Controller Candidates Swap Charges

As they campaign around the state, the major candidates for state controller like to talk about their plans for the future of California’s economy. But on Friday, in their first face-to-face meeting, the two seemed more interested in who had done more to wreck the state’s finances four years ago.

Republican state Sen. William Campbell of Hacienda Heights characterized his chief opponent, Democratic Assemblyman Gray Davis of Los Angeles, as the “chief architect and spokesman” for a policy that nearly bankrupted California.

Davis, meanwhile, accused Campbell of being a shill of special interests and labeled him “the Legislature’s biggest spender.”

The verbal sparring, which focused on a $1.5-billion deficit left behind by former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., showed the first signs of life in a campaign that thus far has failed to energize voters and has both candidates convinced that they can win merely by saturating the airwaves with 30-second commercials just before the Nov. 4 election.

The confrontation, which fittingly took place in a television studio where KNBC’s “News Conference” program was being taped, is likely to be the only direct face-off between the two before the balloting. The program airs at 8 a.m. Sunday on Channel 4 in Los Angeles.

Both took full advantage of the opportunity to accuse each other of fiscal mismanagement--a charge they hope will stick as voters decide who they want to oversee the state’s vast cash reserves.

Campbell, drawing on lines from his own television commercials, homed in on Davis’ seven years as chief of staff to the enigmatic Brown, charging that he helped spend the state into a major deficit before leaving office.

“It was that economic policy that devastated the state of California,” Campbell said. “The chief of staff has tremendous impact and influence on the governor, and Gray was even referred to as the shadow governor. Yet he doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened economically.”

Davis, on the other hand, said he was “proud” of his opportunity to serve Brown but should not be blamed for the huge deficit left behind by the former governor. Davis quit his job as chief of staff in 1981, more than a year before the deficit surfaced and at a time when there was still a budget surplus.

“Now, Mr. Campbell blames me for everything that goes wrong, from the drought to athlete’s foot,” Davis said.

On the contrary, he added, Campbell served as Senate minority leader during the final year of Brown’s term and voted for the deficit budget.

In a sharp rejoinder, Campbell accused Davis of being “the navigator of the ship of state.”

“And just because he jumped off before it hit that fiscal iceberg, is no reason to get out from taking credit for what he did,” Campbell said.

The ghost of Brown has hovered over the race since before the June primary, when unsuccessful Democratic challenger Sen. John Garamendi of Walnut Grove used much the same strategy to undermine Davis’ support among Democrats.

While that tactic appeared to fail, Campbell is convinced that it will help him coalesce support from many anti-Brown Democrats and nearly all Republicans who, according to polls, still deeply resent the Brown years.

Davis, who has yet to begin his television commercials, has tried to alter the direction of the campaign by focusing on what he calls Campbell’s record of helping special interests.

Davis called attention to that record during the program’s taping when he mentioned Campbell’s authorship of a controversial bill that would have removed the right of cities to ban the sale of fireworks. He carried the bill for W. Patrick Moriarty, a fireworks manufacturer and constituent who has since been convicted on political corruption charges.

“There you go again Gray,” Campbell shot back, borrowing a line often used by President Reagan.

“Gray Davis is also a friend of Moriarty,” Campbell continued. “In fact, he took campaign contributions from him.”