■ California’s June 2 primary was no banner day for vaunted Democratic political machine run by Representatives Henry Waxman and Howard Berman. Their consultancy arm, BAD (Berman-D’Agostino) Campaigns, saw two main clients—state Controller Gray Davis and Representative Mel Levine—nosedive in races for U.S. Senate seats. Defeated Davis groveled in penance for TV spot likening his opponent, Dianne Feinstein, to Leona Helmsley. Levine’s high-rolling strategy of foregoing personal appearances in favor of carpet-bombing the state with TV ads, bombed too. . . . Bruce Herschensohn’s Senate primary win signals rise of a new machine on conservative wing of the Republican Party. Key figures are Herschensohn campaign manager Ken Khachigian, media guru Don Dornan (Congressman Bob’s brother), and direct-mail wiz Brian Lungren. Khachigian and Lungren ran 1990 campaign that elected Dan Lungren (Brian’s brother) attorney general. . . . For all the reported anti-incumbent fury, primary was another insiders’ field-day. Only one of 36 incumbent congressmen who ran lost— Michael Huffington, solidly conservative, but pro-choice, beat Robert Lagomarsino of Santa Barbara. All 17 state Senate incumbents who ran won; ditto for 52 of the 56 Assembly members who sought re-election. “An incumbent who does a good job and has a stable constituency is pretty damn tough to beat,” said Democratic consultant Bill Carrick. . . . Another liberal kicking the habit? Washington State Speaker of the House Joe King, once a self-described “progressive,” changes lyrics now that he’s in Democratic gubernatorial primary. Rapping his party’s traditional responses to poverty, he says, “We need to wring out bureaucratic inefficiencies and waste in state government.” His opponent, Representative Mike Lowry, refuses King’s challenge to pledge opposition to a state income tax. . . . Former Washington Gov. Dixy Lee Ray, scourge of Chicken Little environmentalism, was dispatched to Rio summit by Rush Limbaugh. Back home, she’s in politics again, after a fashion: appointed to board of Peninsula Light Company, which serves her home, Fox Island. . . . Nevada’s business tax is safe for now. Nevadans for Lower Taxes didn’t qualify a ballot measure to kill the tax, said Secretary of State Cheryl Lau. More than 34,000 names were turned in, but the effort fell short of required 32,596 because not enough signers were registered to vote. “We knew this was going to happen when we started getting interference from the [Department of Motor Vehicles],” said Tamara Clark, anti-tax leader. DMV forced petition-gatherers away from front doors of its offices. Supporters of initiative have filed suit complaining that they were unfairly hampered.
“I can never remember when to use ‘who’ and when to use ‘whom. ’ ”
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