Davis Has Assets, but Opponents Have Deep Pockets

SACRAMENTO —  It’s ironic that over the years Lt. Gov. Gray Davis has acquired a reputation for being a prolific fund-raiser and a persistent self-promoter.

It’s ironic because now, in his race for governor, Davis is being greatly outspent and outpublicized.

Al Checchi--megabucks airline tycoon, corporate takeover artist--has outspent Davis 8-to-1 by reaching into his own deep pockets. Davis also is virtually certain to be outspent by his other rival for the Democratic nomination, the very rich Rep. Jane Harman of Torrance.

Meanwhile, Davis--partly because he’s such old news and so dull--has been getting far less media attention than newcomers Checchi and Harman, less even than some vacillating politicians who ultimately didn’t run.

Davis, indeed, tends to be taken lightly by political poobahs who question his ability to beat Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, the cinch Republican nominee for governor. This also is a bit ironic because, although he was trounced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein in a 1992 Senate primary, Davis has won three statewide “downticket” contests--two for controller and one for lieutenant governor.

Checchi has never won any public office; he hasn’t even run. In fact, he hasn’t even voted in four of the last six state elections. To use an airline analogy, he’s now asking voters to place the equivalent of a student pilot at the controls of a jumbo jet.

Harman at least has served three terms in Congress and, before that, held various federal jobs. But she hasn’t run statewide and clearly is not up to speed on state issues. We haven’t heard a peep from her since she belatedly announced her candidacy nearly two weeks ago.

Checchi’s candidacy credential is chiefly a checkbook. Harman would not be running either if her husband weren’t super-rich.

It’s further ironic that the candidate who privately is dismissed by so many insiders is the one who has trained so long for the job. Davis has had a 24-year apprenticeship: top aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, assemblyman, statewide officeholder.

That’s a plus and it’s also a minus.

*

Checchi’s main pitch to Californians is that if they like the way things have been going in Sacramento, vote for one of the career politicians who has been in charge. But if they’d like a shake-up, vote for him.

Many cynical voters like the idea of rich candidates paying their own way, Checchi has found. They think it’s preferable to hitting up special interests for money, as candidates of modest means must.

“They say he can’t be bought,” asserts Darry Sragow, Checchi’s chief advisor. “It’s a major plus because voters have become so mistrustful of politics.”

The opposing view is that although self-financing candidates cannot corrupt themselves, they can corrupt the election process by frightening off potential opponents and tilting the battlefield.

“It bothers me. I’m a teacher. I want to make sure in the future that teachers and pharmacists and everyone else have a chance to be elected,” says state Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), chairwoman of the Senate Elections Committee and a Davis supporter. “People like me, we could never match the millionaires.”

Former Senate leader Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) notes there’s “an interesting tension between liberty and equality”: rich people’s liberty to spend their money as they choose versus other people’s equal opportunity to become elected representatives.

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the rich people in 1976, ruling that personal money is tantamount to free speech. Lockyer’s solution: set spending limits and, if self-financing candidates exceed them, allow their opponents to match the personal money with public funds. Lockyer got that bill passed, but Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed it.

*

“I feel sorry for someone like Gray Davis,” says a prominent Democrat, a noncombatant in the gubernatorial fight. “Gray toiled in the vineyards for 24 years and a guy shows up and buys the estate and the winery.”

While Davis toiled, Capitol reporters OD’d on his news conferences. He kept hustling publicity both for himself and the public policies he was pushing--not exactly a shocking concept.

In truth, Davis successfully has pushed a lot, including removal of asbestos from schools, busting up crack houses, nailing deadbeat parents, business tax breaks, freezing college fees and--without using tax money--getting missing kids’ pictures on milk cartons.

“I’ve walked the walk--Checchi’s just learning to talk the talk,” Davis says. “I don’t have personal wealth, but I have experience that money can’t buy.”

I’m not sure all that experience qualifies Davis to be governor. But I am sure that merely being super-rich--and saturating TV with ads--doesn’t qualify anyone.