: "'When I think of Garry South, I think of Luca Brasi from 'The Godfather,' said Jack Pitney, a political scientist from Claremont McKenna College. 'When Luca Brasi left the scene, the Godfather was in trouble, he had to rely on Fredo as his bodyguard.'"
California's Gov. Gray Davis is being advised by old hands and new ones
TOM CHORNEAU, Associated Press Writer
Monday, August 25, 2003
©2003 Associated Press
URL: sfgate.com
(08-25) 11:23 PDT SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) --
As he wages what could be his last campaign, Gov. Gray Davis is surrounded by a mix of old and new advisers, but his ultimate inner circle consists of just two people: Davis and his wife, Sharon.
It has been that way for a decade, after Davis ran an ill-advised and harshly negative campaign in 1992 against Dianne Feinstein for the Democratic nomination for the Senate. One Davis advertisement compared Feinstein, now a senator, to Leona Helmsley, the New York hotel owner and tax cheat.
Davis dumped his Los Angeles-based political advisers after that race, and since then, he is the one who runs his campaigns, said Bob Waste, professor of public administration at California State University, Sacramento. "On some levels it doesn't matter or make any difference who else is there. Davis' No. 1 skill after raising money is winning elections."
Now Davis has one more election to win, and he is relying on a team consisting of longtime Davis veterans, including pollster Paul Maslin and David Doak, who does the TV ads. The day-to-day staff is overseen by Larry Grisolano and Steve Smith, who have been with Davis since his days as lieutenant governor.
The team also includes Feinstein, Davis' one-time opponent and now constant defender, and former President Clinton. Missing, at least on a full-time basis, is Garry South, the adviser who helped mastermind Davis' rise to power five years ago. South has joined Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Although South's absence is significant, most observers call Davis' team battle-tested and successful. The big question is how well they can adapt their playbook to the new rules of the historic Oct. 7 election.
"This is like nothing any of us has ever seen before. It's two elections in one," said Bill Carrick, a longtime Democratic consultant and Feinstein adviser. Voters will first decide whether to keep or remove Davis, and will then pick from a list of potential replacements.
The governor's pollsters are the firm of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates. Maslin is a veteran of many Democratic presidential campaigns and has also worked for Feinstein, former Sen. Alan Cranston and Ross Perot, has been with Davis since his 1994 run for lieutenant governor.
Helping to shape the Davis message is Doak and his Washington-based firm of Doak, Carrier, O'Donnell & Associates. Doak has worked for a number of well-known Democrats, including former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy.
The campaign staff is headed by Grisolano, who helped the Clinton-Gore campaign in California in 1992 and has worked for Davis off and on since 1994.
Smith joined Davis' team after working for the California State Employees Association. He was a deputy campaign manager on Davis' 1998 campaign for governor and served on his staff when Davis was lieutenant governor.
"These are political pros and very good," said Democratic political consultant Darry Sragow, who is not working for Davis. "It's a huge advantage to Davis, not having to build a campaign team from ground zero, like some of the other candidates, with such a short campaign."
South, who still plays a role in the Davis campaign as an unpaid adviser, is credited with helping design two of Davis' biggest victories: the 1998 Democratic primary upset over two better-known, better-funded opponents; and the knockout of Republican rival and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who lost last year's GOP primary in part because of $10 million worth of TV ads Davis hit him with.
"When I think of Garry South, I think of Luca Brasi from `The Godfather,"' said Jack Pitney, a political scientist from Claremont McKenna College. "When Luca Brasi left the scene, the Godfather was in trouble -- he had to rely on Fredo as his bodyguard."
With South as his "hitman," Pitney said, Davis could rely on someone to take on his critics. Without him, "Davis has had to do more of that himself, making his candidacy somewhat more negative than it might otherwise be."
Some say Sharon Davis has an even bigger role than before. Davis' high-profile speech last Tuesday night in Los Angeles -- which advisers say kicked off his campaign -- was written with Sharon Davis' help, said Gabriel Sanchez, a campaign spokesman.
She is also writing political essays that are being posted on the Web site of Californians Against the Costly Recall.
"She's always been a big part of his decision-making process, but I just get a sense that she's a little more involved this time," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political scholar at the University of Southern California. "He's grown to rely on her." |
