Here is Davis' strategy. He has at least 10 Million in his kicker.
With Election Set, Davis Tries to Shift Focus
By CHARLIE LeDUFF - NEW YORK TIMES
MONTEREY PARK, Calif., July 24 - Surrounding himself with law enforcement officials, Gov. Gray Davis tried today to push aside questions about the recall election, saying that balancing the state's budget remained his top priority.
"I'm going to get my job done, the most important part of which is passing a budget," the governor said at a hastily arranged news conference at the headquarters of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
"And then," he said, "if the people want me to present my credentials ? and apparently they do one more time ? then I'm going to present my credentials."
Mr. Davis's battle to retain his office began in earnest today as he stood flanked by leading law enforcement officials, including William J. Bratton, the Los Angeles police chief, and Leroy D. Baca, the Los Angeles County sheriff. Sitting in chairs facing them were more than a dozen police chiefs from local municipalities.
"I've worked side by side with law enforcement to strengthen public safety," the Democratic governor said, staking out a centrist position in an election sure to draw conservative voters. "I refuse to give up on the progress we've made."
Mr. Davis appeared a few hours before leaders of the State Senate, seeking an end to the Legislature's fiscal stalemate, announced their own budget compromise, which would rely heavily on spending cuts and on borrowing to close a yawning deficit of $38.5 billion.
The governor's political approach, Democratic strategists say, will be to find a way to resolve a budget crisis that much of the public accuses him of mishandling, and then charge that Republicans wasted $30 million or so on a recall election, money that could have been spent on extra police officers or inoculations for children. According to a Field Poll released last week, if the governor and the Legislature were to approve a satisfactory budget in the next few weeks, 14 percent of those likely to vote to recall him would be less inclined to do so.
Sheriff Baca, who along with the district attorney is one of the two highest elected Republican officials in Los Angeles County, had no compunction today about voicing his displeasure with the Republican push for a recall.
"These high jinks of partisan politics must end," the sheriff said, noting that he had been forced to lay off personnel, close two jails and free prisoners early because of overcrowding attributable to the fiscal shortfall.
"It's destroying the state," Sheriff Baca said of the recall election. "California will be the laughingstock of the nation if this thing succeeds and we elect a guy with 15 percent of the vote who can't find his way to the bathroom in the State Capitol."
Chief Bratton was no less blunt. "It's mind-boggling to me as a transplant to California," he said, "that with so little money, we're going to spend $35 million to $40 million on a recall election."
The money would be better spent, Chief Bratton argues, on 300 police officers he has requested to help combat crime in Los Angeles, where there were more murders last year than in any other American city.
About 40 percent of California's registered voters live in Los Angeles County, and so this will be the main battleground in the run-up to the special election, which was set today for Oct. 7.
When asked if he was upset with the recall election, Mr. Davis said: "It's not my favorite subject. What's Option B?" |
