Governor Handling Delicate Task Well

Nobody is going to accuse Gov. Gray Davis of grandstanding for staging Tuesday’s event at the state Capitol. Nor should anyone.

It was a classy, touching four-hour Day of Remembrance featuring a 12-block parade of 4,500 police and firefighters, and emotional words on the Capitol steps from family members of the terrorists’ victims. Also, color guards, colossal flags, singing children and a mellow, soothing rendition of “Amazing Grace” by a jazz saxophonist, UCLA music teacher Joel Carter.

And, oh yes, some politicians spoke, including the governor.

The victims, Davis said, “paid a terrible price for our freedom, as much as any soldier who ever fought in any war. . . . Each of us has a profound duty to forge a new world--free of fear, filled with hope.”

As Capt. Juan Diaz of the San Jose Fire Department remarked to a Times reporter, “It’s part of the healing process.”

Especially, it would seem, for the families of Californians who died in the attacks, including the four plane crashes.

So there was much virtue in this state-sponsored event, even if we longtime Davis watchers couldn’t help from looking at the long bank of TV cameras and feeling twinges of cynicism.

The cynicism has been aggravated most recently by Davis’ incessant “news availabilities”--photo-ops. He’s held them almost daily since the Sept. 11 attacks.

During one period, he flew aboard commercial planes five times in six days to promote air travel, holding forth in airport terminals.

“If you feel like getting on a plane, do it. You can’t live your life under a rock. You can’t hide under the bed,” the governor asserted, looking into 10 TV lenses at Sacramento airport as 16 camouflaged National Guardsmen provided the camera background. “This is a good time to fly because it’s never been safer.”

Any of this mere opportunism, trying to maximize media coverage?

Sunday, after donning a San Diego Padres jersey to help honor retiring baseball great Tony Gwynn, Davis went to a locker room to expound on California’s emergency preparedness while U.S. forces were attacking in Afghanistan.

“There is nothing more important to me,” he told reporters, “than the safety and security of 35 million Californians. Nothing. For the last several weeks, we’ve worked hand in glove with the federal government and local law enforcement.”

Grandstanding at a sports event?

What about welcoming the National Guard to LAX, then to San Francisco airport? Attending a Guard training session in Manhattan Beach, after “reviewing the troops” at Los Alamitos?

Will he next be appearing before cameras in his Vietnam Army Captain’s uniform?

This about running for reelection next year?

Of course, that’s part of it. Private polls show that while Californians are feeling better about the state as the energy mess gets cleaned up, their upbeat attitude does not extend to Davis. Voters talk about electing a new governor.

Davis looks like he’s playing to TV cameras, and he is. But a governor--unless he’s a total showboat--gets a pass during disasters. Because it’s expected.

The public expects--demands--that its governor be visible and reassuring during emergencies. He is, after all, responsible for the state’s security efforts: guarding nuclear power plants, aqueducts, drinking water, power lines, ports, airports . . .

Davis also is venturing into new territory, at least for a modern California governor: He’s not confronted (yet) by an in-state disaster--an earthquake, riot--but by distant acts of war that potentially could ricochet here. There’s no PR playbook for this.

The governor’s political consultants conducted focus groups after the terrorist attacks and found, according to chief strategist Garry South, that “the people were increasingly concerned they weren’t hearing from the governor. . . .

“People in California have a particularly acute sense that while we’re not necessarily next, we’re in the line of fire. . . . This is a state with a lot of bridges. . . .

“So the governor thought it was important that he not just cocoon himself.”

His political adversaries aren’t even criticizing Davis. “You need to give him credit. The public clearly needs reassurance,” says Republican consultant Sal Russo.

But Davis shouldn’t rev it up too much. He has a reputation among political insiders, from his pre-gubernatorial days, of being publicity-crazed. And sometimes lately, he seems out of sync--like he’s trying to act, well, presidential. That role doesn’t fit right now. Just perform well as governor.

And maybe bring the tenor sax player to photo-ops.