Recall Casts Shadow Over Event

Fallout from the California recall election clouded a statewide gathering of Democrats on Saturday as party leaders tried to put the debacle behind them and unite to reelect Sen. Barbara Boxer and defeat President Bush.

The presence of ousted Gov. Gray Davis at the annual state party convention served as a blunt reminder of the dismal turn of events last year for California Democrats. Davis gave a quick -- and poignant -- farewell address.

“The Democratic Party will have better days,” he assured nearly 2,000 party loyalists who sent him off with a standing ovation.

Adding to the distraction from the Senate and presidential contests was sniping among top Democrats who harbor clashing ambitions for higher office. The source of tension: their diverging responses to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who was clobbered by Schwarzenegger in the recall race, mocked state Atty. Gen Bill Lockyer for breaking party ranks and voting for the Hollywood film star. And in a backhanded swipe at Controller Steve Westly, Treasurer Phil Angelides vowed not to “kowtow to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s agenda”; Westly has forged close political ties to the governor.

“The loss of the governorship was a staggering blow to this party,” said state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who abandoned his own candidacy in the recall race after just two days. “There’s no other way to describe it.”

Party leaders struggled to steer the convention’s focus away from the recall.

“I’m not a coroner, and quite frankly I don’t believe in autopsies,” said state Democratic Chairman Art Torres. He called Boxer’s reelection “our No. 1 priority” for 2004.

Yet even the senator, seeking her third term in November, could not ignore the obvious. In her speech to cheering delegates waving yellow and black Boxer signs at the San Jose Convention Center, she said the October election showed that California voters wanted change.

“No one fights harder for change in Washington, D.C., than your senator, Barbara Boxer,” she said. “You know that. You see that every single day.”

She vowed -- like Schwarzenegger -- to challenge entrenched “special interests” and joked that she would send the governor’s Democratic wife, Maria Shriver, a nightshirt saying, “Boxer for Senate. You’ll sleep better at night.”

“I think she’ll enjoy it,” Boxer said.

On Friday, Schwarzenegger announced that he would back Bill Jones, former California secretary of state, for the GOP nomination to challenge Boxer. A Field Poll released Saturday found Boxer leading Jones, 48% to 35%, among registered voters. Jones is one of four major candidates in the March 2 Senate primary.

For the Democrats in San Jose, Boxer showcased her stands for abortion rights, environmental protection, civil liberties and other popular causes among the party’s rank and file. But with Republicans already portraying her as weak on defense and terrorism, she also cited her support for extra combat pay for troops and new protections for jetliners against shoulder-fired missiles.

“Make no mistake, the far right is coming after me,” Boxer said. “They are arguing that I should have supported every right-wing judge that came before the Senate, and let me be very clear: I will never be a rubber stamp for any president.”

“Noooo!” the crowd responded.

Given the convention’s listless mood, Boxer’s speech was one of the few to spur genuine fervor. None of the major Democrats running for president showed up; most were barnstorming in Iowa for Monday’s hotly contested caucuses, which kick off the presidential nomination race. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark dispatched his son, Wes Clark Jr. of Los Angeles, to San Jose as a surrogate.

Even one of the two long-shot presidential candidates expected to attend, the Rev. Al Sharpton, was a no-show, thanks to a Los Angeles traffic jam, party leaders said. The other, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, won a rousing reception Friday evening with a speech lambasting Bush for the Iraq war.

“Why did he announce that he wants to go to the moon and to Mars?” Kucinich hollered. “Well, we know: Because that’s where he wants to find the weapons of mass destruction.”

Howard Dean, whose fiery speech drew roars of enthusiasm at last year’s California Democratic convention, built on his organizational strength in the state Saturday by picking up the endorsements of Lockyer, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley and the Latino Legislative Caucus.

On California matters, the 2006 governor’s race was high on the agenda for statewide officials jockeying for the job. Lockyer, whose acknowledgment that he voted for Schwarzenegger has irked many Democrats, was the butt of an extended joke by Bustamante.

In a takeoff on the annual Top 10 spoof that Lockyer normally presents at party conventions, the lieutenant governor reeled off the reasons that the attorney general bypassed him on the recall ballot in favor of Schwarzenegger. Among them: fears that Bustamante would install slot machines in the state Capitol lobby and name the comedy duo Cheech and Chong to the state prisons board.

Lockyer won the chilliest reception. He was booed at a women’s caucus, where he apologized for dismissing allegations that Schwarzenegger groped and humiliated women as “frat boy” behavior.

In a speech to the full convention, Lockyer avoided the subject of the governor, taking shots instead at the Bush administration.

Westly, though, hammered Schwarzenegger for his state budget. The controller’s aggressive tone was sharply at odds with his leadership of the governor’s campaign for voter approval of a $15-billion bond measure on the March 2 ballot. Westly called Schwarzenegger’s budget “True Lies 2,” citing cuts in education, transportation and health care.

“It’s time to serve him with divorce papers in 2006,” said Westly, alluding to Schwarzenegger’s political honeymoon.

Westly plans to join forces with the governor to raise money and campaign for the ballot measure but did not mention that to the delegates. The measure would authorize $15 billion in debt to pay the state’s bills. Westly told reporters that California teeters “on the brink of financial Armageddon” and must borrow the money.

But Angelides pressed his case that interest on the debt would squander money that California needed for schools, health care and other priorities. The treasurer called for higher taxes on the rich.

For all the Democratic officeholders, the speech by Davis was a diversion. Party leaders bumped him from his high-profile speaking slot in the morning.

Asked for his advice to Democrats, Davis said: “Keep your head up. Keep smiling and speak to the aspirations of the people of this state. Every major party loses an election now and then. It’s part of life. You just have to pick yourself up off the canvas and keep going.”