Voters Cool as Candidates Warm to Task

On a day steeped in political tradition, Democrat Gray Davis and Republican Bill Simon Jr. on Monday reached back to their party roots, rallying loyalists and striving to muster some rare voter enthusiasm in their contest for governor.

For Davis, that meant appearances at a series of union-sponsored rallies up and down the state, where he assailed Simon, selectively touted his record on behalf of working men and women--and braved hecklers urging him to sign a disputed farm labor bill.

For Simon, the day brought a journey to the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in conservative Orange County and a trip to the State Fair in Sacramento, where he attacked Davis, showed off his family--and fended off questions about his ethics.

Yet despite the stakes in November and a series of major events--from Sept. 11 to the stock market swoon and scandals in corporate America and the Catholic church--Californians seemed decidedly uninspired as the calendar reached Labor Day, the customary kickoff for the fall campaign.

A survey released last week found that fewer than half of likely voters were happy with the choice between Davis and Simon. That sentiment was repeatedly seconded Monday, even as the candidates pressed for advantage.

Rosario Valdez, a banquet waitress who showed up at the governor’s breakfast stop at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, referred to Davis as “the lesser of two evils.” Deborah Spencer, her companion and a fellow union member, chimed in, “He doesn’t seem to be for the working class. It’s mostly the businessman, the ones who have the money.”

Over at the Nixon library in Yorba Linda, 34-year-old Derrick Washington said he planned to bypass the governor’s race when he votes Nov. 5. “I really don’t think we have a good candidate to vote for,” said Washington, who was visiting the library with a friend before Simon arrived. “Bill Simon just had that [legal] judgment against his family’s firm.... Davis has just been raising money.”

With that disgruntlement as a backdrop, the candidates were embarking on a nine-week home stretch of campaigning that will culminate Nov. 5, when voters also sort out a host of other contentious questions.

In Los Angeles, voters will adjudicate the biggest municipal divorce case ever, as secessionists in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley attempt to break away and establish separate cities. The vote will be the culmination of nearly 30 years of activism by Valley residents, many of whom feel disconnected from the political power structure at downtown City Hall.

The Hollywood measure is a relative newcomer, piggybacking on the Valley’s efforts mostly because of the money and energy of a wealthy nightclub owner, Gene La Pietra, who is also running for the City Council of a breakaway Hollywood.

On the state level, a certain amount of turnover in Sacramento is guaranteed as a result of term limits, with 20 state Senate seats and 80 Assembly races on the ballot. (However, a party-protection plan adopted by lawmakers when they redrew the state political boundaries last year all but ensures little change in the partisan lineup.)

Voters will also elect 53 House members--again, with little true competition--and fill seven statewide offices in addition to governor: lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer, controller, secretary of state, insurance commissioner and superintendent of public instruction. The last four are open seats, because of term limits.

In addition, Californians will consider six statewide ballot initiatives, including $15 billion in bond measures and others that would allow election-day voter registration and expand the availability of tutoring and after-school programs.

Labor Frames Attacks

But the marquee race is the contest for governor, and the two leading contenders seized on Monday’s campaign marker--and the attendant media attention--to outline themes and reiterate the attacks they have been sounding for the past six months.

In a speech booming over loudspeakers at sweltering MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles, Davis portrayed Simon as an enemy of working people and paid tribute to those who “sew our clothes,” “toil in the fields” and “build our buildings.”

“For the last 16 years, working Californians have not had a friend in the governor’s office,” said Davis, referring to the two Republican administrations that preceded his election in 1998. “But now they do have a friend in the governor’s office, and now they have a seat at the table. California is finally working for working Californians again.”

Davis extolled his record on labor issues, taking credit for a boost in the state minimum wage, restoration of mandatory overtime at the end of an eight-hour workday and an increase in the state benefits paid to workers injured on the job.

“But, amigos, my opponent, Mr. Simon, wants to undo four years of progress,” the governor went on. “I restored the eight-hour day. He wants to roll it back.... Let’s send a memo to Mr. Simon: Mr. Simon, you’re going not going to roll back anything.”

Then, referring to his opponent’s East Coast roots, Davis added, “We’re going to roll you back all the way to New Jersey!”

Notably, Davis failed to mention one of the most vexing labor issues now facing him, a Senate bill that would allow government mediators to intervene in contract disputes between growers and the United Farm Workers union. The bill is strongly supported by the UFW, an important Democratic ally, and just as vehemently opposed by growers. Davis, who has carefully cultivated a business-friendly image, is striving to keep both sides happy.

