WIN BY ONETIME PROTEGE DAVIS COULD PAY OFF BIG FOR BROWN, S.F.P>
Topic: White Water
WIN BY ONETIME PROTEGE DAVIS COULD PAY OFF BIG FOR BROWN, S.F.
The SF Gate
October 31, 1998 Edward Epstein
The man with California's slyest Cheshire Cat grin these days is San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
If the polls are right and Gray Davis is elected governor Tuesday, Brown will be in the driver's seat of California politics. Or at least he will be right up there in the front seat next to the new governor.
Brown doesn't deny that a Davis victory, coupled with the mayor's unique hold on the state Legislature, could make him the kingpin. ``That's your conclusion,'' he said when a reporter asked him about it. ``And I think you should stick to it.''
For Brown and the city's programs and public works projects and for its Democratic Party's patronage wishes, Tuesday could usher in a golden era.
Consider this unprecedented combination of factors working in favor of Brown, the 64-year-old senior leader of the state's Democrats:
-- Davis was a protege of the mayor's back when Brown was Assembly speaker, and Brown was one of the first big names to endorse Davis' gubernatorial candidacy. What's more, Brown stuck with Davis when it appeared he was sinking beneath the primary challenges of Al Checchi and Jane Harman.
The lieutenant governor does not hesitate to publicly express his gratitude every chance he gets.
An anecdote from a campaign event just before June's primary tells the story. Davis appeared outside San Francisco's temporary City Hall with Brown, Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris and several other politicians.
He lauded Brown as his mentor and his main backer for governor. Then he said, ``I don't want to say that Willie Brown can have whatever he wants when I'm elected governor, but . . .''
At that point Harris interrupted the candidate and quipped, ``That's right, you don't.''
The small crowd roared, and the point was made.
-- Democrats are expected to keep control of both houses of the Legislature, giving Davis a chance to push through his legislative agenda.
-- The president of the state Senate is none other than John Burton of San Francisco. That's Burton as in the Burton-Brown Democratic machine. Burton is Brown's oldest friend, going back to the early 1950s.
-- Democratic leaders in the Assembly still regularly turn to Brown for advice because term limits have produced an inexperienced leadership lineup.
In the Assembly, the city's two Democrats are in key positions. Kevin Shelley is majority leader, and Carole Migden chairs the Appropriations Committee.
It wouldn't be a shocker if one of them eventually succeeds Antonio Villaraigosa as speaker.
What does it all add up to?
Brown's shopping list for San Francisco and himself will get prime consideration in Sacramento, if Davis beats Republican Dan Lungren and if the Democrats retain control of both houses of the Legislature.
``There will be a bridge over every puddle in the city of San Francisco after the next four years,'' was how Republican campaign strategist Dan Schnur put it.
Schnur is not willing to concede that Lungren and the GOP legislative candidates won't pull an upset Tuesday, but he says a Davis win means Brown's power will grow.
``He should exercise it quietly,'' was Schnur's advice.
Shelley said a Davis win would put San Francisco and Brown's agenda on the front burner. There could be money for what a skeptic would call pork, in the form of the city's parks, public museums and pools.
Many of these things were blocked during Governor Pete Wilson's administration. ``It was Governor Wilson's payback for his years of arguing with Willie Brown,'' Shelley said. ``That will all change now.''
Brown has his own bricks-and- mortar plans.
He listed money for ramps from the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island, his pet idea of commuter rail service on the Bay Bridge, BART to the airport, the Municipal Railway and port redevelopment.
``I got an agenda,'' Brown said.
San Francisco Democrats are practically drooling over the chance to fill judicial vacancies after a 16-year drought. But Brown expressed indifference.
``I'm going to be representing the city,'' he said. ``That judge stuff is just politics.''
One expert warned that Brown should not get too exuberant about the potential arrival of Governor Gray Davis.
``The most powerful contingent of Democratic legislators is from Los Angeles. I just can't imagine that if Gray plays solely to the Northern California wing of the party that he can get away with it,'' said Bruce Cain of the University of California at Berkeley's Institute of Government Studies.
``Willie's demands will be matched by those from Southern California,'' he said.
Davis is a cautious, experienced politician, Cain said, and he will strive to appear independent. ``Gray will do what will get him in the least amount of trouble with the fewest people,'' he said.
Both Cain and Schnur said the current campaign is notable because it's the first one in a long time in which GOP strategists have not tried to make Willie Brown, the symbol of liberalism, a campaign target.
``The Republicans tried throughout the 1980s to use his picture to tie Democratic candidates to him. It didn't work,'' Cain said.
In this campaign, ``It's just not big news to people to say that Willie and Gray know each other,'' he added.
Or as Schnur put it, ``Voters now figure that Willie is San Francisco's problem.''
©1998 San Francisco Chronicle
Sickening stuff, huh? The liberal, government-sucking democrats continue to cause detrimental ramifications . . . just as they have for the last 40 years (and more). Nearly as sickening as Jesse Jackson short of flat-out telling all blacks that electing Republicans would cause more abortion clinic bombings, more 'hate'-induced murders, etc., etc.
And to think I could have gone straight to church instead of pausing to view the West Coast news and choking on the loss, perhaps permanently, of California's electoral votes ever being cast for a conservative again . . . Posted by: Penny (pennies_from_txs@hotmail.com) *
10/31/98 08:05:03 PST
To: Penny
Willie Brown is the BEST reason to never move to Calif. What a useless piece of shit!!!!!
From: ireaditinthepress (litfinr@gte.net) *
10/31/98 08:15:44 PST
To: ireaditinthepress
Davis Takes Campaign Cash from Convicted Pornographer
Los Angeles Times, 9/26/98 and SF Examiner, 10/18/98
Giving new meaning to "dirty money", Davis is still taking big bucks from a twice-convicted porn-peddler who was finance chairman for his 1986 campaign state controller.
Eugene LaPietra, still one of Davis' major bankrollers, was convicted in 1971 for selling a pornographic movie to an undercover officer and again in 1974 on federal felony charges for shipping porn movies. He owned two adult bookstores, a porn movie arcade and part of mail-order smut business.
That hasn't stopped Gray Davis from accepting big-time backing -- $94,000 over the last five years including $34,000 this year alone -- from this convicted pornographer.
Gray Davis and La Pietra go back a long way. LaPietra served as finance chairman on Davis' campaign for state controller in 1986 until he was forced to resign after the convictions and porn business became public.
From: Born Free (Gray DAvis Watch@) *
10/31/98 09:56:30 PST
To: ireaditinthepress
"Willie Brown is the BEST reason to never move to Calif. What a useless piece of shit!!!!!"
Please pass your comments along to Sir Kenny of Malibu and Mr. Scaife - the last thing we need here is another subsidized lawyer.
Bye the bye - Knock Mr. Davis and Ms. Boxer but Willie is the best
From: Seguet (malicat@gte.net) *
10/31/98 10:05:00 PST
To: Penny
What was that I said about California becoming the next Arkansas?
From: dr_who () *
10/31/98 10:33:00 PST
To: Seguet
"Bye the bye - Knock Mr. Davis and Ms. Boxer but Willie is the best"
Please write in complete sentences.
From: dr_who () *
10/31/98 10:38:33 PST