Posted on 05/07/2002 10:21:58 AM PDT by randita
Daniel Weintraub: Do voters care that Davis mixes politics, business?
By Daniel Weintraub -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Tuesday, May 7, 2002
As long as Gov. Gray Davis has been in politics, he has been known for the joy he takes in separating campaign donors from their money. What most politicians do with reluctance, Davis, by all accounts, does with relish. His ability to ask for $1 million with a straight face has made him the most successful fund-raiser in the history of California politics.
The voters haven't seemed to mind. Davis' money-grubbing, a constant topic of conversation among Capitol insiders, hasn't stopped him from rolling up big victories even as the public has been crying out for campaign finance reform.
All of that might be about to change.
The Davis operation has just been caught in a transaction that, if it wasn't criminal, was at least criminally dumb. It could be the kind of juicy story that finally leads voters to sit up and take notice of the governor's habit of mixing campaign money and public policy to an unseemly degree.
Davis a year ago accepted a $25,000 campaign contribution from Oracle Corp. just days after the state and the computer software company signed a $95 million contract that the state auditor has since concluded was a terrible deal for the government.
The state thought it was saving money by getting a volume discount. Instead, it bought far more software than needed at prices that were no bargain. The whole thing, the auditor says, could cost taxpayers $41 million more than if there had been no deal at all.
And the Oracle donation, it turns out, was not given through normal channels from the company's headquarters to the governor's campaign committee in Los Angeles. Instead, a company lobbyist handed the check to Davis' e-government director in a Sacramento bar.
The contribution was perfectly legal as long as there was no quid pro quo, no agreement that the company was giving the money in exchange for the contract. But it smells awful. And most voters, put on a jury and asked to judge such conduct, would undoubtedly vote to convict, whatever the law might say.
Davis has suspended one official responsible for the contract and forced out two others, including Arun Baheti, the man who accepted the campaign contribution. The governor's aides are working furiously to distance Davis from the decision. But even if they somehow prove a negative -- that Davis knew nothing -- the Oracle case has opened a window on the governor's world that will not be easily closed.
This is a man who is known to keep lists, to keep track of friend and foe, of those who have helped him and those who have not. It is common knowledge among lobbyists that an individual or group that wants to meet with Davis can most easily secure an audience by ponying up $100,000 to his campaign committee.
Running for governor of California is no cheap task. It takes millions. But Davis, more than most politicians, leaves himself open to suspicion about his motives because he demonstrates so few core beliefs. And he has a curious habit, as he did in the Oracle case, of taking money from interest groups his administration has just helped or is in a position to assist.
In 1999, for instance, Davis attended a fund-raiser with health care lobbyists even as he was negotiating a plan to overhaul the way the state regulates managed care. Consumer advocates criticized the final deal as tilted toward the industry.
Around the same time he went to a reception hosted by the timber industry as his Department of Forestry was unveiling new logging regulations. He took about $75,000 from the ski industry and then exempted the resorts from paying overtime to seasonal workers. He received $130,000 from the Rite Aid corporation before his administration cancelled television ads criticizing the company for selling tobacco in its pharmacy stores. And earlier this year, he got $250,000 from the state prison guards union only weeks after signing off on a contract that will give the guards raises of more than 30 percent over the next five years.
Even when Davis does the right thing, his aggressive fund-raising tactics make his motives appear suspect. The governor, for example, has wisely vowed to veto a bill sponsored by the California Teachers Association to make education standards, curriculum and textbook selection the subject of union negotiations.
But now come published reports that before making that announcement, Davis twice asked the union's president for a $1 million donation and was rebuffed. Would his position on the bill have been the same if the union had come through with the money? That seems unlikely.
Davis has defended his relentless search for the dollar by saying, correctly, that he must raise a ton of money to have a chance against a wealthy opponent, Republican businessman Bill Simon. The governor has tried to make Simon's millions an issue.
But if he is not careful, Davis might leave voters thinking that they would rather have a governor who can spend his own money to get elected than one who sees every issue before his government as a chance to build the balance in his campaign fund.
The Bee's Daniel Weintraub can be reached at (916) 321-1914 or at dweintraub@sacbee.com .
Perhaps California is truly catching on to the fact that they elected a sleazeball.
That being said, I continue to be baffled by the influence of money on politics, since I get all my political information from the news media and Free Republic. There's no way on this planet that trite and superficial campaign ads are going to affect my opinion of either side.
Now, I will get information from campaign web sites, but their cost is negligible. (Especially the lousy one Davis has put up).
D
What is starting to bring Davis down is that the formerly lazy or biased press (take your pick) are now starting to "sit up and take notice."
They are, after all, scavengers. While Davis is one of their own, all the kudos that the SJ Merc is getting for uncovering Oraclegate is too tempting for these bums.
Watch them tear apart Davis in a feeding frenzy. My guess is that the fourth floor of the Secretary of State's building has been crowded elbow to elbow this week as the great unwashed members of the Fourth Estate pore over Gray's finance reports from the past four years.
Yes, but come November, they will all endorse Davis for Governor on their editorial pages.
GW AND DICK CHENEY DID IT!
SIMON DID IT!
I'M INNOCENT! I'VE BEEN FRAMED!
GSA/LOGICON DID IT!
I KNOW NOTHING!
SIMON MADE ME DO IT!
I HAD TO STOP THIS EVIL/RICH CONSERVATIVE'S JUGGERNAUT!
I DID IT FOR THE CHILRUYN, THE GAYS; ILLEGAL ALIENS, AND FOR ABORTION!
ding-ding-ding! WE HAVE A WINNER! Though I can't seem to recall the prize for Most Cynical, Defeatist Comment of the Calgov 2002 race, you do deserve it! I must let you know you beat out some worthy competition. It's your day!
Here in the People's Republic of Los Angeles, all five of us right wingers just call it being realistic.
Dan
He needs to make a statement about abortion once and for all - his personal views against, but that he would be sworn to uphold the law of the land, that hearts and minds need to be changed, etc...
He should also throw open his campaign donation records, which will make him look like Mr. Clean next to Sleazeball Davis.
Wouldn't wanna seem mean spirited, ya know.
You may be right, he needs to be the "anti-Davis", but someone needs to be out there exploiting Davis' troubles. That's where the Simon operatives come into play. These scandals need to be emphasized. Radio hosts in LA are asking for Simon to come on the air & are wondering why he isn’t making a bigger deal out of this. Simon has to attack while the issues are hot. He can’t let Davis scate & then wait until November to try to bring up the issues again.
His campaign donations are Public record . It's the law in California.
"Well, he's made amends for his trifling misbehavior, and there really is no credible opposition (Of course not. Tom McEnery was threatened by all the guys paying bribes to Gonzales), so We Endorse Ron Gonzales For Another Term As Mayor. Even with all that the guy only gets 57%. A rousing approval for a second term...if they hadn't worked over time trying to clean up his image for him he'd be working some Gray Davis / Art Torres patronage job right now.
Same thing gonna happen with Davis.
$22 billion deficit? Not his fault. Bad economy. He's doing his best.
Power crisis? Same song. Mean 'ol power companies.
Bribery? Hey, how's a Po' Boy gonna get elected these days?
S**tcanned 187? How dare you even talk about it.
It is sooooooooo easy to see what's coming.
Question is - will the Simonizers be up to the fight?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.