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 John Eugene McAteer, and after the election, served as McAteer's administrative assistant. McCarthy first ran for office himself 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. As speaker, McCarthy earned a reputation as a partisan, take-no-prisoners insider in Democratic Party politics. 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 RepublicanGeorge Deukmejian was elected governor. In 1986, the incumbent McCarthy ran against Republican Mike Curb, 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 sought to denigrate Curb's image with voters as an anti-drug campaigner by alleging that Curb made a fortune in making 'exploitation films' that glorified drugs, sex, and violence. Curb was so incensed at the charges that he filed a $7-million libel and slander suit against McCarthy, who ultimately won the election. Despite his election to lieutenant governor, the controversy surrounding the McCarthy campaign's tactics in the 1986 race was never fully dispelled, and in 1988, McCarthy lost an election bid for the US Senate against the Republican incumbent Pete Wilson. McCarthy later won a third term as lieutenant governor in 1990, with Wilson winning the election for governor.
Campaign for Senate
In 1992, McCarthy entered the Democratic primary election for the US Senate but lost the nomination to US RepresentativeBarbara Boxer. McCarthy retired from public office at the end of his third term as lieutenant governor on January 2, 1995, having been prohibited from seeking re-election to a fourth term in office because of state term limits, and 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.
Leo T. McCarthy Center
He helped found the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco.
Family and later life
McCarthy was married on December 17, 1955 to the former Jacqueline Lee Burke. They had four children and eleven grandchildren. After a long illness, McCarthy died from a kidney ailment at his home in San Francisco on February 5, 2007.
