THOUSAND OAKS : McClintock Attacks Gray Davis’ Record

Accusing State Controller Gray Davis of failing to guard the state’s treasury, former Assemblyman Tom McClintock vowed Thursday that if elected to the office he will serve as the crusading watchdog that California most needs in its time of fiscal crisis.

McClintock, who represented Ventura County in the Legislature from 1982 to 1992 before running unsuccessfully for Congress last year, announced his candidacy for state controller Thursday morning at a news conference in Sacramento.

Noting that the controller’s job includes issuing state checks and that Davis has at times used that role to gain visibility, the conservative from Thousand Oaks said: “I think the controller should show a certain reluctance in cutting checks, not an exuberance.”

Davis, a Democrat who was elected to the office in 1986, is leaving the post to run for lieutenant governor. Other candidates to succeed him include Democrats Brad Sherman, chairman of the State Board of Equalization; Rusty Areias, an assemblyman from San Jose, and Don Perata, an Alameda County supervisor. McClintock is the only prominent Republican to enter the race so far.

Saying Davis’ record has been “disappointing, lackluster and entirely inadequate,” the conservative vowed, if elected, to use audits vigorously as a safeguard against unnecessary spending.

“More important,” he said, “is the moral authority of that office to train a spotlight on the misuse of taxpayer money.”