Wilson won the Republican nomination for Governor of California to succeed two-term Republican governor George Deukmejian, who chose not to seek a third term in 1990. In the general election, he defeated Democratic former San Francisco Mayor
Dianne Feinstein, who would go on to be elected to Wilson's former U.S. Senate seat
two years later. In response to the April 1991 proposal, the
Los Angeles Times wrote of Wilson, In July 1991, the Senate voted 28 to 9 in favor of a bipartisan tax plan that would have increased taxes on the wealthiest Californians, increased the corporate tax rate, and imposed a tax increase on telecommunication services by 2%. Wilson returned the budget bill to the legislature without his signature, revoking a prior commitment to vetoing the measure. On July 12, 1991, Wilson signed a bill mandating that parents neglecting to pay child support could be levied stiff fines and potential suspensions of business and professional licenses. The legislation was intended to address an increasingly serious cause of poverty among children and women in the state at a time when Californians collectively owed $2 billion (equivalent to $ in ) per year in unpaid child support. On July 24, 1991, Wilson signed a bill requiring mass transit rail lines to be built underground in the event construction took place in the residential neighborhoods of North Hollywood and Van Nuys. The bill, requested by the residents of those neighborhoods, was aimed at easing "homeowners' fear of noise from ground-level trains running along a proposed rail route that paralleled Chandler and Victory boulevards". Less than a year into his first term as governor, Wilson vetoed AB 101, a bill written to prohibit
employment discrimination based on
sexual orientation in the state. Wilson feared that the bill would lead to more lawsuits and make California less economically competitive . The veto was met with
protests in San Francisco that included demonstrations during Wilson's subsequent public appearances and speeches. Wilson was the driving force behind the 1996 legislation that deregulated the state's energy market, which was the first energy utilities deregulation in the U.S. and aggressively pushed by companies such as
Enron. leaving state workers without paychecks from July until September, when the California Supreme Court forced the Governor and the legislature to agree to terms that ended the sixty-three-day stand-off. On February 22, 1993, Wilson issued an executive order banning smoking in a majority of state buildings excluding only "buildings controlled by the courts, the Legislature or the state's two university systems". The order was set to take effect December 31 of that year. Wilson said secondhand smoke "threatens the health of non-smoking state employees" and alleged workplace smoking increased the cost of cleaning, damaged furniture and carpets, and heightened the chances of starting fires. Despite this, in a leaked Philip Morris memo, the company's chief executive, Hamish Maxwell, said, "You will be pleased to know that Pete is still 'pro-tobacco.'" His move to revoke Proposition 99, a $114 million dollar voter-approved bill to tax cigarette companies to research and educate on the effects of tobacco, while also shutting down a highly effective anti-tobacco ad with footage of tobacco executives testifying to Congress that nicotine was not addictive which also a prompted defamation lawsuit against it), was claimed to be illegal and caused multiple lawsuits, while also being criticized as serving the tobacco lobby’s interests. While he claimed to take no funding personally in response to allegations of being pro-tobacco, he collected over $100,000 from a New York fund-raising dinner organized by Phillip Morris. While Phillip Morris didn't directly fund his campaign, they were major funders of the California Republican Party which he led. The leaked memo was in response to worries over Wilson's rejection of direct campaign donations. Maxwell claimed to have been told by Wilson over a phone call that this was to "protect Hamish and himself," being assured that it was not due to a lack of support. In late 1993, Wilson traveled to Asia to promote Californian goods and investment opportunities for overseas investors. Wilson's six-day tour was also marked by his insistence on creating export-oriented jobs. Wilson was re-elected to a second gubernatorial term in 1994, gaining 55% of the vote in his race against Democratic
State Treasurer Kathleen Brown, daughter of former California Governor
Pat Brown. According to one study, Wilson exploited anti-immigrant sentiment to win re-election. Wilson spoke at the funeral services for former First Lady
Pat Nixon in 1993 and former President
Richard M. Nixon in 1994 at the
Nixon Library in
Yorba Linda, California. Two years later, Wilson became, to date, the most recent governor to speak at a California gubernatorial funeral, that of former Governor Pat Brown. For most of his time as governor, Wilson reduced per-capita infrastructure spending for California, much as he had done as the
mayor of San Diego. Many construction projects – most notably highway expansion/improvement projects – were severely hindered or delayed, while other maintenance and construction projects were abandoned completely.
Term limit laws passed by voters as Proposition 140, and championed by Wilson in 1990, prohibited Wilson from running for re-election to a third term. At the end of his time in office, Wilson left California with a $16 billion budget surplus (equivalent to $ in ). He was succeeded by then-
lieutenant governor Gray Davis as governor. A September 1998
Los Angeles Times poll found 55% of registered voters in California had a favorable view of Wilson's job performance.
