It was three months before the 1998 general election and Gen. William Lyon was hosting a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren at Lyon’s Coto de Caza estate.
Local executives quizzed Lungren on how he was going to advance business interests in California, but Lungren seemed more interested in the issues of gun control and abortion. The executives were not impressed.
“We thought the guy was running for attorney general,” recalled Tom Tucker, chairman of VC firm JenStar Capital of Newport Beach. “Guns and abortion are such small pieces of the puzzle. Republicans have to stand for more than that. After sitting next to Lungren, it became evident to me that the narrowness wouldn’t win. There needed to be a significant broadening (in the Republican Party) for business interests to be advanced.”
It was then, Tucker said, that he decided to do something. He talked among his friends, found they shared his idea of moving the GOP in a more moderate direction, and thus was born the New Majority Committee.
Tucker said the results of the 1998 elections were profound. The margin of Lungren’s defeat sank many other GOP candidates and it damaged chances to advance business interests in the state legislature. The defeat was so devastating that it appears likely Democrats will control the 2001 re-districting; this could keep Republicans on
