Wilson has proposed slashing welfare payments and state aid to local school systems. The state's voters appear impressed by his activism, even though the success of such proposals remains to be seen.
Wilson's aides say the Governor would not leap to join the ticket, although he makes little effort to conceal his plans to run for President in 1996. But Wilson might be tempted, since the exposure he would gain by serving as the President's standby could help him to achieve that goal.
From Kansas with Plenty of Moxie