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Governor of California from 1991 to 1999 For other people named Pete Wilson, see Pete Wilson (disambiguation).

Pete Wilson
Wilson in 1993
36th Governor of California
In office
January 7, 1991 – January 4, 1999
Lieutenant
Preceded byGeorge Deukmejian
Succeeded byGray Davis
United States Senator
from California
In office
January 3, 1983 – January 7, 1991
Preceded byS. I. Hayakawa
Succeeded byJohn Seymour
29th Mayor of San Diego
In office
December 6, 1971 – January 3, 1983
Preceded byFrancis Earl Curran
Succeeded byRoger Hedgecock
Member of the California State Assembly
from the 76th district
In office
January 2, 1967 – December 5, 1971
Preceded byClair Burgener
Succeeded byBob Wilson
Personal details
BornPeter Barton Wilson
(1933-08-23) August 23, 1933 (age 91)
Lake Forest, Illinois, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouses
  • Betty Robertson ​ ​(m. 1968; div. 1981)​
  • Gayle Edlund ​(m. 1983)​
EducationYale University (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (JD)
Signature
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Marine Corps
Years of service1955–1958
RankFirst lieutenant
Unit1st Marine Division

Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from California from 1983 to 1991 and as the 36th governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the 29th mayor of San Diego from 1971 to 1983.

Born in Lake Forest, Illinois, Wilson graduated from the UC Berkeley School of Law after serving in the United States Marine Corps. He established a legal practice in San Diego and campaigned for Republicans such as Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater. Wilson won election to the California State Assembly in 1966 and became the mayor of San Diego in 1971. He held that office until 1983, when he became a member of the United States Senate. In 1982, he defeated then-incumbent Governor Jerry Brown to become the United States senator from California. In the Senate, Wilson supported the Strategic Defense Initiative and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, while he opposed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990.

Wilson resigned from the Senate after winning the 1990 California gubernatorial election. As governor, Wilson signed a three-strikes law and supported energy deregulation and term limits. He was also an advocate for California Proposition 187, which established a state-run citizenship screening system with the intention of preventing illegal immigrants from using social services. Wilson won reelection in the 1994 gubernatorial election. He sought the Republican nomination in the 1996 United States presidential election but dropped out of the race before the primaries began.

Wilson retired from public office after serving two terms as governor. Since leaving office, he has worked for several businesses and has been affiliated with several other organizations. He is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. As of to date, Wilson's 1988 re-election is the last time Republicans won a Senate election in California.

Early life

Peter Barton Wilson was born on August 23, 1933, in Lake Forest, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago, at the height of the Great Depression. His parents were James Boone Wilson and Margaret (Callaghan) Wilson. His father sold college fraternity jewelry to work his way through University of Illinois, and later became a successful advertising executive. The Wilson family settled in St. Louis, Missouri, when Pete was in elementary school. He then attended the private, non-sectarian preparatory middle school John Burroughs (grades 7–9) in Ladue, and then St. Louis Country Day School, an exclusive private high school, where he won an award in his senior year for combined scholarship, athletics, and citizenship. In the fall of 1951, Pete Wilson enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he received a United States Navy Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship, majored in English, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree. In his junior year he elected to join the Marine Corps upon his graduation.

After graduating from Yale, Wilson served for three years in the United States Marine Corps as an infantry officer, eventually becoming a platoon commander. Upon completion of his Marine Corps service, Wilson earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in June 1962.

In 1962, while working as an Advance Man for the Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard M. Nixon, Wilson got to know Herb Klein, one of Nixon's top aides. Klein suggested that Wilson might do well in Southern California politics, so in 1963, Wilson moved to San Diego.

After passing the bar exam on his fourth attempt, Wilson began his practice as a criminal defense attorney in San Diego, but he found such work to be low-paying and personally repugnant. He later commented to the Los Angeles Times, "I realized I couldn't be a criminal defense lawyer – because most of the people who do come to you are guilty." Wilson switched to a more conventional law practice and continued his activity in local politics, working for Barry Goldwater's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1964. Wilson's liking for politics and managing the day-to-day details of the political process was growing. He put in long hours for the Goldwater campaign, earning the friendship of local Republican boosters so necessary for a political career, and in 1966, at the age of thirty-three, he ran for, and won a seat in the California State Assembly, succeeding Clair Burgener.

