Ronald Wilson Reagan : biography
California’s governor 1967-1975
Californian republicans were impressed with political views and charisma of Reagan after he had made this speech, and in 1966 they nominated him as a candidate to the post of California’s governor. He won elections and got more votes than Edmund Pat-Brown, who tried to have the third term.
On the 3d of January in 1976 he made an oath. In 1988 Regan explained that he chose that exact time, because his predecessor Edmund Braun had to fill lists of assignments and judges in last days as a governor. Professor Marselo Trucci, a sociologist of the Eastern University of Michigan, who studied Reagan’s interest to astronomy, commented this explanation as “absurd”, because Reagan made this decision six weeks earlier, the main reason was his friend and astrologist Carol Riter’s advice.
During his first term Reagan froze government employment and permitted taxes’ increase to keep balance of budget. Soon after start of his authority Reagan nominated himself at primary elections from Republican Party on President elections of 1968, counting to deprive Nixon off South’s support and become a compromise candidate, even if Nixon or Nilson Rokefeller (the second popular candidate among republicans) got enough votes to win during the first round of elections on the convection of the Republican party. But Nixon got 692 votes, 25 more than it was needed. Rockfeller took the second place, and Reagan the third place.
Reagan took part in conflicts with different movements of protest, these conflicts were the most intense of the whole epoch. On the 15th of May in 1969 during the protests in the Berkly park Reagan sent police to calm down protestants. This conflict became known as “Bloody Tuesday”. Then Reagan called 2200 national guardians to occupy Berkly for two weeks.
At the beginning of 1967 national debates on abortion problems started. A democratic senator from California Antony Beilenson advanced the law “about therapeutic abortion” to decrease number of “abortions, happened in back rooms”, which took place in California. Legislators of the state sent this bill to Reagan and after several days of thinking he signed it. As a result there were two million abortions in the state, mostly because of the condition of this law, which allowed to make abortion in order to save mother’s life. Before signing Reagan had been on the post only for four years, after he said, that if he had been more experienced governor, he wouldn’t have signed that bill. He admitted his responsibility for results of this bill and announced, that he had been for movement for rights of the unborn children. Later he formed his negative position according to abortion problem, there were a lot of his quotes on this question.
After the messing up attempt to recall Reagan in 1968 he was reelected in 1970, won a victory over a distinguished Californian Democratic politician Jess Marvin Unrach, who had a nickname “Big Daddy”. Regan decided not to nominate himself on the third term. One of the greatest disappointments on the post of a governor was a decision of the Supreme Court of California on the case “the state against Anderson”, according to which the highest possible punishment in California was life imprisonment, and all death sentences, which had been pronounced before 1972, were considered invalid. Reagan himself was for meitenance of the state laws about death sentences, he supported the use of death warrants very actively. The only execution, that took palce during his being a governor, was the execution in a gas camera of the San-Quentin prison, Aaron Mitchel was executed on the 12 of April in 1967.
During his being a governor Reagan’s political views were finally formed, and he adhered to them during his further political career and his being the president. During his campaign Reagan was against the idea of government of welfare. He firmly supported the ideal of republicans about decrease of governmental control on economics, including the struggle with unwarranted taxes of federal government.