Welfare On December 14, 1991, in an address to Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Wilson criticized the Democratic leaders of the state legislature for their opposition to his budget-balancing plan and "spent most of his hour at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles railing against the state's entitlement programs – including education and Medi-Cal, but especially Aid to Families with Dependent Children and other welfare programs". On January 8, 1993, Wilson submitted his 1993 spending plan, advocating an immediate cut in welfare grants by 4.2% that would be followed 6 months later by a larger reduction of 15% to be directed at recipient families with an able-bodied adult. The twin cuts would reduce California's standing as the 5th highest benefit granting state to the 12th. By the end of his first term, Wilson allied with members of the state legislature that supported the continuation of recession-inspired cuts to welfare benefits. A bill imposing the continued reduction of benefits was passed by 2 committees of the Republican-majority assembly. H. D. Palmer maintained Wilson's priorities rested in other areas and though admitting to an improvement in revenues, disclosed that "the governor does not believe that the first call on those revenues should go to double-digit cost-of-living increases for welfare recipients." Wilson's second inaugural address featured a proclamation that the administration would initiate welfare reform: In his 1997 State of the State address, Wilson criticized welfare recipients and charged the program with creating conditions producing out-of-wedlock births, the lack of paternal involvement in the lives of children, and lifelong ramifications to children caused by the absence of fathers. Under Wilson's welfare overhaul package, mothers would have to go to work after two years and they would only be eligible to return to welfare a year after that. Additionally, eligibility for welfare would only last for five years. Paternity for each child would also have to be established for the mother to begin receiving benefits.
Immigration & Proposition 187 As governor, Wilson was closely associated with
California Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit
illegal immigrants from using health care, public education, and other social services in the U.S. State of California. Voters passed the proposed law as a referendum in November 1994; it was the first time that a state had passed legislation related to immigration, customarily a federal matter. The law was challenged in a court, found unconstitutional by a federal court in 1998, and never went into effect. Passage of Proposition 187 reflected state residents' concerns about illegal immigration into the United States. Opponents believed the proposition was discriminatory and unfairly targeted children, while turning tens of thousands of adults into government informants; supporters generally insisted that their concerns were economic: that the state could not afford to provide social services to so many who entered the state illegally or overstayed their visas. Wilson himself would state that the policy was "about supporting the people who came here the right way". Opponents of Proposition 187 cited its passage as the cause of a long-term decline in support for the Republican Party in California. Noting a rapid increase in Latino participation in California elections, some analysts cite Wilson and the Republican Party's embrace of Proposition 187 as a cause of the failure of the party to win statewide elections. Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger is the only Republican to win a California gubernatorial, senatorial, or presidential election since 1994, via a
unique 2003 recall election and then a
re-election in 2006. Since 1995 the following states have had similar ballot initiatives or laws passed: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.
Policies on crime Wilson led efforts to enact "tough on crime" measures and signed into law the "
Three Strikes" (25 years to life for repeat offenders) As a result of the Three Strikes Law, 4,431 offenders have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 25 years to life for their offenses. The law required the construction of new prisons, leading some to question the influence the California Correctional Peace Officers Association had over his campaign, as that prison guard lobbying organization gave $1.47 million (equivalent to $ in ) to Wilson's gubernatorial campaigns. On September 26, 1995, Wilson signed a bill authorizing the possible use of capital punishment toward any individual who committed a murder during a carjacking or killed a juror. Wilson said the law was the result of 4 years' worth of attempts on his part to toughen the laws against carjacking: "This bill sends an unmistakable message to gang bangers: If you take someone's life while committing a cowardly carjacking, you can expect to pay for your crime with your own life." Wilson also supported the resumption of capital punishment in California, after a 25-year moratorium, and he signed the death warrant for the execution of child-murderer
Robert Alton Harris. Harris was executed in 1992. A total of five people were executed during his administration (the first 2 in the
gas chamber, the latter 3 by
lethal injection).
Energy deregulation Wilson supported deregulation of the energy industry in California during his administration due to heavy lobbying efforts by
Enron. Nevertheless, during the California
energy crisis caused by companies such as Enron, Wilson authored an article titled "What California Must Do" that blamed Gray Davis for not building enough power plants. Wilson defended his record of power plant construction and claimed that between 1985 and 1998, 23 plants were certified and 18 were built in California. Historians have suggested that Wilson's willingness to deregulate and commoditize California energy was also a major cause of the subsequent
2000–2001 California electricity crisis. ==1996 presidential campaign==