DAVIS APPEARS TO BE STUCK IN THE MIDDLE, INSIDERS SAY

Critics Charge Governor Lacks Any Clear Vision For California

SACRAMENTO -- In his first seven months in office, Gov. Gray Davis has
tiptoed through a minefield of potential political disasters, but his
split-the-difference politics have led many political observers to conclude
that he has no clear vision for the state.

"I think what you're seeing is what you're going to get. I don't think
you're ever going to see Gray Davis become a visionary," said Wayne Johnson,
a GOP campaign consultant in Sacramento who compared Davis to the president.
"He's learned his approach from watching Clinton. He has co-opted his
enemy's turf and is controlling both sides of the battlefield."

Davis' trademark caution, often reflected in his middle-of-the-road
politics, also has come at a steep cost -- a growing rift with the liberal
core of the party that helped him become the state's first Democratic
governor in 16 years.

But even when he's angering the left wing of his party, the political acumen
he polished during the 30 years he spent training for the state's top post
shines through. Consider last week, when the governor struck at the heart of
a core party principle by vetoing a bill that would have authorized outreach
programs aimed at encouraging minorities and women to apply for public jobs.
That same day, he avoided a firestorm of criticism by leaking news that he
would drop the state's defense of a divisive anti-illegal immigrant
initiative, a decision made after he sent the dispute to court mediation.
The Proposition 187 resolution topped news reports, while the
affirmative-action veto received short shrift.

Davis' willingness to turn his back on a key Democratic goal to broaden his
appeal to moderates and his calculated effort to minimize the fallout make
Davis' natural allies uneasy.

"It obviously sends a very disturbing message," said Oren Sellstrom, an
attorney with the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights in San Francisco. "It's
a real slap in the face of the voters who elected him."

Davis' attention to staged news conferences and political fundraising, as
well as his penchant for micromanaging everything from picking his political
appointments to deciding who runs his daily errands, has deeply frustrated
Democratic lawmakers, impatient to push a public-policy agenda held up
during the long years of two Republican administrations.

But administration sources are quick to point out Davis' accomplishments: He
pushed education reform through the Legislature, signed a sweeping assault
weapons ban, reached across the border to improve strained relations with
Mexico and signed an on-time budget for the first time in years.

Yet those actions have done little to dampen criticism that Davis seems most
focused on his own ambition and his occupation of the governor's office, a
post he coveted throughout his entire career.

Now that he's there, he has chosen to remain aloof from the legislative fray
and is casting himself as a centrist: hugging the right when it comes to big
business and public safety, painfully straddling the middle when it comes to
labor and overtime pay, and distancing himself from liberal Democrats and
issues every chance he can.

"Leadership is not about just trying to put your head down and hoping nobody
notices what you are doing," fumed a Democratic campaign consultant, who
like other Democrats declined to publicly criticize their own party's governor.

Although some critics say last week's orchestration over Proposition 187 was
scripted to avoid angering both Latinos who opposed it and voters who passed
it, others say Davis opted to drop the state's defense of the initiative to
avoid a showdown before the U.S. Supreme Court, which could strike a blow to
his assumed presidential ambitions.

"Clearly he has further aspirations, and he didn't want that played out on
the national stage," a top Democratic state official said. "What would you
do to avoid having every immigrant in the country thinking you were Pete
Wilson?" Wilson is the former Republican governor whose embrace of
Proposition 187 sparked a massive surge in voting among Latinos, helping
Davis coast to a 20-point victory over Republican Dan Lungren last November.

Little to show

Davis' legislative record so far is slim. He is still touting four moderate
education reform bills he signed four months ago. Since then, however, he
has ignored looming issues such as health care and insurance,
transportation, affordable housing and aiding the state's growing elderly
population.

Later this month, Davis will have to face many of those issues. The liberal
Democrats who control the Legislature are expected to pass bills extending
health insurance to domestic partners, giving patients the right to sue
their health-maintenance organizations, raising the cap on medical
malpractice awards and cracking down on cheap handguns.

And Davis has yet to fill dozens of vacancies on key commissions and in
vital state agencies.