Wilson was re-elected to the Assembly in 1968 and 1970, and in 1971 was elected mayor of San Diego.

Mayor of San Diego

Mayor Wilson (second from right) with U.S. President Richard Nixon, First Lady Pat Nixon, and others including Interior Secretary Rogers Morton and Counselor to the President Donald Rumsfeld in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, September 1972

Wilson served three terms as mayor of San Diego, from 1971 to 1983, winning election by a 2:1 margin each time. During his three terms he restructured the San Diego City Council, reorganized the planning and civil service commissions, instituted campaign finance reform, and promoted the redevelopment of downtown San Diego. He also helped to keep Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres in the city, helping to persuade local millionaire Ray Kroc to buy the team.

The 1972 Republican National Convention had been scheduled to take place in San Diego in August 1972. However, in May 1972 the Republican National Committee voted to move the convention to Miami because of a scandal involving a donation to the event by ITT Corporation, as well as concerns about the proposed venue (the San Diego Sports Arena) and the adequacy of hotel space. Wilson proclaimed the week of the convention to be America's Finest City Week, which became an annual event and gave rise to San Diego's unofficial nickname.

In 1972, Wilson recruited Clarence M. Pendleton Jr. to head the Model Cities Program in San Diego. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Pendleton to chair the United States Commission on Civil Rights, a position that he held from 1981 until his death in San Diego in 1988.

United States Senator from California (1983–1991)

Pete Wilson as U.S. Senator

In 1982, Wilson won the Republican primary in California to replace the retiring U.S. Senator S. I. Hayakawa. Wilson's Democratic opponent was the outgoing two-term Governor Jerry Brown. Wilson was known as a fiscal conservative who supported the property-tax limiting Proposition 13, although Wilson had opposed the measure while mayor of San Diego. However, Brown ran on his gubernatorial record of building the largest state budget surpluses in California history. Both Wilson and Brown were moderate-to-liberal on social issues, including support for abortion rights and environmentalism. The election was expected to be close, with Brown holding a slim lead in most of the polls leading up to Election Day. Wilson hammered away at Brown's appointment of California Chief Justice Rose Bird, using this to portray himself as tougher on crime than Brown was. Brown's late entry into the 1980 Democratic presidential primary, after promising not to run, was also an issue. President Ronald Reagan made a number of visits to California late in the race to campaign for Wilson. Reagan quipped that the last thing he wanted to see was both of his home state's U.S. Senate seats falling into Democrats' hands, especially to be occupied by the man who succeeded him as governor. Despite exit polls indicating a narrow Brown victory, Wilson edged him out to win the election. A major contributing factor may also have been a late influx of the Armenian vote in the California Governor's race between George Deukmejian and Tom Bradley. Many of these votes came from heavily Republican areas. The Deukmejian voters likely also voted for Wilson for United States Senator.

President Reagan signing the Civil Liberties Act with Wilson looking on

On October 19, 1983, Wilson voted in favor of a bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The legislation was signed into law by President Reagan the following month. In January 1988, Wilson voted in favor of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (as well as to override President Reagan's veto in March).

In June 1984, Wilson voted in favor of legislation restricting federal highway funds for states that did not raise the minimum age for drinking to 21.

In May 1985, Wilson underwent surgery for a ruptured appendix at Bethesda Naval Hospital, concurrently as fellow Republican Senator Bob Dole hoped to gather enough votes for the Reagan administration's 1986 budget. The surgery was expected to keep Wilson hospitalized for days, but Wilson returned to Capitol Hill via an ambulance to cast a vote in favor of the budget on May 10. After voting, Wilson stated he made the decision to forgo further bed rest as he believed the vote was possibly the most important of his career.

Convinced by Japanese-American farmers in the Central Valley to support redress, Wilson co-sponsored the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The bill was signed into law by President Reagan.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he called for early implementation of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, a national ballistic missile defense system.

Wilson also co-sponsored the Federal Intergovernmental Regulatory Relief Act requiring the federal government to reimburse states for the cost of new federal mandates. A fiscal conservative, he was named the Senate's "Watchdog of the Treasury" for each of his eight years in the nation's capital.

In 1988, Wilson won the race for the United States Senate against his Democratic opponent, Leo T. McCarthy. In that election, he became the first person to get more than 5 million votes in a single Senate race, and his 5.1 million votes was a record for the most won by a Republican candidate for Senator that wasn't broken until 2020, when John Cornyn of Texas topped it.

