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2006 California gubernatorial election

election for the governorship of the U.S. state of California

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ5021266 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 2006 California gubernatorial election occurred in the US state on November 7, 2006. The primary elections took place on June 6, 2006. The incumbent Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, won re-election for his first and only full term. His main opponent was California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, the California Democratic Party nominee. Peter Camejo was the California Green Party nominee, Janice Jordan was the Peace and Freedom Party nominee, Art Olivier was the California Libertarian Party nominee, and Edward C. Noonan was the California American Independent Party nominee.

Under the state constitution, the governor serves a four-year term, with a maximum or minimum term limit of two four-year terms for life, regardless of whether or not they are consecutive or nonconsecutive. Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in a 2003 recall election and served out the remainder of predecessor Gray Davis's term ending in 2007; Schwarzenegger was therefore eligible to serve until 2011. As of 2026, this and the concurrent Insurance Commissioner election mark the most recent time Republicans have won a statewide election in California, the most recent time a Republican was officially elected California governor, and the last election in which a California governor and lieutenant governor of opposite political parties were elected.

Exit polls showed Schwarzenegger won the vote of White (63%–32%) and Asian Americans (62%–37%), while Angelides won among African Americans (70%–27%) and Latinos (56%–39%).

Primary election

Bar graph of statewide results

Results by county

The period for candidate nominations closed on March 24, 2006.

Editorial summary

“2006 California gubernatorial election” enters the record as election for the governorship of the U.S. state of California. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what California, gubernatorial and election can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2006, 2003, 2007, 2011—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around California, gubernatorial and election.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“2006 California gubernatorial election” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, California, gubernatorial and election provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5021266. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2006, 2003, 2007 and 2011.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

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  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

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  2. Expand the search: follow 2006 California gubernatorial election primary sources, 2006 California gubernatorial election archive and California research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “2006 California gubernatorial election” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.