At This Convention, a Relaxed Davis

Democratic national conventions are not what they used to be for Gray Davis.

“It’s horrible the way things went down,” a guest told him Wednesday at a late-night celebration of Democrats.

“We felt for you,” another said.

Yet another guest, Patrick J. Sweeney of Patterson, Calif., dispensed with consolation and instead offered Davis free advice on plotting his future.

“Nixon came back,” he reminded the ousted California governor. “Anyone can come back -- if they have the will, the persistence and a good campaign manager.”

Once the top Democrat in America’s biggest bastion of Democrats, Davis this time is just one of 441 California delegates. Yet Davis, now world famous thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign to replace him, still moves through crowds in a swirl of handshakes, autographs and snapshots posed with strangers.

“They actually know me in China,” said Davis, who recently returned from a visit there. “For better or worse, the whole world had to watch the recall.”

Over four days at the Boston convention, Davis has taken comfort in the familiar rituals of a man who spent 30 years climbing to the pinnacle of political power in California.

At the Four Seasons Hotel on Boston Common, he was among the VIPs treated to a private strategy briefing by Tad Devine, senior advisor to Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry. In a posh French restaurant, Radius, Davis listened to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton speak at a luncheon where television talk-show star Tina Brown was the host.

Davis also toured Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo with fellow California delegates and watched the convention proceedings with them at the FleetCenter. And in conversations, he has fondly recalled his long days of campaigning with them.

“Atwater parade, we did that twice,” he reminded Rep. Dennis A. Cardoza, a Democrat whose hometown’s Fourth of July march is a staple for Central Valley politicians.

“When you get back, we’ll have dinner or something,” Cardoza told him.

Still, Davis is mostly confined to the margins of this convention. His face is largely missing this week from the cast of Boston talking heads on the cable news shows. His big television role this week was a spoof interview by comedian Don Novello (best known as Father Guido Sarducci on “Saturday Night Live”) on a late-night talk show, ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” The joint interview with Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn took place in what Davis described as a “shabby-looking room” in a “grimy” motel with six balloons and a row of tiny bottles of booze to celebrate. (“It was hysterical,” Davis said.)

Professionally, Davis has branched out from politics.

“I’m just lecturing and doing some consulting,” he said.

“Some people have asked me to do some projects for them,” he added. “None of it has anything to do with state government.”

Although the perks of state are gone, a personal assistant still tails Davis at public events, tending to the meticulous quirks that a larger squad of aides indulged when he was governor.

“Bring the governor a water -- no ice, lime,” his assistant shouted into a cellphone as Davis greeted guests at the science museum. The iceless water, with lime, appeared in minutes.

But Davis, who tucks the credentials around his neck into his suit pocket, smiles more easily than he used to. He also professes relief at giving up the burdens of public office three years early.

“It ain’t my fault anymore,” he said with a grin. “I’m just enjoying life.”

His wife, Sharon, said her husband was more relaxed these days. To be governor of California, she said, is “like the frog in the pot of boiling water: It gets more and more stressful.”

“You don’t appreciate all the things you miss out on when you’re in politics,” she said. “Now, a friend calls and says, ‘Come and spend a weekend in Aspen’; we say, ‘OK.’ They say, ‘Come spend a weekend in Napa’; we say, ‘OK.’ ”

She surveyed the post-midnight crowd of California Democrats dancing and sipping cocktails in the vast hall of model spaceships and dinosaurs.

“Even this is more enjoyable, because we have no agenda,” she said.

Charlie Alvare, a Hollywood Hills delegate, stopped to shake the former governor’s hand and tell him he was right about Enron’s misdeeds in the energy crisis.

“Ultimately, I think you’ll have the last laugh,” Alvare said.

“I always suspected something was wrong, but I didn’t have enough time to prove it,” Davis responded.

He admired the “Regime Change 2004” button on Alvare’s lapel.

“Regime change,” Davis said. “I love it.”