Capitol Trivia

Capitol Trivia tests the memories of the seasoned Capitol hands and offers
newbies a chance to learn something about the dark underbelly of California
political history.

1. What was the CSP and when did it disappear? Did the members really
carry guns?
2. What is the Virgin Sturgeon?
3. Which California governor was said to do a killer impersonation of
Woody Allen?
4. Which former California insurance commissioner now serves as a
sheriff’s deputy in Florida?
5. Which former constitutional officer, who gained fame by smashing
toilets with a sledge hammer, was born in a covered wagon near Oakdale?
6. Who said, “I’m going to speak my mind, because I have nothing to
lose”?
7. Who received more votes in the 2003 recall election: Larry Flynt,
Gary Coleman or Mary Carey?
8. How many gubernatorial candidates during the recall?
9. What California politician said, “The difference between golf and
government is that in golf you can’t improve your lie”?

ANSWERS
1. The California State Police, once responsible for guarding state
buildings and the governor, was around for decades in California, although
few people outside Sacramento ever heard of them. Yes, many of them carried
weapons. They disappeared in 1995 when they were officially merged with the
CHP in a Capitol bureaucratic coup. The old CSP headquarters is at 10th and
N streets, now home of the Office of Planning and Research. 2. A floating
restaurant off Garden Highway, popular with former Gov. Jerry Brown, that
once sank and once was burned. In between disasters, the Virgin Sturgeon II
was open for business on Broadway just east of Tower Records, but it later
closed. 3. Former Gov. George Deukmejian. (I know, it’s hard to believe.) 4.
Charles Quackenbush. 5. Secretary of State March Fong Eu. 6. S.I. Hayakawa,
former U.S. Senator from California, 1977-1983, and former president of San
Francisco State University. 7. Flynt received 17,446 votes, Coleman received
12,235 and Carey received 11,174. 8. 135 9. George Deukmejian.