California Primary Election Results

Women ruled California's primary elections on Tuesday. Voters supported Meg Whitman as the Republican Party's nomination for governor and Carly Fiorina won the GOP race for the U.S. Senate. Betsy Butler secured the Democratic nomination from a crowded field of candidates in the 53rd District state Assembly race.

Whitman and Fiorina self-funded their first electoral bids and made history as Republican nominees for the two most influential statewide political seats.

Whitman, the billionaire former CEO of eBay, invested more than $81 million in her campaign ($71 million personally) for the GOP nomination, beating state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who spent $25 million.

Whitman will face Attorney General Jerry Brown in the November race for governor. Brown is back as the Democratic nomination, 36 years after California voters first elected him for this office.

Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO, defeated former Congressman Tom Campbell for the Republican Party's nomination to the U.S. Senate. Her campaign was funded by an investment of $5.5 million from her personal funds, as well as support from former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Fiorina will face three-term Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in November.

Betsy Butler won her party's nomination for the 53rd District state Assembly seat, beating out seven other candidates and will face Republican Nathan Mintz, the 26-year-old founder of the South Bay Tea Party, as well as Green Party candidate Lisa Ann Green, in the race to replace termed-out Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). Mintz and Green both ran unopposed in their primaries.

Marcy Winograd, two-time Democratic primary candidate for the state's 36th Congressional District, failed to beat out eight-term incumbent Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) for the nomination. Harman, who had the party's endorsement along with that of several local mayors, took home 58.8 percent of the vote, compared to Winograd's 41.2 percent. Mattie Fein defeated Pete Kesterson and Andrew Sharp for the Republican nomination with 50.3 percent of the vote.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom defeated Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn in the Democratic race for lieutenant governor. He will race against Republican candidate and appointed incumbent Abel Maldonado, who defeated Sen. Sam Aanestad of Grass Valley for the nomination.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris won the Democratic race against former Facebook attorney Chris Kelly for attorney general. Harris seeks to become the first woman, Asian and African American to serve in the position.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley won the GOP primary for attorney general by a huge margin, giving Republicans hope of winning California's top law enforcement job in the November elections.

Among the five initiatives put on Tuesday's ballot—propositions 13 through 17—voters passed two. Residents strongly supported tax breaks for buildings retrofitted to withstand earthquakes, as well as overwhelmingly backed Proposition 14, which will eliminate party-based primary elections.

Proposition 15, which would have repealed the ban on public funding of political campaigns, was rejected by voters. The measure would have allowed candidates for secretary of state to use government funding for their campaigns.

Even though the votes were close, residents also rejected the two initiatives put on the ballot by major corporations. Proposition 16, supported heavily by utility giant PG&E, required two-thirds voter approval before local governments can get into the electricity business. Proposition 17, backed by Mercury Insurance, gave auto insurance companies more influence in fixing rates.