On January 20, 1989, he presided over the inauguration of George H. W. Bush as President of the United States. He voted against Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, Bush's tax increase, thus remaining a fiscal conservative.

In the weeks following incumbent governor of California George Deukmejian announcing that he was not running for a third term, Wilson considered a gubernatorial bid; by late January 1989, Wilson admitted to the decision being agonizing for him amid his consulting with others on a possible run. At the beginning of his second six-year term in the Senate, Wilson announced plans to run for Governor of California.

On October 2, 1990, Wilson, away from Washington to campaign for California governor, became the only sitting senator from either party to not vote on the nomination of David Souter for Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. He had previously endorsed Souter for confirmation. Wilson voted in favor of the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination.

On January 7, 1991, he resigned from the Senate upon his inauguration as California's governor and appointed John Seymour as his successor.

Governor of California

See also: 1990 California gubernatorial election and 1994 California gubernatorial election

Wilson won the Republican nomination for Governor of California to succeed two-term Republican governor George Deukmejian, who chose not to seek a third term in 1990. In the general election, he defeated Democratic former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who would go on to be elected to Wilson's former U.S. Senate seat two years later. Wilson was sworn in as governor on January 7, 1991.

As governor, Wilson oversaw economic recovery in California, just as the rest of the country was recovering from an economic slump. Inheriting the state's worst economy since the Great Depression, Wilson insisted on strict budget discipline and sought to rehabilitate the state's environment for investment and new job creation. During his term, market-based, unsubsidized health coverage was made available for employees of small businesses.

Despite his belief in fiscal conservatism, Wilson raised the sales tax to reduce the state deficit, including imposing a new sales tax on newspapers and a sales tax on "snack" foods. He also raised car license fees and college tuition; by 1991, tuition fees at the University of California rose by 40%, while they rose by 24% at California State University. Additionally, he raised the income tax in the top bracket temporarily. However, by 1993, the snack tax was repealed by the Democratic state legislature and the sales tax increase expired. On April 26, 1991, Wilson proposed an increase in sales tax by 1 1/4 cents and state taxes by $6.7 billion (equivalent to $13.4 billion in 2023) as part of plan to reduce the state's budget deficit. The revenue gap had increased by $5 billion (equivalent to $9.97 billion in 2023) in the four months of his governorship. In response to the April 1991 proposal, the Los Angeles Times wrote of Wilson,

He has done what has been asked of him, but thought near-impossible for any Republican centrist: constructing a revenue and spending plan that will hurt almost everyone and help almost no one, but that will also – for the first time in a long time – put the state on a sounder fiscal footing.

In July, the Senate voted 28 to 9 in favor of a bipartisan tax plan that would have increased taxes on the wealthiest Californians, boosted the corporate tax rate, and imposed a tax increase on telecommunication services by 2%. Wilson returned the budget bill to the legislature without his signature, revoking a prior commitment to vetoing the measure.

On July 12, 1991, Wilson signed a bill mandating that parents neglecting paying for child support could warrant stiff fines and potential suspensions of business and professional licenses. The legislation was intended to address a rising cause of poverty among children and women in the state at a time when Californians collectively owed $2 billion (equivalent to $3.99 billion in 2023) per year in unpaid child support. On July 24, 1991, Wilson signed a bill requiring mass transit rail lines to be built underground in the event construction take place in the residential neighborhoods of North Hollywood and Van Nuys. The bill, requested by the residents of those neighborhoods, was aimed at easing "homeowners' fear of noise from ground-level trains running along a proposed rail route that parallels Chandler and Victory boulevards".

Less than a year into his first term as governor, Wilson vetoed AB 101, a bill written to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation in the state. Wilson feared that the bill would increase lawsuits and make California less competitive economically. The veto was met with protests in San Francisco that included demonstrations during Wilson's subsequent public appearances and speeches. Wilson was the driving force behind the 1996 legislation that deregulated the state's energy market, which was the first energy utilities deregulation in the U.S. and aggressively pushed by companies such as Enron.

