Davis Gains Higher Profile in World’s Eyes

Barnstorming from London to Gaza City, from the Parthenon to the pyramids, Gov. Gray Davis took significant strides toward making his state and his young administration a foreign affairs force to reckon with.

In the process, Davis, wrapping up his 10th month in office, is sure to have solidified his standing with his political benefactors, and may have won some new friends as well.

“If he continues doing this, he is going to redefine the job of governor,” said Stanley Zax, chairman of Zenith National Insurance and part of Davis’ traveling delegation.

Davis has no foreign portfolio. But he traveled to five countries, met with four heads of state and became the first California governor to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Portfolio or not, Davis at each stop emphasized that he represents a state with an economy that would rank seventh in the world if it were a nation.

The Davis “foreign policy” is simple enough, summed up by a line he repeated as the trip progressed: “Diplomacy used to be about war and peace; now it’s about trade and commerce.”

A U.S. president on a foreign mission, for example, would be limited by protocol, if nothing else, from taking a private businessman with him in a meeting with the head of a foreign state.

On Thursday, however, Davis did precisely that, allowing Keith Brackpool of Cadiz Inc., a major Santa Monica-based agribusiness firm, to accompany him in a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Cadiz has a contract in a massive water project in Egypt.

In other stages of the trip, Davis introduced selected members of the traveling business group to presidents, prime ministers and ambassadors, who theoretically could help them in future business dealings.

For California, the immediate harvest from the trip is sparse--two contracts worth $7 million and a few agreements pledging trade and cultural exchanges.

But Davis and his delegation predict there will be more to come. Davis said he intends to comply with an Egyptian official’s request that he supply the names of California firms capable of undertaking water and sewage treatment projects and environmental cleanup.

Insurance executive Zax said that after visiting Egypt, he intends to invest there. Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopolous, also part of the delegation, said he intends to contact business associates involved in prefabricated housing in the hope of making sales in Greece.

“You don’t separate business and culture and politics,” Tsakopolous said. “They are one and the same, especially overseas.”

“My purpose was the economy, and from that perspective, the trip was very successful,” Davis said.

It was a political success too.

In Sacramento, insiders view Davis as cautious to a fault. But the trip, concluded Saturday, adds to his status as a governor with a growing national and global presence.

At virtually every stop, Davis was introduced as the man Time magazine called “the most fearless governor in the United States.” Several times, his hosts said he might become president--something Davis discounted by pointing out that it took him more than two decades to become governor, his “lifelong dream.”

“Once or twice, we had to pinch ourselves,” Davis said, his wife Sharon beside him as their U.S. Embassy-supplied driver zipped across Israel.

The delegation Davis invited includes some of California’s biggest political donors. Acting on behalf of themselves or their companies or organizations, they were responsible for at least $6 million in donations last year, primarily to Democratic candidates.

The governor gave the high rollers what they wanted.

The entourage included several people active in U.S.-Israeli affairs and who have business dealings in Europe and the Middle East. They shared a common fascination with foreign affairs and many, such as Tsakopolous, have the clout to get meetings with leaders in some countries on their own.

But even the most worldly among them were impressed when Davis led them on visits with Palestinian Authority President Arafat in Gaza City and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in Jerusalem on the same day.

“Incredible,” Tsakopolous said of the meetings with Arafat and Barak.

Throw in audiences with Mubarak and with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, plus briefings by U.S. Embassy officials, and the travelers got an experience that will probably last a long time--at least through Davis’ next election campaign.

“For me this was like a semester in college,” said Tsakopolous, who has hosted fund-raisers for President Clinton, Davis and many others.

Other than one day spent golfing in Scotland, Davis and his aides--including newly named foreign affairs secretary Michael Flores--packed the trip with so many lunches, conferences and briefings that some of the governor’s companions took to calling the journey a “forced march.”

Consider Thursday. It began with a 7:30 a.m. departure from the Jerusalem Hilton for the airport in Tel Aviv to catch a flight to Cairo for meetings with Mubarak and several of his ministers.

Then there was a late lunch with business leaders at the exclusive Cairo Capital Club, a sunset trip to the pyramids followed by a return flight to Tel Aviv, and a sushi dinner with Barak at a posh condo overlooking the Mediterranean.

Many in the entourage were among Davis’ earliest backers. Paul Witt, producer of the movie “Three Kings” and a long list of other films and television series, was backing Davis financially when the governor-to-be was being called political road kill. For Witt, that made the trip especially sweet.

“He is creating a profile,” Witt said. “I’m just delighted.”