Davis Roasted, Recalled Fondly and Refinanced at Tribute to Career

About 550 supporters of state Sen. Ed Davis gathered Saturday evening to commemorate the former police chief’s 50-year public career, roast him on the eve of his 71st birthday and, not incidentally, raise about $137,000 for his 1988 reelection campaign.

The $250-a-person event at the Sheraton Universal was hailed as Davis’ most lucrative fund-raiser ever. The Valencia lawmaker has sought to stockpile a campaign arsenal to discourage a possibly expensive and divisive Republican primary challenge by Assemblywoman Cathie Wright of Simi Valley next year.

Wright said last week she has commissioned a public-opinion poll and will decide by the end of the year whether to run in Davis’ heavily Republican 19th Senate District.

“It’s a good war chest,” said Davis, who had set $300,000 as his 1987 fund-raising goal. “We’ll be on the upper side of $200,000.”

The courtly, white-haired Davis had been moved to tears earlier in the evening by the appearance of a series of surprise guests invited by his wife, Bobbie, without his knowledge. These included two sisters flown in from Oregon, a daughter who came from New Jersey and numerous colleagues from the senator’s public life.

Gov. George Deukmejian led a parade of current and former elected officials, law-enforcement figures and family members in paying tribute to Davis, who began his public career as a $70-a-month Los Angeles City parks employee in 1937 and gained national prominence as the city’s blunt-spoken police chief. He was elected to the Senate in 1980 and reelected in 1984.

“He has a way with words, he has a way with people and he has a way of bringing to his district the best representation they’ve ever had,” said state Sen. William Craven (R-Carlsbad).

Deukmejian, who has endorsed Davis for reelection in 1988, called him a “strong and effective leader” who is “helping me carry out the programs and policies that I talked about when I went to the voters in 1982 and 1986.”

He emphasized Davis’ support for tough crime-fighting measures as well as Davis’ role in ousting state Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird last year.

Ironically, the evening’s tone was that of a retirement dinner even though its purpose was to position Davis to continue his public career. But there were many lighter moments as well.

Memos Circulate Again

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, who was an assistant chief under Davis, produced some of his predecessor’s old memos replete with the kind of straightforward, often salty, language for which Davis is renowned.

“The motor pool continues to be a problem,” one memo began. “Is that deputy chief you have over the hill? Or are you over the hill? I’m tired of being a bastard on this issue. It’s time for you to be a bastard.”

Davis’ son, Michael, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, recalled the day during tumult-filled 1969 when leftist radical Abbie Hoffman and 2,000 anti-Vietnam war demonstrators planned to bury a coffin in the front yard of Chief Davis’ Chatsworth home.

One of Davis’ daughters awakened that morning to what sounded like war cries. When she peered into the hallway, she found her father “whooping up and down the hall,” Michael Davis said.

“It’s a rain dance,” explained the chief, who was apparently cognizant of the already crackling thunder.

“It rained cats and dogs that day,” Michael Davis said. “And Abbie Hoffman and his demonstrators never made it.”

Yorty, Block Pay Homage

Among others paying homage to Davis were former Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay and “Star Trek” television producer Gene Roddenberry, who once served with Davis on the police force. Davis was chief of the 7,000-member Police Department for 8 1/2 years, retiring in 1978.

Roddenberry announced he supported Davis even though he was a Democrat “because he is a most honest man and that is more important than party politics.”

Many of the evening’s funniest lines were delivered by radio comedian Roger Barkley, who served as master of ceremonies.

Barkley offered advice for those entering politics: “A closed mouth gathers no feet.”

He introduced Deukmejian as “a man who told me privately, ‘Let me control the Earth’s oxygen supply and I don’t care who makes the laws.’ ”

And, of the honoree, he quipped, “Ed Davis’ great dream is that one day he will die in his own arms.”

Unmentioned during the career retrospective was a painful defeat last year that has had lingering repercussions. Davis, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 1978, placed a distant fifth in an attempt to win the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Sen. Alan Cranston.

Political Animosity

Moreover, he finished the campaign with a $105,000 debt he still is paying off and with the intense animosity of another candidate, former Rep. Bobbi Fiedler of Northridge, and her allies, including Wright.

During the campaign, Davis charged that Fiedler tried to buy him out of the race by promising to help him raise $100,000 to pay off his campaign debt. Fiedler and her campaign manager, Paul Clarke, were subsequently indicted on that allegation.

Although a judge later threw out the indictments as groundless, Fiedler’s campaign was crippled. Wright said earlier this year she was considering opposing Davis because of the bitter divisions the incident created among Republicans in the San Fernando Valley area.

Without a serious primary challenge, Davis’ reelection would appear almost certain. The sprawling district is so overwhelmingly Republican that Democrats generally offer only token general-election opposition.

The district extends across the West Valley, western Antelope Valley, the northern and noncoastal sections of Ventura County and most of Santa Barbara County.

Earlier this year, after recounting his career experiences, Davis told a reporter: “I’ve been a Marine, a sailor, a cop and a politician. So I’ve seen a lot of people like Cathie Wright, but few of them in skirts.”

“He’s a chauvinist, isn’t he?” Wright said between peals of laughter when asked to respond to Davis’ remark last week. “Old age is getting to him.”