GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren supplied the biggest surprise in a four-way debate yesterday by announcing his opposition to a ballot initiative that would abolish bilingual education in California.

In the first and probably only debate with three Democratic candidates before the June 2 primaries, Mr. Lungren, the state’s attorney general, said Proposition 227 runs afoul of local control.

Polls show more than 70 percent of the public supports the measure.

All candidates agreed that the state’s system of bilingual education needs to be fixed. Democratic candidate Al Checchi, an airline tycoon, opposes Proposition 227 and has referred to the state’s voter initiative process as “legislative vigilantism.”

Democrats Jane Harman, a member of Congress, and Lt. Governor Gray Davis also oppose the measure.

Richard Riordan, Republican mayor of Los Angeles, has strongly endorsed Proposition 227.

“It’s unfortunate that Dan Lungren doesn’t recognize that school districts have entrenched programs which will maintain the system with the status quo,” said Sheri Annis, a spokeswoman for Proposition 227.

Mr. Lungren expressed support for private-school vouchers, opposed by Mrs. Harman. Democratic candidates did back charter schools, which are deregulated schools within the public system.

Mr. Checchi recently told the San Francisco Chronicle that he would not send his children to public schools because it would endanger their future.

According to a poll released Tuesday by the Public Policy Institute of California, Mr. Lungren is running even with Mr. Davis at 23 percent. Mr. Checchi came in at 19 percent and Mrs. Harman at 8 percent. Twenty-five percent were undecided.

The debate, held in Los Angeles, focused on education, crime and the state’s current $4 billion budget surplus.

Of all the candidates, Mr. Checchi showed the greatest reluctance to return the surplus to taxpayers, instead proposing to plow the money into public schools and bonuses for teachers.

Mr. Lungren recalled that when the state refused to give back a surplus previously, voters passed the tax-limiting Proposition 13, “an imperfect solution that we live with today.” He said part of the surplus should be given back.

Mr. Checchi has spent more than $30 million in advertising, much of it pegging Mrs. Harman and Mr. Davis as political insiders. The ads have not advanced him in the polls.

“Al Checchi is a financial wheeler-dealer who is attempting a corporate takeover of California and I say our state is not for sale,” said Mrs. Harman in her closing statement.

“Too many macho politicians say ‘Do it my way or not at all, or I will tell the press what you did when you were 12,’” she said.

“Dan Lungren is anti-choice, pro-gun and pro-tobacco and out of California’s mainstream,” she said.

“Thanks for that positive round-up,” said Mr. Lungren.

Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley is editorial director of the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco and the author of From Mainline to Sideline: The Social Witness of the National Council of Churches. He can be reached via email at klbillingsley@pacificresearch.org.