Painting of Davis Recalls Earlier Era

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a misty-eyed former Gov. Gray Davis unveiled the ousted chief executive’s official portrait in the Capitol on Wednesday, and it was as if there had never been a recall.

Davis was his old self: He delivered a campaign speech a little too long, touching on bond measures and bills passed long ago. He thanked many people -- even those who meant to come but didn’t -- not stopping until he thanked the four guys who hung his portrait on the 3rd-floor landing near paintings of former governors Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown.

The ceremony is a tradition in the Capitol -- bipartisan and full of warmth despite political differences.

Schwarzenegger praised Davis for doing an “incredible job” and for his “great, great leadership” during 30 years of public service, not mentioning that he helped make Davis the first California governor ousted in a recall.

First, Schwarzenegger reassured the audience that he was feeling better, after being admitted early Wednesday to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento for a rapid heartbeat apparently triggered by the stomach flu. He stood on stage near the portrait, grasping the hand of his wife, Maria Shriver, during the ceremony.

The governor was released from the hospital after two hours of observation -- everything was normal, doctors said -- despite worries about his heart valve. In 1997, Schwarzenegger had the valve replaced. His staff said he is now “feeling fine.”

“I just do this once in a while to show that Republicans do have a heart,” Schwarzenegger quipped. “In all seriousness, the doctor said everything was fine, I just got a little bit excited over the fact that I am going to see Gray Davis’ portrait.”

The event in the ornate Capitol rotunda began with Lynn Schenk, Davis’ former chief of staff, commenting on what people must have been thinking. Even before the velvet drape was yanked down to reveal a smiling Davis on the seashore, Schenk pointed out the irony of seeing two former top aides to Davis in the audience.

They now serve as high-ranking employees of Schwarzenegger. The Republican governor has caused howls of protest from his own party because he recently hired Susan P. Kennedy, former Cabinet secretary to Davis, as his chief of staff.

He also appointed Daniel Zingale, also a former Davis Cabinet secretary, to be Shriver’s chief of staff.

“The Davis administration will continue here in my former deputy chiefs of staff,” Schenk told the crowd of other former Davis aides, many of whom laughed. “I actually had been grooming Susan and Daniel to succeed me as chief of staff, but I thought it was going to be in the Davis administration.”

Afterward, Capitol museum workers carefully hung Davis’ portrait in the hallway where tourists pass to enter the Assembly and Senate galleries. Davis’ 5-by-4-foot painting is a foot taller than the rest on that floor, but about average for all the other gubernatorial portraits.

Painted by San Jose artist Robert K. Semans, the portrait borders on being photo-realistic except for some soft edges. Semans worked from a photograph of Davis in a red tie and blue shirt, his coat over his left arm, taken at the Palo Corona Ranch on Carmel Bay. As with other governors, taxpayers picked up the $50,000 cost of the painting.

Davis said he hoped it would show the natural beauty of the Monterey County watershed, which his administration helped acquire. “That is how I would like to be remembered,” he said, adding like a true politician: “We preserved more than 500,000 acres through easements and land acquisitions.”