The "Duke Effect": Governor Tom Bradley

The premise here is that Tom Bradley, the then-current Mayor of Los Angeles, actually won the 1982 California governor's race, defeating Republican candidate (and winner in OTL) George Deukejian. How would Bradley have fared as Governor during the 1980s?
 
Well, I did some research on Bradley when I had him as the first Black POTUS in Out of the Blue, but mine was based on the premise, that he runs for the Senate in '78, he is chosen by the newly ascendent President Cliff Finch in the wake of Teddy's assassination, and then when Finch dies of a massive heart attack in '86, the old man gets in...later to win an incredibly narrow victory in '88 over Howard Baker:D

But If he does win the Governorship in '82, I think it could kind of be a mixed bag. Bradley's been pro business but im not sure if he would go to such drastic measures as vetoing measures for tax hikes and state spending like the Duke did. He would definatley let A.B.1(the first bill to ban discriminration against Gays and Lesbians) which could possibly for more progress in LGBT rights down the road. But if he's able to pull Cali out the recession it was in during that time, I think he very well could be a strong candidate in 1988 if he wanted to run for the Presidency.

Most considered him more of a Ford rather than a Kennedy in terms of his personal charisma, which could be a problem if he wanted to muscle our favorite egotistical Jesse Jackson out of the race. But I think he could if hymietown was leaked to the press ala IOTL. Running as a moderate Governor of a Big State, will already contrast him strongly against Dukakis, and I think looking back at how close Jackson's numbers were...that Bradley could have won the nomination. The Presidency however is a different matter
 
Well, Bush the Elder won partly because of the infamous "Willie Horton" ad that was used against Dukakis (although Dukakis probably had the deck stacked against him from the beginning). So, Bush would have had to run a very different campaign against what would have been the first African American nominee twenty years before Obama.
 
Well, Bush the Elder won partly because of the infamous "Willie Horton" ad that was used against Dukakis (although Dukakis probably had the deck stacked against him from the beginning). So, Bush would have had to run a very different campaign against what would have been the first African American nominee twenty years before Obama.
He would have gone after him for being black. Lee Atwater would have exploited that for all it was worth in striking fear into the Southern base and blue collar base. He would probably try to blur it a little so someone could argue it wasn't racist, but it still would have been basically "He's black, look at all this Liberal and anti-white stuff he could do. Vote Bush". I'd expect affirmative action brought into play, probably some mention that he'd be an extreme Liberal, maybe something like since his grandparents were slaves, he'd have an axe to grind with white America and perhaps that he'd bankrupt the country with reparations (which would be brilliant; he'd turn off white America if they could convince them of that, but if he denied it, it could hurt him with black America), that his reluctance to condemn Louis Farrakhan meant he was favorable to extremist black nationalism and anti-white-ness (I don't know a term for that) and extreme Islam, etc. Lee Atwater was as crooked as a 3 dollar bill; he'd have done all that and thrown in the kitchen sink.
 
Bush would've painted him as a black Dukakis. Was Bradley a DLC Dem or a regular centre-leftist? No Democrat will be left standing after Atwater's Blitzkrieg.
 
Bush would've painted him as a black Dukakis. Was Bradley a DLC Dem or a regular centre-leftist?
Liberal. But, if he ran in 1988, that was kinda the last stand of the Liberal Democrats. And it was winnable (people thought the country was on the wrong track by 1988, and the perception of Reagan's legacy was lukewarm), if the campaign were to be run well, which would entail straightforward messages, taking on the mudslinging, and throwing that mud back at the Bush campaign.

If 1992, Bradley could cool his positions down to be presentable to a newly more conservative Democratic party.
 
He'd be '75 in in 1992...So if he's going to run, it's gotta be in 1988, and If Jackson is out of the race, he has a pretty decent shot I think:D
 
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