The cover of the New Republic may have been stretching things a bit (THIS MAN CONTROLS CALIFORNIA, it blared), but Ron Unz is a pretty confident guy these days. After convincing California voters to abolish bilingual education with last June's Prop. 227 ("Seizing the Initiative," May/June 1998), the maverick Republican began using his growing political savvy to push for reform of campaign finance laws. And in October he announced his candidacy for a U.S. Senate run against Dianne Feinstein in 2000.
A self-made software-company millionaire who works 16-hour days from his home-office in Palo Alto, Unz already has spent about $750,000 of his own money getting a new initiative on the March 2000 ballot. Dubbed "the California voters bill of rights," it calls for voluntary spending limits, free broadcast time for candidates, a ban on corporate contributions, immediate Internet disclosure of campaign donations, and caps on individual and corporate contributions. Much of the political establishment is already lining up against the measure, although John McCain, the Arizona senator running for the GOP presidential nomination, has endorsed it. "There's a tremendous disgust with the corrupt system," Unz says. "The odds are this initiative will win."
Meanwhile, Unz, 38, is reveling in the success of the new system of English immersion imposed by Prop. 227. The test scores of limited-English students have improved statewide. Major newspapers that once editorialized against the change have run stories about its surprising results. "Even bilingual-ed teachers who fought the initiative say it's working pretty well," says Unz, who spent 11 quarters in a Stanford physics PhD program in the late 1980s.
As a Senate candidate, Unz says he'll focus on issues other candidates are afraid to touch, especially campaign finance abuse. "Sen. Feinstein is a strong incumbent, and I have no illusions about being the underdog in this campaign," he says. "But I do believe that she can be beaten." But first, he'll have to win the GOP nomination; he may face U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell, a Stanford law professor, in the primary.
