Leo T. McCarthy

In 1958, the year that saw the Democrats capture statewide offices for the first time since World War II, McCarthy managed the successful campaign for State Senate of J. Eugene McAteer. After the election, McCarthy served as McAteer's administrative assistant.

McCarthy first ran for office in 1963, when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He served there until 1967. In 1968, he was elected to the State Assembly, serving as speaker of the Assembly from 1974 to 1980. (Art Agnos, elected mayor of San Francisco in 1988, had his political start as McCarthy's first legislative assistant, and later as the speaker's chief of staff.) As speaker, McCarthy earned a reputation as a partisan, take-no-prisoners insider in Democratic Party politics.[2]

McCarthy unexpectedly lost the speakership to Willie Brown in 1980. McCarthy had been facing a stiff challenge from Howard Berman. Seeing his fellow Democrats so divided, Brown worked with Republicans to gain the speakership. Both of the losers in this struggle soon left the legislature. Berman ran for Congress and McCarthy ran for statewide office.

McCarthy was first elected to statewide office to the first of three consecutive four-year terms as lieutenant governor of California in 1982, at the same time that Republican George Deukmejian was elected governor. In 1986, the incumbent McCarthy ran against Republican Mike Curb, the former Lieutenant Governor and McCarthy's immediate predecessor as well as a former film producer and music promoter with a reputation for opposing drug use by artists. In a hotly-contested race for lieutenant governor that centered largely around violent crime and drug policy, McCarthy alleged that Curb made a fortune in making 'exploitation films' that glorified drugs, sex, and violence.[3] Curb was so incensed at the charges that he filed a $7-million libel and slander suit against McCarthy, who ultimately won the election.[4]

After his failed 1988 Senate campaign, McCarthy won a third term as lieutenant governor in 1990, while his 1988 opponent Pete Wilson won the election for governor.

In 1988, McCarthy ran for the U.S. Senate. He easily won the Democratic Party nomination but was defeated in the general election by the Republican incumbent and future Governor Pete Wilson. As of 2021, this was the last time a Republican won a U.S. Senate seat in California. McCarthy's 4,287,253 votes set a record for the most votes given to a losing Democratic Senate candidate that lasted until it was broken by MJ Hegar of Texas in 2020. McCarthy was the first person ever to get more than 4 million votes in a losing Senate campaign.

In 1992, McCarthy entered the Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate but lost the nomination to US Representative (and later general election winner) Barbara Boxer.[5]

McCarthy retired from public office at the end of his third term as the state's longest-serving Lieutenant Governor after 12 years in office on January 2, 1995, choosing not to seek re-election to a fourth term in 1994, even though McCarthy was eligible for one more term which meant he would've been term limited in 1998. He was succeeded by fellow Democratic then-State Controller and future Governor Gray Davis. McCarthy's 12 years are the longest any California lieutenant governor has served. Upon leaving politics, he created an investment company, The Daniel Group, named for his father and located in San Francisco.

He helped found the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco.