Jones ran in the Republican gubernatorial primary, finishing third, with 16%, behind former Mayor of Los Angeles Richard Riordan and businessman William Simon, Jr., who went on to be defeated by incumbent Gray Davis in the general election. Jones' campaign largely addressed issues of budget deficits, electrical shortages, and perceived corruption in the Davis administration. Building on his success promoting technology as Secretary of State, Jones's platform contained an eGovernment plank. However, much of his campaign concentrated on his past experience and support from state Republican luminaries like former Governor George Deukmejian, as opposed to specific plans for addressing the state's budget and energy crises. E-mail spamming controversy During his unsuccessful primary campaign, Jones' campaign manager drew criticism for spamming (sending bulk emails to) potential voters and others around the world. After the spamming incidents, Jones spokesman Darrel Ng denied spamming was wrong and strongly defended the use of mass email for campaigns as an "innovative way to use the Internet." The hosting provider of the Jones campaign web site terminated its services for the last few days of the campaign. Run for U.S. Senate Following his unsuccessful run for governor in 2002, Jones tried a run for the U.S. Senate. Although he won the 2004 Republican primary over former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, Jones lost the general election to Senator Barbara Boxer, with 38% of the vote. His campaign was so ill-funded that he did not run a single television commercial to promote his candidacy. Career after public office As Secretary of State, Jones had been responsible for regulating the voting-related services of private companies. After leaving office, he became a paid consultant to one of those companies, Sequoia Voting Systems. Election results References External links 2004 League of Women Voters Biography 1998 League of Women Voters Biography https://web.archive.org/web/20051027161513/http://nvri.org/library/cases/Porter_v_Jones/9th%20Cir%20opinion.pdf February 6, 2003 federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision against Bill Jones, on how he threatened criminal charges against the creators of vote pairing web sites in the 2000 Presidential election 1949 births Living people Secretaries of State of California Republican Party members of the California State Assembly California State University, Fresno alumni People from Coalinga, California