There’s More to Being Governor Than Just Symbols

Gov. Gray Davis is riding around these days in a sleek, black Lincoln Town Car. But his head often is back in an old blue Plymouth.

You’ve got to be pushing middle age, at least, to remember the blue Plymouth. It was Gov. Jerry Brown’s vehicle for symbolism. His chief of staff, Gray Davis, ordered it from the state car fleet.

“There was this big argument over which car to drive,” Davis recalls. “I said, ‘Look, why don’t we just call General Services and tell them to assign the same car to the governor they would to a Cabinet secretary.’ I didn’t call up and say, ‘Give me a powder blue Plymouth.’ The point was to not treat the governor any differently.”

The point was symbolism. By riding around in a common Plymouth, Brown was trying to signal that he could relate to the common folk. He got good mileage for a while. But eventually the car--and most of Brown’s gimmicks--wore old.

That was two decades ago.

This new governor also practices symbolism. “Symbols are a form of shorthand,” he explains. “They give you a brief glimpse into someone’s character . . . his lifestyle and point of view.”

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Gimmicks and stunts. Many politicians posture and preen. Gov. Pete Wilson refused to accept his full salary, and so does Davis. Both governors trimmed their pay 5%. For Wilson, there was good reason initially: California was in a deep recession, and the governor was cutting services and raising taxes. Share the burden. But with Davis, it seems silly. The economy’s OK.

“It’s important to communicate that I’m not in this job to maximize the return on my labor,” Davis says. But California’s governor is CEO of a $78-billion enterprise, for crying out loud. His pay rate is only $165,000, with no bonuses. Take off 5% and it’s a miserly $156,750.

Worse, Davis--as did Wilson--also is forcing his appointees to take 5% less than allowed. This probably has zilch effect on the governor’s public popularity. But it absolutely ticks off staffers.

What’s the rationale for docking his appointees, I asked Davis at a recent news conference, where he signed a pay raise for ordinary civil servants. “Because I’m the boss and that’s what I say,” he answered, smiling. “We’re about public service. That’s the arrangement.”

Then, there was the carpet caper:

The carpet in the governor’s office complex hadn’t been replaced in 16 years and was badly worn. There were duct-tape patches. Wilson arranged to buy new carpet and drapes for the incoming governor. Davis’ wife, Sharon, picked out the colors and the order was placed. Then her husband got cold feet; a new $55,000 carpet wouldn’t look good when the treasury might be running $2 billion short. Send it all to a warehouse.

Photo-op gimmickry? Here’s a governor who goes into classrooms to read “The Little Engine That Could.”

Last week, he rode 40 miles south to Stockton to be “Principal for a Day.” This included “supervising lunch recess.” Not exactly a governor’s job description.

TV stations all passed. The only news story was in the Stockton Record.

Any blue Plymouth gets old.

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Of course, this is mere Sacramento whining, the kind that has dogged Davis throughout his career. Publicity hound, cynics cried. Never get elected governor.

Now, a state Field Poll shows Davis with an approve-disapprove ratio of 5 to 1. That’s interesting, but here’s the relevance: Jerry Brown’s initial job rating was 8 to 1 and Gov. Ronald Reagan’s was only 1 1/2 to 1. By the time he left Sacramento, Brown’s rating was 2 to 1 unfavorable. Reagan went on to be president. Initial polls can’t foretell the future.

Davis is coming up on his 100-day mark--April 13--and has been spinning his successes to reporters. There aren’t many, but they deserve praise.

Using his clout as a landslide winner whose party controls the Legislature, the governor easily pushed through his four education reform bills. He concentrated on little else. Now he’ll go on a four-city victory lap around the state, signing each bill separately, milking the maximum publicity.

Davis also closed a $480-million deal to save the Headwaters redwoods forest. “I took a page out of Wilson’s book” he says. “I made a reasonable offer, they turned it down, so my second offer was tougher.” And accepted.

A control freak, he’s still poking along like a Model T filling top jobs. “These [appointees] are an extension of me,” he says. “People can yell and scream and complain, but I’m going to move at my pace.”

His pace--whether in a Model T, fancy Town Car or old Plymouth. Taking the safe route, middle of the road. Posing for photos along the way. So far, so good. But at some point, he’ll need to shift into a higher gear.