Davies Gains Regents Post in Close Vote : Education: The San Diego attorney, a longtime friend of Wilson, wins a 12-year term after an impassioned fight on the Senate floor.

Over protests that he would perpetuate the status quo, the Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed a wealthy longtime friend and political supporter of Gov. Pete Wilson as a regent of the troubled University of California.

Approval of San Diego attorney John G. Davies for a 12-year term followed an impassioned floor fight over whether Davies could provide the leadership needed as UC confronts swiftly shifting economic and social challenges.

“We cannot afford to put in for 12 years another Anglo, male millionaire who will see things from that perspective,” said liberal Democratic Sen. Diane Watson, the state’s first African-American woman senator.

Critics, including Common Cause, some student organizations and several Latino organizations, have argued that Davies does not meet a provision of the state Constitution that requires regents to be broadly reflective of the diverse populations of California.

But a liberal senator, Nicholas Petris (D-Oakland), whose parents emigrated from Greece, came to Davies’ defense. He warned the Senate against voting on the basis of what he called an unfair “pale, male and stale” stereotype.

Petris argued that the Senate routinely confirmed wealthy males in the past, without debate. “Now all of a sudden we are conscious of their wealth and conscious of their gender. Where have we been all this time? Is it a guilty conscience that compels us to stand up and complain (now)?”

Davies, the governor’s law school roommate at UC Berkeley who became a political intimate and fund-raiser for Wilson, was confirmed on a bipartisan 22-12 vote, one more than required. All the no votes were cast by Democrats.

The decisive 21st vote was cast by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), who had missed the floor fight but returned at the last minute when it briefly appeared that Davies might be defeated. Bergeson is Wilson’s nominee to succeed Bill Honig as state superintendent of public instruction.

Davies, 58, who has served as an unconfirmed regent for the last year, has been credited by supporters and even some skeptics with providing a no-nonsense and stabilizing influence as the regents find themselves in the midst of one controversy after another.

But Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), among others, has zeroed in on a $1.2-million pension package approved last year for former UC President David Gardner along with hefty salary increases for some top UC administrators. At the same time, the regents imposed stiff fee increases for students.

Hayden asserted Thursday that a vote to approve Davies, a partner in a prominent law firm, would tell taxpayers, students, parents and faculty members that the Senate favors business as usual at the crisis-ridden UC system. He said that Davies had “voted and supported the status quo for the past year.”

Watson said the UC regents need “someone who is Latino, someone who is African-American, someone who is Asian, someone who is poor, someone who has worked his or her way up.”

But veteran Sen. William Craven (R-Oceanside) contended that in various civic roles Davies had been “very, very active with people in the minority community and this separates him from what you would call the old boys’ network.” He said Davies represents a “new voice, new ideas.”

Governors have traditionally appointed their political supporters to the Board of Regents, which oversees the university system.