California gubernatorial election, 1974 - Primary results chart - Peace and Freedom Party

Brown had the statewide name recognition, benefited from the fact Democrats now outnumbered Republicans in CA, and maintained a lead in most of the early polls. Flournoy began to gain in the polls as the election approached, but Brown won, although by a much smaller margin than predicted. Coincidentally, when Brown ran for Secretary of State four years earlier, he defeated a man named James Flournoy – no relation to Houston – in a very close election.

Reference 1: # of votes[3] and % of votes.

Reference 2: Elizabeth Keathley, Lester Higby, C. T. Weber, Trudy Saposhnek and Scattering.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,_1974