Free Republic

California Governor Gray Davis has been stung by the Bee – the Sacramento Bee that is. Explosive accusations that California’s Governor Gray Davis tried to collect contributions from developers in return for official help have emerged less than a week before next Tuesday’s election thanks to a two-year long battle by the Bee to get documents containing the allegations made public . While Davis’s campaign vigorously denies the charges, and Davis demands that his opponent Bill Simon get out of the race for jumping on the story, release of two letters and media probing has revealed that there is at...

<p>A federal district judge in Sacramento yesterday ordered the release of letters implicating California Gov. Gray Davis in a racketeering scandal.</p> <p>The release of letters in the decade-old case could be a blow to the Democrat's re-election campaign against Republican challenger Bill Simon.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO - A former California coastal commissioner enlisted friends, including San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Hollywood celebrities, in a failed bid last spring to regain his real estate broker's license -- nine years after he was convicted in a sweeping political corruption scandal.</p>

<p>He won't discuss claims by attorneys for an ex-coastal commissioner.</p> <p>OAKLAND -- Gov. Gray Davis, responding to newly released letters that claim he and a disgraced former California coastal commissioner discussed soliciting contributions from developers seeking state approval to build along the coast, Tuesday dismissed the allegations as groundless.</p>

<p>With just a week remaining before the election, there's no doubt that Democratic Gov. Gray Davis still enjoys a substantial, if not overwhelming, lead over Republican challenger Bill Simon and that Davis will be re-elected unless something dramatic occurs.</p> <p>Simon pins his fleeting hopes for victory on persuading the still-undecided voters to follow through on their obvious concerns about Davis' performance and character -- particularly the widespread belief that he has been a "pay to play" governor who extracts huge sums of campaign money from special interests.</p>

Nearly 10 years after they were first leveled, accusations against Gov. Gray Davis were unsealed Monday. They portray him as aggressively pushing for coastal projects so he could pursue contributions from developers and others seeking permits. The accusations, which the governor and his supporters have consistently denied, were never investigated after being provided to Sacramento federal prosecutors by a convicted felon starting in 1993. "The governor is not going to have an argument with a convicted felon and admitted perjurer," Davis political consultant Garry South said. "The charges are false." Prosecutors have said that the alleged actions by Davis, even...

MORE TROUBLE FOR THE GRAYSTER... Papers cleared by U.S. Supreme Court for release are unlikely to dispel the fragrance of corruption around Governor Gray Davis. A convicted felon formerly with the Coastal Commission asserts that Davis extorted campaign contributions from those seeking permits in coastal zones: In the letters, the lawyers claimed [Mark] Nathanson was Davis' longtime friend and fund-raiser and described a series of meetings in a local restaurant concerning the alleged permits-for-donations scheme. When they met, Davis would ask Nathanson to bring him lists of "names of persons that Mark had previously helped with Coastal Commission matters," as...

Calif. Gov. Davis Stumps at Rally Sunday October 20, 2002 5:20 AM GARDENA, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Gray Davis turned Saturday to one of the Democrats' most reliable allies for support, warning a union rally that Republican Bill Simon is a threat to organized labor and exhorting members to get out the vote. ``All the good work we have done and all the progress we have made is at risk, because my opponent does not agree with what we've done,'' Davis said at a labor rally and barbecue in Gardena, 15 miles south of Los Angeles. Simon was campaigning 30...

<p>In a ruling that could embarrass Gov. Gray Davis in the final days of his re-election campaign, the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the release of a corrupt state official's secret assertions about a decade-old bribery scandal at the California Coastal Commission.</p>