Wilson also enacted education reforms aimed at creating statewide curriculum standards, reducing class size and replacing social promotion with early remedial education. Wilson promoted standardized testing of all students, increased teacher training, and a longer school year. However, it was Wilson's uncompromising stance on reducing education spending that led to the budget impasse of 1992, leaving state workers without paychecks from July until September, when the California Supreme Court forced the Governor and the legislature to agree to terms that ended the sixty-three-day stand-off. On February 22, 1993, Wilson issued an executive order banning smoke in a majority of state buildings barring "buildings controlled by the courts, the Legislature or the state's two university systems". The order was set to take effect December 31. Wilson said secondhand smoke "threatens the health of non-smoking state employees" and charged workplace smoking with increasing the cost of cleaning, damaged furniture and carpets, and heightening the chances of starting fires.

Despite this, in a leaked Philip Morris memo, the company's chief executive, Hamish Maxwell, said, "You will be pleased to know that Pete is still 'pro-tobacco.'" His move to revoke Proposition 99, a $114 million dollar voter-approved bill to tax cigarette companies to research and educate on the effects of tobacco, as well as shut down a highly effective anti-tobacco ad with footage of tobacco executives testifying to Congress that nicotine was not addictive (which also a prompted defamation lawsuit against it), was claimed to be illegal and caused multiple lawsuits, and was criticized as being influenced by the tobacco lobby. While he claimed to take no funding personally in response to allegations of being pro-tobacco, he collected over $100,000 from a New York fund-raising dinner organized by Phillip Morris. While Phillip Morris didn't directly fund his campaign, they were major funders of the California Republican Party which he led. The leaked memo was in response to worries over Wilson's rejection of direct campaign donations. Maxwell claimed to have been told by Wilson over a phone call that this was to "protect Hamish and himself," assuring that it was not due to a lack of support.</ref>

In late 1993, Wilson traveled to Asia to endorse Californian goods and investment opportunities abroad. Wilson's six-day tour was also marked by his insistence on creating export-oriented jobs. Wilson was re-elected to a second gubernatorial term in 1994, gaining 55% of the vote in his race against Democratic State Treasurer Kathleen Brown, daughter of former California Governor Pat Brown. According to one study, Wilson exploited anti-immigrant sentiment to win re-election. Wilson spoke at the funeral services for former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993 and former President Richard M. Nixon in 1994 at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California. Two years later, Wilson became, to date, the most recent governor to speak at a California gubernatorial funeral, that of former Governor Pat Brown.

For most of his time as governor, Wilson reduced per-capita infrastructure spending for California, much as he had done as the mayor of San Diego. Many construction projects – most notably highway expansion/improvement projects – were severely hindered or delayed, while other maintenance and construction projects were abandoned completely. Term limit laws passed by voters as Proposition 140, and championed by Wilson in 1990, prohibited Wilson from running for re-election to a third term. At the end of his time in office, Wilson left California with a $16 billion budget surplus (equivalent to $27.9 billion in 2023). He was succeeded by then-lieutenant governor Gray Davis as governor. A September 1998 Los Angeles Times poll found 55% of registered voters in California favored Wilson's job performance.

Welfare

On December 14, 1991, in an address to Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Wilson criticized the Democratic leaders of the state legislature for their opposition to his budget-balancing plan and "spent most of his hour at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles railing against the state's entitlement programs – including education and Medi-Cal, but especially Aid to Families with Dependent Children and other welfare programs". On January 8, 1993, Wilson submitted the 1993 spending plan, advocating an immediate cut in welfare grants by 4.2% that would be followed 6 months later by a larger reduction of 15% that would be directed at recipient families with an able-bodied adult. The twin cuts would reduce California's standing as the 5th highest benefit granting state to the 12fth.

By the end of his first term, Wilson allied with members of the state legislature that supported the continuation of recession-inspired cuts to welfare benefits. A bill imposing the continued reduction of benefits was passed by 2 committees of the Republican-majority assembly. H. D. Palmer maintained Wilson's priorities rested in other issues and though admitting to an improving in revenues, disclosed that "the governor does not believe that the first call on those revenues should go to double-digit cost-of-living increases for welfare recipients."

