Davis Steps Up Beat of Reelection Machine

SACRAMENTO —  As Gov. Gray Davis wrapped up a recent press conference at a senior citizens center, his aides cut off reporters’ questions by blasting an old Glenn Miller tune over the loudspeakers. Never one to miss a beat, Davis took one of the elderly women in his arms and danced to “In the Mood.”

Though not especially fancy, the footwork underscored that the Democratic incumbent’s reelection campaign is in full swing. With the November election nearing, the blurry line between politics and policy is becoming fuzzier by the day.

Among his recent moves, Davis employed the power of incumbency to send hundreds of thousands of mailers at taxpayer expense touting his achievements; e-mailed all departments urging that the governor’s image appear on all state Web sites; and churned out scores of press releases and proclamations, most of them on matters of marginal significance.

“He has taken all the ideas of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Pete Wilson and value-added to them,” said Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino), a lawmaker since 1978. “He has taken it to a higher level.”

Exploiting the visibility of the governorship is a particular advantage for Davis in this year’s campaign since his opponent, Republican businessman Bill Simon Jr., holds no office to use as his own bully pulpit.

Though Davis would go weeks early in his administration without making a public appearance, the governor now routinely holds multiple public events each week.

“When you’re running a state, people are going to want to view every single action in a political light,” said Roger Salazar, a spokesman for Davis’ reelection campaign. “You can protest, but nobody wants to hear the protest.”

The administration is taking the most flak for sending out tax-funded mailers to hundreds of thousands of Californians on themes that have become stock parts of Davis’ stump speeches.

Using such words as “historic” and lauding Davis’ “leadership,” current articles by some of Davis’ top aides in government-funded newsletters herald Davis’ achievements on issues ranging from transportation spending and school construction to energy conservation and job creation.

“It’s like having the tax collector as your campaign fund-raiser,” said state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine). Johnson has asked the Fair Political Practices Commission, controlled by Davis appointees, to review the issue and has urged Davis to reimburse the state.

One article appears under the headline “Governor Davis Invests in Transportation to Build a Better California.” In another mailer, sent at state expense to 300,000 real estate agents and brokers, Maria Contreras-Sweet, Davis’ secretary for Business, Transportation and Housing, declares: “At a time when the country is experiencing an economic downturn, the Governor has created 900,000 new jobs in California by investing in the state’s infrastructure.”

“The governor creating 900,000 new jobs? Give me a break,” said Bob Stern of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles.

Stern said the articles contain both “puffery and information,” but added that the main problem is that they are landing in mailboxes in an election year, while Simon has no such forum.

California’s Fair Political Practices Act, an initiative approved in 1974, barred such mass mailings in an election year. Proposition 73, a 1988 initiative sponsored by Johnson, sought to prohibit officeholders from sending out virtually all self-promoting mailings at any time.

Since then, however, the Fair Political Practices Commission has adopted regulations permitting mass mailings as long as they don’t promote the politician responsible for sending them.

Johnson called the Contreras-Sweet article “pure campaign puffery.” He estimates that if Davis purchased a list of all licensed real estate agents in California and sent mailers to them, the cost could be $150,000.

“They certainly don’t discuss any of the failures of the Davis administration,” Johnson said. “Yet this one-sided propaganda is sent at taxpayer expense.”

Davis’ Press Secretary Steven Maviglio called Johnson’s letter “politics designed to get a headline” and predicted it would be “laughed out of the FPPC.” He said there “is absolutely no reason” for Davis to reimburse the state for any costs.

The mailers are only one example of how Davis uses the power of incumbency. On the day after the primary, an aide sent an e-mail reminding departments that Davis’ image should appear on state Web sites.

Internet users visiting, say, the Department of Boating and Waterways site are invited to jump to the governor’s home page, where they can read Davis’ official biography, speeches, press releases and proclamations and follow a link to the Web page of his wife, Sharon.

The governor’s press operation also is busy these days, churning out 81 press releases in the first 19 days of April, compared with a mere 27 during the same period in 1999, Davis’ first year in office. The volume exceeds the number turned out during the entire month of April last year, in the middle of the energy crisis. Maviglio said the timing of the e-mail about Davis’ Web site was mere coincidence and attributed the increased number of press releases partly to the governor making more appointments.

Davis’ press relations operation, which holds weekly briefings detailing the governor’s schedule, added a new feature earlier this year: guest appearances by Davis appointees talking about his achievements, ranging from tax credits to his campaign against Medi-Cal fraud.

Many weeks, the aides seem to strain for news that reflects well on their boss. An aide spent half an hour at one such briefing two weeks ago describing how Davis would spend $15.5 million to “enhance the state’s internationally recognized ocean and coastal resources.”

The entire $15.5 million came from Uncle Sam, not from the state budget, and the money was inserted into the federal budget last year at the behest of Rep. George Miller (D-Concord).

Then there was the event earlier this month at the Ethel MacLeod Hart Senior Center, the governor’s second appearance on that day. Not that there was much to announce, but as the elderly people finished their lunch, the governor declared he had signed a bill giving prescription drug discounts to senior citizens. The bill, he noted, was signed in 1999.

He also said he will approve legislation this year to extend the 1999 measure and require advertising to let people know about the discounts. It has no significant opposition.

Most important, on a day when pharmaceutical companies announced in New York that they would offer discounts to elderly people, Davis was getting out a message: He, too, had something to offer this segment of the population most likely to vote come November.

Davis aides say incumbents in other states are more aggressive. In New York, for example, Gov. George Pataki was criticized for airing television ads at state expense touting expansion of a health program. Davis has no plans to air so-called public service ads funded at state expense, especially given recent history in this state.

“The ghost of Chuck Quackenbush still looms,” Maviglio said, referring to the insurance commissioner who was forced to quit office in 2000 following revelations that he used settlements of government lawsuits to finance self-promoting television ads.