DAVIS' NEEDLE STUCK ON FULL IN TOUGH-ON-CRIME DEBATE

(Sacramento) - When George Wallace was a young politician in Alabama many
decades ago,he was considered a liberal by the local standards of the
day.

But when Wallace lost an election to an opponent who accused Wallace
of being too soft on race issues, he vowed he would never be
"out-segged" again and achieved success as a stand-in-the-doorway
opponent of racial integration.

California Gov. Gray Davis has adopted a similar approach to crime, an
issue that has often plagued Democratic politicians. By word and deed,
Davis has demonstrated that he will never allow anyone to outdo him
when it comes to pursuing, incarcerating and executing criminals.

Last year, during a gubernatorial campaign debate, Davis created a
stir by declaring that Singapore's authoritarian policies would be "a
good starting point when it comes to law and order."

Davis stressed his support of capital punishment during the campaign,
and during his first few months as governor allowed two murderers to
be executed.

Davis underscored his rigid attitudes on the issue by vetoing several
bills that would have ever-so-slightly softened state laws. One would
have created a diversion program for some non-violent parole violators
as an option to putting them back in prison.

Another - sponsored by a conservative Republican - would have given
school authorities more leeway in dealing with very young violators of
"zero tolerance" policies on bringing weapons to school. There was a
veto override attempt on the latter measure, but even though it had
passed the Legislature without a dissenting vote, Democrats - and some
Republicans - refused to override Davis' veto.

Davis' attitudes on crime, whether heartfelt or merely poll-drive
positioning, have created friction with more liberal Democrat in the
governor's office would mean a change. But Davis, mindful that a
soft-on-crime label was the undoing of his former boss, Jerry Brown,
shows no signs of changing. Indeed, he may be even less flexible than
Republican governors.

Liberals got another sharp reminder from Davis this week, this time on
giving local authorities the legal authority to distribute clean
hypodermic needles to drug addicts to fight the spread of AIDS.

Needle-exchange programs are under way in a number of urban areas - 2
million needles a year in San Francisco alone - but they're of dubious
legality, given the state's laws on distribution of drug
paraphernalia. Advocates say allowing drug users to exchange dirty
needles for clean ones is an effective means of countering the spread
of AIDS, but opponents say it gives official sanction to illegal drug
use.

Democrats pushed through a needle-exchange measure early in this
decade, only to see it vetoed by a Republican governor, Pete Wilson.
Since then, efforts to pass such bills have failed. But with Davis in
the governorship, a new attempt was mounted this year.

Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, D-Novato, worked a needle-exchange bill
through both houses. Advocates released a poll by the Field Institute
indicating that a strong majority of Californians, including most
Republicans, approve of needle exchange programs.

The poll, advocates of the measure said, was designed to give Davis
"political cover."

Davis, however, threatened to veto the legislation that some future
political opponent could characterize as being soft on drug use. He
compelled legislators to rewrite the measure, taking out language that
endorsed needle exchanges and shifting the political onus entirely to
local officials.

No one ever is going to flank Davis on the right when it comes to
crime.