Wilson's second inaugural address featured a proclamation that the administration would usher in welfare reform:

We will demand that all citizens meet the test of common decency, respecting the rights of others, and we will demand that those who can, pull their own weight and meet the test of personal responsibility. We will make clear that welfare is to be a safety net, not a hammock — and absolutely not a permanent way of life. We will correct our laws to make clear that bringing a child into the world is an awesome personal responsibility for both the mother and the father. The costs are simply too high for society to continue tolerating the promiscuity and irresponsibility that have produced generations of unwed teen mothers. It is monstrously unfair to the children; to their sad, ill-equipped teen mothers; and certainly to working taxpayers, who must support them at a cost to their own children.

In his 1997 State of the State address, Wilson criticized welfare recipients and charged the program with creating conditions producing out-of-wedlock births, the lack of paternal involvement in the lives of children, and the lifelong ramifications to children caused by the father not being of presence. Under Wilson's welfare overhaul package, mothers would have to go to work after two years and a year would pass before they could return to welfare, which would only have a five-year lifetime. Paternity for each child would also have to be established for the mother to begin receiving benefits.

Proposition 187

Main article: California Proposition 187 (1994)

As governor, Wilson was closely associated with California Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal immigrants from using health care, public education, and other social services in the U.S. State of California. Voters passed the proposed law as a referendum in November 1994; it was the first time that a state had passed legislation related to immigration, customarily an issue for federal policies and programs. The law was challenged in a legal suit and found unconstitutional by a federal court in 1998 and never went into effect.

Passage of Proposition 187 reflected state residents' concerns about illegal immigration into the United States and the large Hispanic population in California. Opponents believed the law was discriminatory against immigrants of Hispanic origin; supporters generally insisted that their concerns were economic: that the state could not afford to provide social services for so many who entered the state illegally or overstayed their visas. Wilson himself would state that the policy was "about supporting the people who came here the right way".

Opponents of Proposition 187 cited its passage as the cause of long-term negative effects for the California Republican Party statewide. Noting a rapid increase in the Latino participation in California elections, some analysts cite Wilson and the Republican Party's embrace of Proposition 187 as a cause of the failure of the party to win statewide elections. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the only Republican to win a California gubernatorial, senatorial, or presidential election since 1994, in a unique 2003 recall election and then a re-election in 2006.

Since 1995 the following states have had similar ballot initiatives or laws passed: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.

Policies on crime

Wilson led efforts to enact "tough on crime" measures and signed into law the "Three Strikes" (25 years to life for repeat offenders) As a result of the Three Strikes Law, 4,431 offenders have been sentenced to 25 years to life for strings of crime. The law required the construction of new prisons, leading some to question the role in his stance of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, a lobbying group of prison guards that gave $1.47 million (equivalent to $2.64 million in 2023) to Wilson's gubernatorial campaigns. On September 26, 1995, Wilson signed a bill authorizing the possible use of the death penalty toward any individual who committed a murder amid a carjacking or killed a juror. Wilson said the law was the result of 4 years' worth of attempts on his part to toughen the laws against carjacking: "This bill sends an unmistakable message to gang bangers: If you take someone's life while committing a cowardly carjacking, you can expect to pay for your crime with your own life." Wilson also supported resuming the death penalty in California, after a 25-year moratorium, and he signed the death warrant for the execution of child-murderer Robert Alton Harris. Harris was executed in 1992. A total of five people were executed during his administration (the first 2 in the gas chamber, the latter 3 by lethal injection).

Energy deregulation

See also: California electricity crisis

Wilson supported deregulation of the energy industry in California during his administration due to heavy lobbying efforts by Enron. Nevertheless, during the California energy crisis caused by companies such as Enron, Wilson authored an article titled "What California Must Do" that blamed Gray Davis for not building enough power plants. Wilson defended his record of power plant construction and claimed that between 1985 and 1998, 23 plants were certified and 18 were built in California.

1996 presidential campaign

Wilson's presidential campaign logo

Despite a campaign promise to the people of California not to do so, Wilson also unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for President in the 1996 election, making formal announcements on both coasts. Wilson announced first on August 28, 1995, in New York City, at Battery Park, with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop. He completed a cross-country tour. In April of 1995, he had surgery to remove a benign nodule on his vocal cords. When Wilson did not lighten his speaking schedule, it resulted in the occasional cracking of his voice. It ended up keeping him from announcing – or even talking – for months. His campaign ended on September 30, 1995

A September 6, 1995, UC Irvine poll showed equal support for Wilson and incumbent President Bill Clinton among Orange County voters. The same poll indicated Wilson as trailing his former Senate colleague Bob Dole by a 20-point margin. Dole would become the Republican nominee in the general election. Later that month, a Los Angeles Times poll found 23% of Californians believed Wilson should seek the presidency, including 30% of state voters identifying as Republican. On September 29, 1995, Wilson told supporters in Sacramento that he was dropping out of the Republican primary, citing he lacked the "necessary campaign funds to take this message to the people who need to hear it". He became the first candidate to exit the Republican primary.

