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The Goldwater drive was concentrated in Southern California, particularly in Los Angeles County, where nearly 40% of the state's Republicans reside. Volunteers swarmed through the county two weeks before the election, asked more than 300,000 G.O.P. voters how they felt about Barry. The response was immensely encouraging, but just to make sure the voters were leveling, the Goldwater workers phoned a number of them, identified themselves as Rockefeller people, and asked if "the Governor can count on your support in the primary." A good 90% held fast to Goldwater.
In the final days, the volunteer organization was expanded. Official sheets of voters' names, supplied by the state, were programmed into computers, and sheets were made listing G.O.P. voters by street, the side of the street, and the house address. "Community Chairmen" handed out cardboard information kits, with detailed maps and names of known Goldwater voters circled in red. The volunteers made at least two complete door-to-door checks on election day to make sure that the voters had gone to the polls.
The Payoff. As the returns poured in that night, it was immediately apparent that the massive Southern California drive had paid off. Rockefeller forces had hoped to hold Barry to a 100,000 vote margin in Southern California, then more than make up the deficit in the northern part of the state, especially the San Francisco Bay area. But Goldwater took Los Angeles County by 158,000 votes, adjacent Orange County by 49,000 and San Diego County by 16,000.
Rocky could not overcome that lead, and just 22 minutes after the polls in Southern California closed, CBS-TV programmed its vote-analysis computer and declared Goldwater the winner with 53% of the vote. As of that time, the polling places were still open in northern California, and CBS suffered a few bad moments when the later returns began to arrive and showed Rocky closing the gap and even moving ahead. All the while, NBC, locked in hot competition with CBS, quite nervously stuck by its position that the race was close, and refused to name a winner. In the end it was NBC's less venturesome attitude that gave the viewer a better understanding of how close the race was.
Goldwater's California win was impressive in light of the powerful opposition, but it was about as narrow as a win can be. To some observers it gave further proof that Barry is a poor vote getter. Indeed, his record in this year's previous primaries was unimpressive. He lost to Lodge's write-in candidacy in New Hampshire. He won Illinois, but his only on-the-ballot opponent, Maine's Margaret Chase Smith, got 26% of the vote. He won Indiana, but Harold Stassen, of all people, got 26%. He won Nebraska, but write-ins gave Nixon 31.4%. He all but withdrew from Oregon, leaving Rocky as the only active candidate in the field.