Despite the governor’s reticence, the issue was clearly on the minds of many who showed up at the labor rallies he attended in Los Angeles, Pleasanton and San Diego. At MacArthur Park, many in the crowd of about 800 wore stickers urging Davis to sign the bill. And in Pleasanton, at the Alameda County labor picnic, the governor was interrupted by hecklers chanting, “Sign the bill! Sign the bill!” After ignoring them, Davis finally said, “Thank you. We hear you. We hear you.”

Simon, as he stumped in Orange County and Sacramento, managed to avoid any contrarians in the crowd.

But the modest audience that greeted him at the Nixon library--roughly a few dozen supporters mingling with library visitors--pointed up the problems he faces in his struggling campaign.

Since winning the Republican primary in a March upset, Simon has stumbled through a series of pratfalls, his campaign riven by dissension and growing increasingly desperate for dollars. His ties to a controversial tax shelter and a $78-million judgment against his family investment firm in a fraud case have been trumpeted in nonstop advertising from Davis, whose massive campaign budget has allowed him to command the TV airwaves virtually unchallenged. But Simon insisted Monday that the campaign had only just begun, and he tore into the incumbent with relish.

“We’re going to talk the truth about Gray Davis’ record and we’re going to talk the truth about Bill Simon’s vision for California,” the candidate said. “We are going to talk about how Gov. Davis has failed as a governor.

“There is no question that Davis has been a pay-for-play governor,” Simon continued. “He’s got scores of bills on his desk at the same time he’s taking money from people.... I pledge to you today that I will do no fund-raising during bill-signing sessions.”

Addressing labor issues, Simon said he favors “streamlining” workers’ compensation and reverting to a flexible 40-hour workweek, instead of the current law, which mandates that employers pay overtime after eight hours in one day.

“Earning overtime each and every day is not something that is good for business or good for our people,” Simon said. “It strangles small businesses.”

But the GOP hopeful was also forced by reporters’ questions to defend his own ethics, as well as a decision to spend Labor Day at an institution dedicated to a president forced to resign in disgrace. “Richard Nixon was a fine public servant, and he had a track record of serving the people,” the candidate said.

As for his own conduct, the businessman and neophyte candidate said: “I have a high standard for ethics, all across the board. That’s been my track record. I’ve spent thousands of hours helping others.”

Family Support

While Davis traveled the state with other statewide candidates on the Democratic ticket, Simon campaigned alongside his wife, Cindy; daughter Lulu, 12; and sons William, 14, and Griffith, 9.

“I believe that it’s all in God’s hands and my dad will win the election because I truly believe he can improve California,” Lulu told a bank of TV cameras, as several dozen supporters cheered. William cut in, offering a dissenting opinion: “I hope that my dad doesn’t win the election in November because I don’t want to move to Sacramento.”

At that, the crowd burst into laughter and his siblings covered their faces in horror.

For all his difficulties, Simon advisors continually point to Davis’ sustained unpopularity and their candidate’s remarkable change of fortunes in March, when he came from far behind to beat former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

“Once the Bill Simon story is told in the next two months, you will see the same type of dramatic rise that we saw in the primary,” Sal Russo, the campaign’s chief strategist, said in an upbeat e-mail to supporters last week. The Davis campaign, in turn, hopes to burnish the governor’s image by taking a more positive tone in its advertising over the final few weeks. While the attacks on Simon will continue, “We need to fill in the blanks on why they should vote for our guy,” said Paul Maslin, the governor’s political pollster.

Even with voters’ evident distaste for the two major party candidates, past elections have shown that California governors don’t necessarily have to be liked--or even well-regarded--to win reelection.

In 1994, a Los Angeles Times poll gave Republican Gov. Pete Wilson a 9-point lead around Labor Day, en route to a reelection romp over Democrat Kathleen Brown. At the same time, precisely half of likely voters said they disapproved of the job Wilson was doing as governor.

Elections are about comparisons, “not just a referendum on a particular guy in office,” said Bruce Cain, a UC Berkeley political expert.

“We’ve seen over and over again in California that, in the end, Californians bite the bullet and vote for the best of the worst--or at least the best of the choices they’re given.”

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Times staff writers Sharon Bernstein, Michael Finnegan and Matea Gold contributed to this report.