A rhetorical analysis was conducted of the four broadcast political debates that led to San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson's victory in the 1982 California senatorial race. Specifically, the analysis covered one primary debate held in San Diego among five of the seven Republican contenders and the three bipartisan debates held in Fresno, San Francisco, and Los Angeles between Wilson and Governor Jerry Brown, his opponent. The verbal characteristics examined included unequivocal messages, ambiguous messages, and reasoning strategies. Results indicated that Wilson (1) made direct statements of policy in as few as 56% of his messages in one debate and in as many as 93% in another; (2) employed support and evidence in about 66% of his messages; (3) used figurative analogies, historical references, and factual illustrations frequently; (4) relied heavily on one-sided messages in the primary debate and the bipartisan San Francisco debate, but used both one-sided and two-sided messages equally in the other two bipartisan debates; and (5) divided himself equally in the use of dynamic speaking style and conversational speaking style in the primary debate, but consistently employed the dynamic style in the bipartisan debates. (FL)