Davis Always Finds Room for Fund-Raising

Hoping to shine before a national audience, Gov. Gray Davis will be everywhere while delegates are in Los Angeles for the Democratic National Convention.

He’ll appear on national television offering insights into Al Gore’s campaign. He’ll preside over a bash at Paramount Studios welcoming several thousand party leaders, activists and delegates. He’ll speak twice at the convention. And he’ll carry out a task that he has learned well: raising money, probably as much as $2.5 million for the Democratic Party.

But back at the Capitol in Sacramento, the center of state government, Davis is rarely seen. In a typical week, he makes only one or two carefully staged public appearances. Some weeks, he never surfaces at all, and his staff releases scant information about any meetings he has.

“Private meetings, phone calls, staff briefings and other work the governor performs are not public activities and we are under no obligation to detail them,” said Davis’ communications director, Phil Trounstine.

By law, Davis need not publicly release his calendar. A 1991 state Supreme Court ruling gives governors broad authority to keep private many aspects of their work habits, to ensure that the chief executive’s “deliberative process” is not inhibited.

The secrecy surrounding Davis’ schedule means that little is known about what he does with his time. Part of the reason is that Davis, already running for reelection in 2002, spends a considerable chunk of his day raising money. In this he has been phenomenally successful, amassing $21.3 million--an average of almost $40,000 a day--in his first 18 months in office.

His skill at extracting money from donors is making him a star among Democratic politicians who flocked to Los Angeles this week. In fact, his first scheduled activity was to host a Friday night fund-raiser for New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen at the Brentwood home of a longtime backer.

Unlike governors of many states, such as New York and Wisconsin, he refuses to release information about his fund-raising schedule.

Davis emphasized his desire to keep the schedule secret when he appeared on an Internet chat session sponsored by Voter.com last week. He declined to answer a question about whether he would make the schedule public.

“He doesn’t want to be known as Gray Davis, the best fund-raiser in the world,” said Democratic campaign consultant Darry Sragow, explaining why Davis will not release his money-raising schedule. “He wants to be known as Gray Davis, the man who fixes education.”

As it is, Californians pay little attention to politics, notes Garry South, Davis’ chief campaign advisor. So Davis focuses on education, only occasionally shifting to other issues. The strategy works. A recent Field poll shows 61% of Californians approve of his performance. Even most Republicans think he’s doing well.

“It is just good communication sense to control your message,” South said.

A Day in the Life of Governor

Nevertheless, a picture of how Davis spends his days emerges from conversations with a variety of sources and an examination of his campaign finance statements. It is clear that Davis spends much of his time on political matters, as he glides seamlessly from affairs of state to the business of getting himself a second term.

Take July 17. The Legislature was in summer recess; no need for Davis to be in Sacramento. And it’s not unusual for him to be in voter-rich Southern California. His private residence is a West Hollywood condo, and he spends most weekends there.

On that day, he made three public appearances: at a school in Artesia to praise rising student test scores; at an organized labor convention in Anaheim, where he again talked about his school policies; and at a hotel in Anaheim, where he swore in one of his appointees, Orange County’s first Vietnamese American judge. At each appearance, he was appealing to his core of supporters: Democratic labor leaders and suburban moderates.

His final stop, not listed on his official schedule, was in the Republican bastion of Newport Beach for dinner at the exclusive Pacific Club. The event was notable for its host, Irvine Co., a land development firm that had donated $188,000 to Davis’ opponent in 1998, former Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren.

After Davis won, Irvine, like many Republican donors, became a supporter, giving him $25,000 shortly after election day in 1998, $20,000 more last year and $25,000 in March 2000. The July 17 dinner, said a Republican source not affiliated with Irvine, raised about $100,000 for Davis.

Gary Hunt, Irvine’s senior vice president, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia earlier this month. On the convention floor, Hunt declined to discuss the dinner but acknowledged that he appreciates Davis’ moderate approach to governing California.

“On the whole,” Hunt said, “he has done a good job as governor.”

The pattern plays out repeatedly in Sacramento and around the state. A weekend golf game is not a mere game. An individual wanting to join his foursome is expected to shell out $25,000.