Post-political careers and commemoration

After leaving office, Wilson spent 2 years as a managing director of Pacific Capital Group, a merchant bank based in Los Angeles. He has served as a director of the Irvine Company, TelePacific Communications, Inc., National Information Consortium Inc., an advisor to Crossflo Systems, and IDT Entertainment. He has been a member of the Board of Advisors of Thomas Weisel Partners, a San Francisco merchant bank. He also served as chairman of the Japan Task Force of the Pacific Council on International Policy, which produced an analysis of Japanese economic and national security prospects over the next decade entitled "Can Japan Come Back?"

Wilson is currently a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank located on the campus of Stanford University, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the Richard Nixon Foundation, the Donald Bren Foundation, is the founding director of the California Mentor Foundation and is the chairman of the board of trustees of the National World War II Museum. Wilson sits on two prestigious Federal advisory committees, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee. He previously worked as a consultant at the Los Angeles office of Bingham McCutchen LLP, a large, national law firm. He is currently Of Counsel with Ellis George Cipollone O'Brien Annaguey LLP d/b/a Ellis George Cipollone, a bicoastal trial boutique law firm. He is also a Principal at Wilson Walsh Consulting.

In 1999, Wilson was awarded the prestigious Patriot Award by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society National Convention in Riverside, California. In 2003, Wilson was co-chair of the campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace Gray Davis as governor of California. On September 27, 2007, Wilson endorsed Rudolph Giuliani for U.S. President, but Giuliani later dropped out of the primary. On February 4, 2008, Wilson endorsed John McCain as a candidate for U.S. president.

In 2007, a statue of Wilson joined Ernest Hahn and Alonzo Horton on the San Diego Walk of Fame. Two hundred sponsors donated $200,000 to build the statue. Progressive Latino and LGBT groups protested the unveiling. On May 23, 2009, Wilson gave the commencement speech and received an honorary degree from the San Diego State University of Professional Studies and Fine Arts. In 2009, Wilson chaired the unsuccessful campaign of Meg Whitman for governor.

On April 30, 2016, Wilson endorsed U.S. Senator Ted Cruz for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election. On April 4, 2019, Wilson donated $5,000 to the reelection campaign of President Donald Trump. Wilson was among the signatories of a letter released on October 1, 2020, endorsing President Trump for reelection in the 2020 presidential election and argued in an interview that the president "has very good judgment, and very good people around him making honest calls." He served as a campaign advisor for Larry Elder's unsuccessful 2021 gubernatorial campaign.

Honors and awards

During and after Wilson's career, he was awarded numerous awards and honors:

