One Party More Important Than the Democrats

Perhaps you’re under the mistaken impression that Gray Davis earned the governor’s seat by working incredibly long hours, slogging from one tip of California to another and kissing the entire class of 2020. We would like to correct that now. Davis got the job by partying.

“We knew this was going to be a great campaign when Gray and I attended [our friends] the Gitnick Super Bowl party,” said Gray’s wife, Sharon Davis, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “Any candidate who’s allowed to speak at this auspicious event in their home ends up being elected to the office they’re seeking. This has happened several times.

“So in 1996, Gray was invited to address the audience during halftime. And then we went on to campaign, and other people got into the race, and they were spending a lot of money, and people said he couldn’t win and he was boring, too dull, road kill. But I knew what Gary [Gitnick] had said about his Super Bowl party.”

Voila.

One good party deserves another. So on Wednesday, the new first lady of California spoke at the eighth annual spring luncheon for the education charity that the Gitnicks founded, the Friends of the Fulfillment Fund. You could see why Cherna and Gary Gitnick, who’s head of gastroenterology at UCLA, are such good pals of the Davises. Both couples have made improving educational opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged youth, a focus of their lives.

After speaking about the governor’s education policies, Sharon Davis warmly greeted well-wishers and chatted with us about her first few months in Sacramento.

“You can’t really anticipate what it will entail, but it really has been wonderful. It’s a great job title, but of course the pay is abysmal. Other than that, you can work on issues that you care about, and education is an issue that both Gray and I have worked on for a long time.

“It’s not that education has been ignored. It has gotten a lot of attention, but a lot of the attention has been negative, and what Gray wants to do is show people that public education can succeed in this state.”

As his good-education ambassador, Sharon Davis has been stumping at fund-raisers and visiting schools around the state. On Wednesday evening, she planned to speak at another event, the L.A. Alzheimer’s Assn.’s “Night at Sardi’s” benefit, in memory of her mother, who passed away from the disease last year. Later that night she was to meet her husband in San Francisco and tour schools in Stockton on Thursday. Today, she’s back in the Southland, visiting Rosa Parks Elementary School in San Diego.

Thank goodness Sharon Davis has so much experience flying as a former flight attendant.

“I know. It paid off. Being a flight attendant was perfect training for being the wife of a politician, because no matter how badly your feet hurt, you can smile and be nice to people.”

The Fulfillment Fund lunch, co-sponsored by Neiman Marcus, honored Marcia Hobbs, chairman of Christie’s, Los Angeles, and philanthropist Glorya Kaufman for being community leaders. Also applauded were Mike McGalliard, director of the fund’s College Pathways Project, and one of the students he has mentored, Esther Canales, now a student at Santa Monica College.

Irene Lacher’s Out & About column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on Page 2.