Since he took office, for example, he has appointed only four of 40
vacancies on the nine, nine-member regional water quality control boards.
Lacking a quorum, the board overseeing Lake Tahoe, which is contaminated
with the fuel additive MTBE, has not met since September.

Real effects

The lack of appointments is hurting real people, critics say. Workers
injured on the job, for example, can't contest orders denying them benefits
because there aren't enough members on the appeals board to meet.

Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante said the rate of appointments is in line
with that of other new governors. Bustamante said Davis intended to use the
month of July to fill many vacancies. "But, unfortunately, given the massive
amount of legislation that came to the governor's desk in July, he ended up
spending the bulk of his time on legislative issues," Bustamante said.

Davis also has come under harsh criticism for his well-known habit of
consulting political polls before taking a stance on any issue.

He refused to meet with lawmakers as thousands of their bills made their way
through the Legislature.

Davis broke his silence when, after being criticized for stalling HMO bills
only days after raising thousands of dollars from managed-care executives,
he angrily announced that he expected lawmakers simply to enact his "vision."

At the same time Davis was losing his temper about HMO legislation in San
Francisco, an administration source in Sacramento was defending Davis'
decision to ask the Legislature to slow bills that would allow patients to
sue their HMOs. Administration polls, the source said, showed HMO reform was
not a major issue with voters.

"This is a governor capable of great leadership at a time when the state
desperately needs it," said Harvey Rosenfield of the Foundation for Taxpayer
and Consumer Rights, an organization pushing HMO and insurance reform. "I
hope this is only a temporary bout of 'Clintonitis,' and not a fatal case.
And I hope he has a really, really good doctor."

In the governor's defense, administration officials counter that Davis is
sticking to the "centrist" themes spelled out in his campaign.

Republican support

Ironically, Davis seems to be getting the most support from Republicans, who
said they have been pleasantly surprised by the governor's strong stances on
public safety and fiscal responsibility. The governor has denied clemency
petitions from two death-row inmates, pushed for a new state prison and
vetoed bills that would have established alternative sanctions, instead of
imprisonment, for non-violent offenders. He has even rejected
recommendations from the Board of Prison Terms, which is dominated by law
enforcement officials, to parole a handful of inmates serving life sentences.

"Frankly, given the natural tendency of most Democratic elected officials, I
think Gray Davis will continue to go overboard trying to look like a tough
guy," said Jim Brulte, one of the Senate's GOP leaders.

Ambition not unusual

Still, Brulte and several other Republicans said they don't think Davis is
motivated by political ambition any more than any other politician. Johnson,
the GOP consultant, said Davis' ease with the business community partly
stems from his days as state controller, when "he was philosophically
comfortable going to those bond-house lunches."

Brulte said Davis' only problem is with his own party: "His vision of
California's future and that of the Democrats in the Legislature is not the
same. He likes to slice the baby down the middle."

Whatever his motivation, Johnson added, Davis is fully aware that being a
conservative on crime, education, business and state fiscal matters will
play better should he run for president in the future.

"You can't run in New Hampshire on red ink," Johnson said.

Some Democrats angry

But Democrats are angry that Davis has swung so far right on many issues.
Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, is frustrated that Davis tried to stall
his bills to implement a voter-approved initiative that would allow
marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes. Davis tried to sink the bills,
crafted by the Santa Clara County district attorney and state attorney
general, by going to a committee chairman behind Vasconcellos' back.

"I exploded," Vasconcellos said.

Pointedly telling Davis to butt out of their business, legislative leaders
sent out a memo telling legislators to ignore entreaties from the governor's
office.

But, while grousing privately, most Democrats are still publicly bending
over backward to accommodate Davis. Senate President Pro Tem John Burton,
D-San Francisco, delivered cookies to the governor's office the day after
Davis demanded a rubber-stamp legislature.

Even though Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has publicly clashed with Davis, the
moderate Fresno Democrat was diplomatic in his assessment of the freshman
governor. "We may have our differences about specifics, but generally we're
going to be in the same ballpark," he said.

Contact Hallye Jordan at hjordan@sjmercury.com or (916) 441-4601.