References

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  2. Dolan, Maura (February 21, 2006). "A High Bar for Lawyers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
  3. ^ Kaye, Peter (August 16, 2013). "Bob Filner, just the latest rotten San Diego mayor". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
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  23. "Wilson Proposes Increasing State Sales Tax 1 1/4 Cents : Finances: His budget plan calls for a $6.7-billion hike in state levies. He also wants a $4.8-billion cut in spending, $700 million more than first sought". Los Angeles Times. April 26, 1991.
  24. "The Governor Accepts the Budget Leadership : Wilson looks for something that hurts least, hits soonest". Los Angeles Times. April 30, 1991.
  25. "Wilson Relents on Budget Veto : Finances: Governor returns the $56.4-billion spending plan to the Legislature without his signature. Action allows more time to work out a solution". Los Angeles Times. July 4, 1991.
  26. Ellis, Virginia (July 13, 1991). "Wilson Signs Child-Support Bill : Divorce: The legislation provides new tools to enforce payment. Parents who fail to comply could have their business or professional licenses suspended". Los Angeles Times.
  27. Quinn, James (June 25, 1991). "Governor Signs Bill Calling for Underground Rail Line : Transit: The law is aimed at easing the concerns of North Hollywood and Van Nuys homeowners". Los Angeles Times.
  28. "Courts Offer Wilson a Healing Opportunity : Equality: Since an appellate decision is tougher than AB 101 would have been, the governor could easily sign a law barring job prejudice against gays". Los Angeles Times. February 9, 1992. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  29. "Governor Vetoes Gay Job Bias Bill : Discrimination: Wilson says legislation is bad for business. Its author calls action 'cave-in to the right.'". Los Angeles Times. September 30, 1991.
  30. "Gay Rights Protest Disrupts Wilson Speech". Los Angeles Times. October 2, 1991.
  31. "Gay Activists Vent Rage Over Wilson's Veto : Protest: Governor's rejection of job discrimination bill sparks violence. Thousands of demonstrators march in Los Angeles and San Francisco". Los Angeles Times. October 1, 1991.
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  35. "Robert Reinhold, Budget Crisis Forces California Colleges to Bar the Doors. New York Times, July 19, 1992". The New York Times. July 19, 1992. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  36. "Patt Morrison, California's Budget Crisis – An IOU on Self-Esteem. California's Plight May be a Harbinger or Just Reason for Others to Gloat. Los Angeles Times, August 29, 1992". August 29, 1992. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  37. Weintraub, Daniel M. (February 23, 1993). "Governor Bans Smoking in Most State Buildings : Health: Wilson's order, which will affect prisons and thousands of offices, cites dangers of secondhand smoke". Los Angeles Times.
  38. Daniel M. Weintraub; Jerry Gillam (August 30, 1992). "Senate, Assembly OK Budget; Wilson Awaits Final Package : Spending: Governor says he will not approve $58-billion plan until all supporting bills are passed. State will continue to issue IOUs for up to a week even after it is signed". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 17, 2024.
  39. Russell, Sabin. "Philip Morris Called Wilson 'Pro-Tobacco' / '90 memo calls him a friend, though he returned donations". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  40. Skeleton, George (October 14, 1993). "A Traveling Salesman With a New Pitch". Los Angeles Times.
  41. "UPI Spotlight California Governor Pete Wilson leaves Japan after trade talks". United Press International. December 1, 1993.
  42. Jacobson, Gary C. (January 12, 2019). Presidents and Parties in the Public Mind. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-58934-3.
  43. "Financing California" (PDF). csus.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  44. "Project has taken a long time to get to this point – Chico Enterprise Record". Archived from the original on April 17, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  45. Decker, Cathleen (September 24, 1998). "Economy Lifts Wilson to Record Approval Rating". Los Angeles Times.
  46. Stein, Mark A. "Wilson Rips Democrats, Warns of 'Chaos' : Politics: He assails welfare programs and accuses the Legislature's leaders of attacking his budget plan without offering one of their own". Los Angeles Times.
  47. Ellis, Virginia. "Wilson Again Seeks Sharp Welfare Cuts to Make Ends Meet : Finances: His proposal would hit hard at the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program. Advocates for the young and the poor assail the plan". Los Angeles Times.
  48. Vanzi, Max (March 3, 1996). "Wilson, Allies Seek to Make Cuts in Welfare Benefits Permanent". Los Angeles Times.
  49. "Second Inaugural Address". governors.library.ca.gov. January 2, 1995.
  50. "Wilson Sworn In, Bluntly Warns of Welfare Shake-Up : Inaugural: Governor says illegal immigrants, criminals and uneducated youths are draining resources. He calls on Californians to be prepared for 'dramatic change.'". Los Angeles Times. January 8, 1995.
  51. Rivera, Carla (May 9, 1997). "Stigma of Welfare Hampers State Push Toward Jobs". Los Angeles Times. Taxpayers no longer subsidize idleness and promiscuity," he declared in praising the arrival of welfare reform. "We're ending welfare's warehousing of people who don't want to work.
