1902 California Gubernatorial Election

George Pardee won the election with 48.06% percent of the popular vote and was the Governor of California until 1907.

1902 California gubernatorial election

← 1898 November 4, 1902 1906 →

Nominee George Pardee Franklin Knight Lane Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 146,332 143,783 Percentage 48.06% 47.22%

County results Pardee:      40-50%      50-60%      60-70% Lane:      40-50%      50-60%      60-70%

Governor before election Henry Gage Republican Elected Governor George Pardee Republican

At the beginning of the year 1902, Henry Gage the 20th governor was still favored to be re-elected, if not at least re-nominated. However, he and his administration were embroiled in a series of issues, the most prominent of which was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904. His poor handling of the situation, alongside accusations of being a pawn of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, led to a steep decline in his popularity. Despite this unpopularity, Gage still held a significant amount of power within the State Republican Party, and observers noted that he might force his way through to the Republican Party nomination.

George Pardee sent out word early in the election year that he would be running for the Republican nomination. He would later make his announcement official at a dinner in Oakland on January 27, 1902. At the time Pardee was working as a Regent of the University of California. In the beginning stages of the campaign, many observers doubted the seriousness of Pardee as a candidate, with some thinking that he was a stalking horse candidate, or that his infighting among those in the Republican Party would prove too costly in the primary.

The Republican State Convention would begin in San Jose on April 14, 1902. Governor Gage was still the favorite to win the nomination, despite his political scandals. He received several endorsements from Republican groups, and even received cheers from the crowd at the convention. However, as the convention continued, Gage received more negative press and more delegates were unclear as to whether they would support his renomination. While Gage lead in the initial ballots at the convention, he would steadily lose support, until the sixth and final ballot when George Pardee was nominated, with 515 votes.

At the beginning of the year, the favorites for the democratic nomination were Barney Murphy, Washington Dodge, and Franklin K. Lane. Franklin Knight Lane was the San Francisco City Attorney at the time of his campaign announcement. Despite not being favored to win the nomination at first, Lane would become the favorite to win by August 1902. On September 3, 1902, Lane was officially nominated by the Democratic Party, doing so on the first ballot. At the convention the Democratic Party would develop a progressive platform, which included low tariffs, the direct election of U.S. Senators, and support for the use of referendum, recall, and initiatives on the ballot in California. The party also supported the exclusion of Chinese immigration, as well as the establishment of a mine bureau, and labor bureau.

In September 1902, The Socialist Campaign Committee of California nominated Gideon S. Brower for Governor of California. Brower was born in New York in 1849. He would move to California in 1886, and begin working as a carpenter in Fresno, California. He joined Carpenters Union, 701 and became a member of the Socialist Party shortly after.

On August 28, 1902, the Prohibition Party nominated Theodore D. Kanouse as their candidate for governor. Kanouse was a former Civil War veteran, who served as a musician in the 6th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment and in the 3rd Wisconsin Light Artillery Regiment. After the war he retired to California, where he was active in the temperance movement.

After both parties selected their nominees, newspapers around the State of California stated that Pardee was likely to win. The Santa Cruz Sentinel stated,"Pardee's majority over Lane will be nearer 40,000 than 20,000. This is a Republican year on the Pacific Coast." George Pardee opened his general election campaign with a speech in Oakland, where he stated,

I am glad whenever labor adds another cent to its daily wages, and I rejoice when the laboring man is able to cut off another hour from the time that he spends at his daily toil. I am glad and I rejoice over these things because I know that the more wages the laboring man gets the better citizen he will be, the more able he will be to send his children to school and to our university, and to make of them our future great men. For it is a fact that our greatest men have sprung from the common people. And I rejoice when the hours of labor are shortened because I know that with shorter hours the workingman will have more time to give to his wife and his children. And I know, from my own experience, that the more time a man can give to his wife and children the better man he is. And I believe that shorter hours and higher, wages will give us better citizens and make us all more prosperous. And I am convinced that there is but one way for the working people to gain their ends, and that is by a wise, intelligent and firm organization. There never was a better exemplification of the motto "United we stand, divided we fall" than in the case of the working people.

For this speech, Pardee was praised by standing ovation from a supportive crowd. Franklin K. Lane opened his general election campaign on September 22, 1902, in the city of San Diego. It was there that he addressed a large crowd and stated

I am extremely pleased that I came here to open my campaign. I am pleased that I decided to begin at the bottom and work up as I have done in many other things. I am glad that I have done this because I have gained a larger conception of the state as I came down through the mountains and the valley and broke through the foothills at last onto the inimitable surf line which lands us here. My ideas have grown and I have expanded on the trip and have a larger idea of the state which I would serve. It is a wonderful state, with her high mountains, deep valleys and remarkable scenery, and I feel tonight that I would be a governor for the whole state and not for any section of it. My eye is not fixed on San Francisco as some have said, but I have my eye looking as from Eagle Peak at the Yosemite, looking broadly over the whole state. I would not be a man of the narrow kind. I would not be a governor of the narrow kind.

Both candidates pledged to campaign "cleanly", with no mudslinging to occur between the two campaigns. Lane and Pardee would cross the state, speaking in major cities and looking for support and endorsements from newspapers, civic groups, and labor unions across California. Towards the end of the campaign, and near the date of the general election, many papers believed that the election of George Pardee was likely if not inevitable.