A dinner is not simply a meal. A few high-rolling Davis backers can organize events that pull in $250,000. But the price for a two-hour dinner generally is closer to $100,000, spread among a dozen or perhaps 20 lobbyists and business people.

In the capital, Davis regularly has two and three evening fund-raisers a week, generally ending his day by appearing for two hours at some private club, conference room or hotel where he shakes hands, has dinner and talks about schools; then he heads to the governor’s residence around 10 p.m.

He draws money from virtually every moneyed interest in Sacramento. Some donors get their way; other lose.

“You go to these events and you empty your wheelbarrow and hope it gets you something,” said a veteran lobbyist who, like most, would speak only anonymously, concerned that his clients might incur Davis’ wrath.

Davis’ pursuit of campaign money doesn’t consume as much as the 12-hour days he spent in his 1998 campaign struggling to raise money. Now, donors come to him--although many lobbyists say privately that he makes clear his expectations that they keep open the money spigots. He has a staff of 15 in Los Angeles to run his campaign operation, and paid fund-raisers in Sacramento and San Francisco.

“His fund-raising activity consists almost exclusively of showing up at events,” South said, adding that most are held after business hours.

Still, “showing up” is an integral part of many days. A review of his campaign finance statement filed July 31 and covering the first six months of 2000 shows that Davis was especially busy raising money in June.

June an Important Money Month

June is perhaps the busiest month in Sacramento. That’s when the Legislature and governor make decisions about how the state will spend its billions. The budget is the most heavily lobbied package of bills in any given year; various interests fight to gain a share of the state’s tax bounty.

As Davis worked with lawmakers to fashion the budget, candidate Davis received checks on 20 of the 30 days in June, for a total of $1.06 million. In June 1999, reports from last year show, his campaign received checks on 22 of the 30 days in the month--$3.3 million worth.

Some donors stood to benefit from budget decisions. Davis, for example, devised a plan to spend $6.8 billion spread over several years to ease traffic congestion. The plan earmarks $30 million to rebuild and widen a freeway interchange on Interstate 10, near a casino run by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and an outlet mall.

The Morongos gave Davis’ campaign $10,000 on May 25--about the time the transportation plan became public--and $25,000 on June 27, two days before Davis signed the budget into law.

Waltona Manion, a Morongo consultant, said the donations had nothing to do with the new offramps: The Morongos have had “a policy of bipartisan support for more than a decade and will continue to work with elected leaders who support tribal self-reliance.”

Davis’ aides say the interchange is needed; traffic backs up onto I-10 from the existing offramp five or six times a year. Davis spokeswoman Hilary McLean said there is “absolutely no correlation between any contributions the governor might have received and this project.”

As a candidate, Davis won office with the help of trial attorneys and organized labor. As governor, he has expanded his base of supporters to include a variety of business groups. One is car dealers, a regular source of campaign money that in past years flowed mostly to Republicans.

Democrat Norris Bishton, who owns several Southern California dealerships and has long supported Davis, recalled that early last year, Davis invited a group of dealers to his private conference room. He spent perhaps two hours discussing issues that concerned them, from regulations governing overtime pay to a board that oversees new car dealerships.

By taking time to meet with the dealers, Davis showed he had an interest in business concerns, Bishton said, adding that the governor’s policies “resonate with automobile dealers.” Car dealers cannot find high school graduates with the necessary skills, so they want better schools.

On June 16, a Friday, the car dealers hosted a fund-raiser for Davis at the Regency Club in West Los Angeles. Bishton said the event raised about $100,000. It came in the middle of this year’s budget fight. Assembly Republicans had balked at approving the deal, concerned that it might reduce a car-tax cut approved in 1998 when Pete Wilson was governor.

The governor returned to Sacramento the following week and set about reshaping a tax cut. The new package ensures that Californians will receive the full car tax reduction contemplated by Wilson in 1998. Bishton said the car-tax cut was never discussed at the dealers’ lunch for Davis. Moreover, he said, lower car taxes have no impact on sales.

A Davis aide said there was no connection between the fund-raiser and the car tax cut package.

“The issue had never been discussed,” Bishton said. “Most of the discussion was about education.”

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Times researcher Donna Reith contributed to this story.