  52. Wilson, Pete (January 7, 1997). "1997 State of the State Address". governors.library.ca.gov.
  53. Capps, Steven A. (January 8, 1997). "Demos rip Wilson's plan for state". San Francisco Chronicle.
  54. Allison Fee, "Forbidding States from Providing Essential Social Services to "undocumented Immigrants": The Constitutionality of Recent Federal Action", Boston University Public Interest Law Journal, Vol. 7, No. 93, 1998. Retrieved June 26, 2011
  55. McDonnell, Patrick J. (July 29, 1999). "Davis Won't Appeal Prop. 187 Ruling, Ending Court Battles". Los Angeles Times. p. 1.
  56. ENRIQUEZ, SAM (October 19, 1994). "Jewish Coalition Opposes Prop. 187". Los Angeles Times. p. 2.
  57. Bock, Alan W. (October 2, 1994). "Sorting through facts and fiction of immigration". Orange County Register. Santa Ana, Calif. p. J.01.
  58. "Former Gov. Pete Wilson: I'd 'absolutely' do Prop. 187 all over again". The Orange County Register. October 16, 2015.
  59. Raoul Lowery Contreras (August 16, 2002). The death of the California GOP. calnews.com. ISBN 9780595256914. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  60. Richard Lacayo; Ann Blackman; Margot Hornblower; Joseph R. Szczesny (December 19, 2004). "Down on the Downtrodden". Time. Archived from the original on February 4, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
  61. "Pete Wilson for Governor: On Balance the Best Choice". Los Angeles Times. October 30, 1994. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  62. "FACTS About California's Three-Strikes Law". Archived from the original on June 10, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  63. "Center for Public Integrity, The Buying of the President 1996 – Pete Wilson". Buyingofthepresident.org. Archived from the original on February 19, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  64. "Wilson makes carjacking a capital crime". United Press International. September 26, 1995.
  65. Wilson, Pete. "Pete Wilson, What California Must Do. Hoover Digest, No. 3, 2001". Hoover.org. Archived from the original on December 6, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  66. "Center for Public Integrity, The buying of the President 1996 – Pete Wilson". Archived from the original on February 19, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  67. "Wilson Makes Debut, Again". Christian Science Monitor – via Christian Science Monitor.
  68. Vanzi, Max (July 6, 1996). "Wilson Has Minor Outpatient Surgery on His Vocal Cords". Los Angeles Times.
  69. "Wilson Drops Out of White House Race, Blames Cash Woes : Politics: Governor is first to withdraw from crowded GOP field. Move creates California opportunities for his former rivals". Los Angeles Times. September 30, 1995.
  70. Hall, Len (September 7, 1995). "Clinton Even With Wilson, UCI Poll Shows : Politics: County respondents favor Dole for President by wide margin. They also support state initiative against affirmative action". Los Angeles Times.
  71. Decker, Cathleen (September 12, 1995). "THE TIMES POLL : Wilson's Popularity Plummets With Voters : Election matchups place him far behind Clinton and Dole. The governor is seen as lacking deep convictions". Los Angeles Times.
  72. "Wilson drops out of presidential race". United Press International. September 29, 1995.
  73. Ayres, B. Drummond Jr. (September 30, 1995). "WILSON, TRAILING IN VOTERS' POLLS, DROPS 1996 QUEST". The New York Times.
  74. "Can Japan Come Back? The Pacific Council Thinks So". Japaninc.com. December 12, 2002. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
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  76. "Pete Wilson bio". September 10, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  77. "Wilson Walsh". Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  78. "Honorees List | Awards and Recognitions | CMOHS". Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
  79. "Governor Pete Wilson Alumni Association". Retrieved January 21, 2011.
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  81. Steele, Jeanette (August 26, 2007). "Jeanette Steele, Wilson statue is unveiled as Latinos, gays protest. San Diego Union-Tribune, August 26, 2007". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on February 24, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  82. Steele, Jeanette (August 26, 2007). "Wilson statue is unveiled as Latinos, gays protest". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  83. "Professional Studies and Fine Arts Newsletter". Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  84. "In Calif., Meg Whitman leans less overtly on Pete Wilson". The Christian Science Monitor. August 30, 2010. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
  85. Martin, Jonathan (April 30, 2016). "Pete Wilson of California Backs Ted Cruz and Warns of Donald Trump". The New York Times.
  86. "Browse Receipts". FEC.gov. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  87. Marinucci, Carla. "Pete Wilson endorses Trump, says president has 'very good judgment'". Politico PRO. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  88. Gustavo Arellano (September 4, 2021). "Column: Larry Elder is the most Latino candidate in California's recall. It won't help him". Los Angeles Times.
  89. "Governor Pete Wilson Liberty Flagstaff".

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California Assembly
Preceded byClair Burgener Member of the California Assembly
from the 76th district
1967–1971 		Succeeded byBob Wilson
U.S. Senate
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