Nov. 4, 1964 - Sen. Pierre Salinger (D-Calif.) was knocked out of office by Republican George Murphy, onetime actor and now a Beverly Hills business executive.
The 39-year-old Salinger, who had hoped to parlay his experience as White House press secretary for President Johnson and for the late President Kennedy, steadfastly refused to concede defeat.
But an avalanche of pro-Murphy votes in Los Angeles County knocked down his lingering hopes for a victory.
Returns from 20,171 of the state’s 31,498 precincts gave Murphy 2,123,089 and Salinger 1,942,521.
On the basis of early returns, ABC announced at 9:21 p.m. last night that Murphy had won the race. The Associated Press followed suit soon afterward.
In the Presidential race, returns from 20,642 of California’s 31,498 precincts showed President Johnson with 2,596,432 and Republican Senator Barry Goldwater with 1,754,878.
And cutting across the crazy-quilt pattern of the partisan vote was the strong “yes” vote lead for Prop. 14, the hotly contested initiative measure which would outlaw the state’s anti-discrimination laws on housing and prohibit any such laws in the future without a vote of the people.
California voters also approved Prop. 15, which would ban pay TV, but rejected Prop. 16, which would have established a lottery in California.
The heavy Democratic outpouring for Johnson meant that California, for the first time in 16 years, gave its electoral votes to a Democrat.
And a rich reward it was — 40 electoral votes, highest in the state’s history and second only to New York’s 43 votes in the nation.
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