SHADES OF GRAY
REES, MATTHEW
SHADES OF GRAY by Matthew Rees Sacramento, California The delegates attending the recent state Democratic convention, a liberal bunch that otherwise hasn't much to be excited about, were...
...Davis has learned a number of political lessons from studying the Clinton administration and from working as chief of staff for former California governor Jerry Brown...
...With the election of Gray Davis, California became one of only two states to have a Democratic governor, two Democratic U.S...
...He endorsed the reduction in car taxes advocated by then-governor Pete Wilson...
...Sheila Kuehl, a liberal assemblywoman representing Santa Monica, told me that after dealing with Wilson, she's "just happy to be able to walk down to the horseshoe [the executive offices of the governor] and get in...
...A January poll by the Public Policy Institute of California showed nearly 90 percent of those surveyed want to increase education spending...
...This is what it means to be a Democrat at the dawn of the 21st century...
...But Gov...
...His goals were to get the legislature to move quickly and ensure their amendments didn't make the reforms look excessively liberal...
...Actually, his name was initially left off the billboards, but Davis lobbied the outdoor advertising company to have it included...
...The modesty of the effort didn't stop union-friendly Democrats in the legislature from watering down many of the reforms—the test required for graduation isn't even administered at the 12th-grade level...
...On crime, he supported the three-strikes idea and famously said, "Singapore is a good starting point in terms of law and order...
...it also made him exceedingly risk-averse, as a recent education debate illustrated...
...He was frequently cited in news accounts of children being reunited with their parents, and his subsequent election to the statewide office of controller in 1986 was widely attributed to the milk-carton campaign...
...The proposals included peer review for teachers, enhanced reading instruction, a school-rating system, and a standardized test required for high school graduation...
...He promptly held signing ceremonies in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Sacramento, California's four biggest media markets...
...One is that trying to do too much too quickly can have grave consequences, particularly if your proposals expand government (ClintonCare) or strike at cultural values (opening the military to gays...
...In his highly disciplined campaign, Davis promised that, if elected, education would be his "first, second, and third" priorities...
...As for the crowd, Bill Buckner would have gotten a warmer reception from a roomful of diehard Red Sox fans...
...The speech was part and parcel of Davis's remarkable effort to strip California Democrats of doctrinaire liberalism...
...Here's what Davis has done during his first three months as governor: He's approved the execution of a Thai immigrant found guilty of a double murder, blocked a costly Bay Bridge restoration project coveted by Willie Brown and Jerry Brown (mayors of San Francisco and Oakland, respectively), proposed education reforms opposed by the heavily Democratic teachers' lobby, agreed to phase out a clean-air gasoline additive favored by environmentalists, refused to support trial lawyers' attempt to lift the cap on medical malpractice awards, and signaled his opposition to taxes on Internet commerce...
...Davis should make the most of it while he can...
...After running as a non-ideological candidate in the Democratic primary, Davis made a great effort to appear moderate for the general election...
...Dan Walters, a venerable columnist at the Sacramento Bee, says Davis "intends to stick religiously to the political middle, cultivate middle-class suburban voters, and do nothing that would allow Republicans to pin a liberal label and a political target on his back...
...And in what is surely the ultimate heresy for many California Demo-crats, Davis opposes gay marriage and is unlikely to oppose a statewide initiative on the ballot next March that would bar same-sex unions...
...SHADES OF GRAY by Matthew Rees Sacramento, California The delegates attending the recent state Democratic convention, a liberal bunch that otherwise hasn't much to be excited about, were positively giddy...
...It was a brilliant political move—Who could oppose it?—and it had the advantage of providing Davis with priceless publicity for free...
...They're so happy that California's 16-year streak of Republican governors has ended, they're willing to cut Davis some slack...
...But Davis didn't put up much of a fight...
...As governor, Davis will seek out similar issues to keep his favorabili-ty ratings high (58 percent in a mid-March Field poll), but his biggest challenge will be pursuing a centrist path without inviting resistance from liberal Democrats in the legislature...
...Brown's extracurriculars, including a run for president, gave Davis great power while serving as his top aide, but they also undermined Brown's legislative agenda...
...Says Phil Eisenberg, a Davis adviser and a former assemblyman: "Gray learned the lesson of what he didn't want to be by watching Jerry try to do everything as governor...
...Overhauling teacher tenure, for example, was never discussed...
...Another lesson, learned the hard way from Brown, is the importance of discipline...
...This led Davis to centrism...
...In 1985, as a junior assemblyman, Davis proposed placing the pictures of missing children on milk cartons, paper bags, and billboards throughout California...
...When both goals were met—all four bills were approved by late March—Davis declared victory...
...A left-wing agenda would even be in keeping with the one constant of Davis's 25-year career: his instinct to blend in (thus the joke about "Gray" being the perfect name for him...
...senators, and Democratic control of the state legislature...
...So Davis called a special legislative session and came up with a four-part plan...
...Moreover, they are planning measures that would reward trial lawyers, teachers, and gays...
...Not only did he speak the language of centrism, he offset his more liberal positions—e.g., abortion on demand—with support for center-right ideas...
...This conciliatory spirit isn't going to last forever...
...This last gesture left political insiders chuckling...
...As the Los Angeles Times pointed out last year, Davis "has a homing pigeon's instinct for a TV camera, and an unshakable reputation as one of Sacramento's biggest publicity hounds...
...Davis, rather than play to the crowd with a rousing dose of left-wing agit-prop, doused it with cold water: "Our fellow citizens are sick and tired of extremism in the defense of ideology...
...Yet these liberals are politically sophisticated, and no one expects them to cause as much trouble for Davis as conservatives caused for Pete Wilson...
...No strong Republican is looming as an opponent for 2002...
...Davis demolished his Republican opponent, Dan Lungren, by 20 points...
...And if that wasn't enough, he said he'd support a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning...
...Had he wanted to, the new governor could have immediately turned left...
...He's also come up with a university admissions plan that keeps Proposition 209 intact...
...These moves don't come as a total surprise...
...So why hasn't he scrapped his pledge to "govern neither from the left nor the right, but from the center...
...Matthew Rees is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...They want us to stand up for principle and practicality...
...The state's deficit is expected to disappear, and its coffers are flush with revenue...
...They're already threatening trouble if Davis doesn't drop the state's appeal of the ruling that overturned Proposition 187, which denies services to illegal immigrants...
...Liberals are in firm control of the legislature...
...The package initially alienated the education lobby—a badge of honor for Davis—but it lacked any sweeping reforms...
...Indeed, the quest for publicity led him to the only other issue for which he gained any fame: milk cartons...
Vol. 4 • April 1999 • No. 29
