California Elections : LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR : Davis, Wright Battle for the Spotlight

Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Gray Davis is pouring more than $2 million into a drive to defeat state Sen. Cathie Wright, his little-known and underfinanced Republican opponent.

But the liberal-leaning Davis, the state controller, is not merely trying to bury the conservative Simi Valley lawmaker in their Nov. 8 matchup for the state’s No. 2 office. Davis’ parallel goal is to rehabilitate his own image, tarnished by his unsuccessful 1992 campaign for the U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein.

In that losing effort, a negative Davis TV ad sparked a furor by comparing Feinstein to convicted hotelier Leona Helmsley. Feinstein’s backers described the 30-second spot as “sleazy” and offensive to women and Jews.

The two-term controller has sought to reduce any lingering anger over the spot among Democrats by strongly endorsing Feinstein’s Senate reelection bid, raising funds for other statewide Democratic candidates and staying in close touch with his gubernatorial running mate, Kathleen Brown.

Still, underdog Wright is now focusing on the Feinstein ad to show that Davis has never “learned how to effectively campaign against women because I don’t believe he has ever respected women.”

In an interview on the campaign trail, Davis shrugged off the criticism and blasted Wright, with whom he served in the Assembly, as “a far-right extremist” who opposes abortion rights and other issues important to women. Davis favors abortion rights.

Not withstanding the heated rhetoric, the campaign to succeed retiring Democratic Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy has been a low-key affair that has generated little attention.

But as the election nears, that could change. Davis has prepaid about $1 million for campaign spots and expects to shell out another $1 million this week for more air time. While Davis has raised $1.7 million this year, Wright has brought in only $450,000, though she hopes to raise considerably more to launch a competitive TV attack on the better-known Davis.

A Los Angeles Times poll this week showed Davis with a commanding 2-to-1 lead over Wright among likely voters, making the controller the closest thing the Democrats have to a sure winner among statewide races.

Should Davis succeed and Brown fail in her race against Gov. Pete Wilson, the controller will be catapulted into the ranks of the top contenders for the 1998 campaign for the state’s top job, according to Democratic insiders.

But the last time a lieutenant governor moved into the governor’s office was in 1953 when Goodwin Knight succeeded Earl Warren. Indeed, one joke around the Capitol is that the lieutenant governor’s most important job is to check to see if the chief executive’s heart is still ticking.

On paper, the duties of the post are limited to filling in for the governor, serving as the largely ceremonial presiding officer of the state Senate and sitting on about half a dozen boards, including the University of California Board of Regents and the Economic Development Commission.

Both Wright and Davis boast that they will transform the chairmanship of the latter commission into a bully pulpit to revitalize the state’s economy. But, as noted by McCarthy’s office, there’s a big catch: The Legislature has cut the panel’s funds effective January.

Still, where others see a road to oblivion, Davis sees a golden opportunity to become “Al Gore West,” comparing himself to the activist Democratic vice president.

Speaking to a friendly Democratic women’s club last month at a Fresno bowling alley, Davis talked about his willingness to roll up his sleeves to court business, citing his successful role in keeping Taco Bell from relocating its headquarters from Irvine to Texas and moving 1,000 jobs out of California.

“I’m going to make it my life’s work to be an advocate for jobs in California,” Davis told his supporters.

Two decades after he first ran for statewide office, Davis, 51, is now a battle-scarred campaigner who is beginning to ease into the part of party elder statesman. His neatly coiffed brown hair is turning white, and though he was once known for his hot temper, an outwardly mellower Davis even mocks himself as “a boring white guy.”

Born Joseph Graham Davis III, Davis moved to California at age 11. After graduating from Stanford University where he was a varsity golfer, Davis got a law degree from Columbia University. He served two years with the Army in Vietnam, leaving with the rank of captain and a Bronze Star. He is married to a flight attendant.

Davis later worked for then-Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, lost a treasurer’s race to Jesse M. Unruh and served for six years as former Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.’s highly visible chief of staff. Elected to the Assembly in 1982 from a silk-stocking West Los Angeles district that provided a good base for his aggressive fund-raising, Davis was well positioned four years later to step up to controller.

As the state’s chief financial officer, Davis pays the state’s bills and conducts audits of government expenditures. As a fiscal watchdog, Davis this year publicized a $2.7-billion accounting error that threatened to undermine the governor’s budget.

But his career has been dogged by controversy, which the Wright campaign seeks to exploit in a pamphlet distributed to reporters entitled “Gray’s Anatomy.”

Wright cites how the attorney general’s office determined that aides in Davis’ Assembly office had improperly helped raise money for his first controller campaign in 1986. The dispute was settled when Davis agreed to reimburse the state $28,000.

Wright’s campaign also brands as “old-fashioned cronyism” Davis’ naming of friends, relatives of campaign contributors and politicians to lucrative posts as probate referees. After publicity last year about the appointments, Davis took steps to root out so-called phantom referees and ensure that the officials fulfill their duties.

Navigating the Los Angeles freeways one recent morning, Wright said her goal is to block Davis from getting into office on a cakewalk. Wright lashed out at her rival as “always doing something strictly for his own glorification” and contending that his agenda “is not to be lieutenant governor but to be governor.”

Wright, 65, a native of Old Forge, Pa., gleefully tells audiences that she did not leave home until she was 32. A former Democrat and onetime insurance underwriter, she ran for the Simi Valley City Council three times before winning on her fourth shot. Two years later in 1980, she won an Assembly seat. During her first reelection campaign, her husband died.

Two years ago she stepped up to the Senate and in June easily won the right to be the GOP standard-bearer for lieutenant governor.

Wright, who touts her legislation on behalf of mental health programs, is known as a predictable conservative vote in the Legislature. But whereas Davis has honed an image as a pragmatic insider familiar with the nitty-gritty of politics, Wright is regarded by her colleagues as something of an outsider even within the Legislature’s Republican minority.

Until she jumped into the lieutenant governor’s race, Wright was best known for interceding with authorities when her daughter ran up a string of 27 traffic tickets. Wright vigorously denied any wrongdoing, but an investigation by the Ventura County district attorney’s office determined that as an Assembly member she tried to fix her 24-year-old daughter’s tickets on several occasions and solicited help on the matter from Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

In her view, the Statehouse would operate more smoothly if the governor and lieutenant governor were of the same party. Left unsaid was the view that Wilson, should he win reelection, would be more likely to run for President or vice president if he could turn the keys to his Statehouse office over to Republican Wright instead of Democrat Davis.

Also on the ballot are American Independent Party hopeful Robert W. Lewis, a director of the Rowland Water District of Rowland Heights; Libertarian Bob New, 73, a Glendale businessman; Peace and Freedom’s J. Luis Gomez, a Los Angeles accountant and educator, and the Green Party’s Daniel Moses, a Half Moon Bay editor.