Show Originally Aired: 8/12/2003 CALL 1 800-423-TALK
Crazy in California
Dozens of California governor candidates crowd the candidate filing at the Los Angeles County Hall of Records office. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) Email to friend
California confounds. The state produces some of the world's best wine, and deadliest weapons. And its fertile political soil has sprouted movements as diverse as the conservatism of Ronald Reagan and the radicalism of the Black Panthers. California's history runs like a San Andreas fault of booms and busts.
First there were the Gold and Silver rushes. Then came the military expansions of WW II and the Cold War which brought millions of people running to the coast and tripled the state's population. Then there was high tech burp in Silicon Valley. California is famed for drawing brave souls, in search of freedom and riches, and like the new crop of would-be governors blooming like wildflowers, people hungry to be seen as well as heard.
