Almost Anyone Could Govern California in These Good Times

A few days from now, when he announces the “May revise” of California’s state budget, Gov. Gray Davis could turn into the $6 billion man--that being the lowest estimate of new state revenue above and beyond previous forecasts. No doubt it will be like feeding time at the zoo, with the governor serving up enough red meat to placate at least one caged animal--the California Teachers’ Assn.--plus a few choice cuts for his favorite legislators’ projects.

Davis will play up to the cameras, using feel-good backdrops like kids in the classroom, plus lots of rhetoric (be on the lookout for “record investment in our children”).

Rest assured that Davis will make this fly with state voters. Then again, so could any politician worth his or her salt. For the fact is California is far removed from its “ungovernable” days when it took the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon and the wrath of God for a governor to make headway in Sacramento. Times are good, the public’s content, the coffers are flush, the choices are simple.

In this season of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,” a better question is “Who Couldn’t Be Governor of California?” And for this, Davis can both thank and blame his old friend, Pete Wilson, his Republican predecessor.

In his first term, Wilson inherited California’s worst recession in a half-century, not to mention runaway autopilot spending, a hostile Legislature and, from 1993 on, a Clinton administration hell-bent on doing no favors for a potential presidential rival. Through determination and guile, Wilson enacted tax, regulatory and business reforms that helped jump-start the economy, the dividend of which his successor will showcase in the May revise.

But whereas Wilson had to figure how to play a bad hand, Davis was dealt a full house--an economy of record employment and an unprecedented revenue stream, plus, at least in theory, a friendly Democratic Legislature and a president and vice president who are in his corner.

Yet, given this hand, Davis hasn’t raised the stakes. Yes, Time Magazine declared him to be “the most fearless governor in America,” but Davis has based his success on an idea that’s hardly fearless or opinion-dividing: improving California’s schools. Talk about a sucker bet. Public education in California already is on the mend, thanks to Wilsonian reforms that reduced class sizes, revamped curricula and ended such disastrous programs as whole language and social promotion.

Ironically, Davis, in his quest for a gentleman’s C on his report card, suffers from the same malady plaguing the schools he wants to improve: lack of competition. There is no Republican looming as a threat in 2002 and certainly no Democrats, either--not after he amassed $13 million for his campaign war-chest. Nor does Davis have Wilson’s problems in Sacramento--no foil on the historic scale of a speaker like Willie Brown.

Conservatives say Gray is colorless. In truth, there are shades of Gray. The light Gray likes to read schoolchildren “The Little Engine That Could.” The dark Gray is an arrogant basher of not just Republican legislators but Democratic leaders (“Their job is to implement my vision. That is their job.”). Then there are his views on the judges he selects, about whom he said, “My appointees should reflect my views. They are not there to be independent agents.”

But will Davis ever delve into an issue that deliberately rankles liberals (say, school choice) or even conservatives (reinstating affirmative action laws)?

Odds are, this “fearless” governor won’t change lanes any time soon, not when it’s a downhill glide to reelection.

In a case of politics imitating art, think of Gray Davis as Dave Stohler, the fictional character in the movie “Breaking Away,” who liked to take his 10-speed bicycle on Indiana highways to coast in the draft of 18-wheelers. For the past year, Davis has been dragged along at breakneck speed by an economic tail wind he inherited from Pete Wilson.

While wishing malice to none in these prosperous times, one wishes that California’s economic big-rig would shift gears or slam on the brakes, if, for no better, reason, than to see if Gray Davis can pedal on his own.