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Wilson was hurt by the revelations that after separating from his wife in 1981, he lived rent-free in apartments provided by a wealthy San Diego businessman and that in 1980, thanks to a tax shelter, he paid no federal income levies. Wilson also hurt himself by suggesting that workers under 45 make smaller contributions than older workers to Social Security and that federal judges, including U.S. Supreme Court Justices, be elected.
But Wilson had a couple of things going for him: a basically moderate record as the mayor of San Diego for eleven years, and, oddly enough, his bland and humorless personality. After Brown, that seemed to be just what the voters wanted. On Election Day, Mayor Wilson beat the Governor, 51% to 45%.
NEW JERSEY. No politician in the state is as celebrated as Millicent Fenwick. A pipe-smoking millionaire Republican of aristocratic mien who is partial to pearls and expensive tweed suits, Fenwick, 72, has attracted national attention more for her personality and integrity than for her achievements during eight years in the House. She is, literally, a character: Fenwick was the inspiration for Lacey Davenport, the wealthy, slightly dizzy Congresswoman in the Doonesbury comic strip. Polls and pols alike predicted that Fenwick would handily beat Democrat Frank Lautenberg, or, as she called him, "my dear opponent." But her dear opponent won the election, 52% to 48%.
Lautenberg, 58, a self-made millionaire who helped build a five-man business-machine firm into a company 16,000 employees strong and grossing $669 million last year, had never run for public office before. In a state where the main issue was jobs, the Democrat tied Fenwick to the Reagan economic programs by reminding TV viewers of her votes for the President's budget cuts.
In the general election, Lautenberg spent $3.25 million, including $2.3 million of his own money. Fenwick paid out $1.4 million, with $450,000 from her own purse. Both agreed that money, much of it lavished on slick TV ads, made the difference. Said Lautenberg cheerfully: "I couldn't have won without it."
VIRGINIA. In the race to succeed Harry F. Byrd Jr., the crusty Independent retiring after three terms, the views of the candidates on one major issue were directly opposed. Paul Trible, 35, a three-term Republican Congressman, had voted for every piece of Reagan's economic program and staunchly supported the President. Lieutenant Governor Richard Davis blamed Reaganomics for causing a "depression, not a recession." If the contest was a test of Administration policies, Reagan passed, but just barely: Trible scraped by Davis, 51% to 49%. Proclaimed the winner: "This is a victory of philosophy, of conservative principles of government."