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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eashoa' M'sheekha who wrote (7969)	9/15/2003 4:58:23 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793846

An upside to all this is Davis meets regular Joes By Daniel Weintraub -- Bee Columnist - (Published September 14, 2003) LOS ANGELES -- Gray Davis had barely settled into his stiff plastic chair in a conference room in the corner of a South Los Angeles shopping mall when the first question whizzed past him like a shot from the dark. Roughly paraphrased, it was this: Now that you've bought off Latino voters with that bill to let illegal immigrants get driver's licenses, what are you going to give blacks in exchange for our support? The questions at the governor's fourth "town hall" meeting didn't get much easier after that. And as Davis squirmed uncomfortably in his striped charcoal suit, like some local school board member put on the spot by a group of angry parents, you could imagine the perspiration building beneath his powder blue shirt. When Davis says he's been humbled by having to fight for his job, he means it. And anyone who doesn't believe that the recall already has been a force for good in California ought to follow Davis to his next session with the voters. The governor, never known for his warm and fuzzy side, has been traipsing all over California the past two weeks meeting with regular Joes and Janes who never would have got near him if not for the campaign to remove him from office. His staff has turned these meetings over to local media and community groups, which have booked the rooms and invited the participants. Davis just shows up, takes a seat and lets the firing begin. The Sept. 8 meeting at the Baldwin Hills Mall was typical. About 35 members of the predominantly African-American neighborhood crammed into the stuffy room as Davis sat next to a host on a low riser up front. The meeting was televised on a local cable access channel, and the participants lined up at a microphone to take their shots at the governor. "My hand was not in the cookie jar," Davis said by way of an opening statement against the recall. "I did not commit an impeachable offense." But the audience, although most of them will probably vote against the recall, was hardly sympathetic. Willie Agee, an Inglewood parks commissioner, wanted to know why Davis came around offering state-paid goodies before the last election and then took them back after he won a second term. Najee Ali, a local activist, demanded that Davis explain why he blocked a bill that would have prohibited police from practicing racial profiling. And Anthony Asadullah-Samad warned the governor that most in the African-American community saw him as inaccessible to all but a "select group" of favorites. Davis responded unevenly, often ducking the specific questions while retreating to his talking points. He wouldn't offer details of his own plan to balance the budget, wouldn't say whether he intended to raise taxes and took no position on the idea of altering the state's term limits law. And while he said he'd learned that "a lot of leadership is about listening," he tended to slide into lecturing at the first opportunity. When one questioner implied that the state was spending more on prisons than schools, Davis snapped, "That's one of the myths out there," and went on to recite the budget figures to prove it. Technically Davis was right, but he failed to grasp the sense of frustration behind the clumsily worded question, the widespread and correct belief that lately prison spending has been protected while education funds have been cut. When a community college teacher complained that too much money was going to the University of California and not enough to her program, Davis told her the problem was that the community colleges lacked clout in the Capitol. He invited her to work with his staff on improving the faculty's "presence in Sacramento," implying that only better lobbying, not better leadership from his office, could influence the Legislature. Yet even if the governor's answers were not always on the mark, his mere presence in the community was notable. While Davis made a point of reminding the audience that he cut his political teeth working for former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, they know and he knows that lately he's spent far more time at glitzy fund-raisers with well-heeled donors than talking with citizens about the problems in the black community. Davis noted that he used to do town hall meetings when he was in the state Assembly and regrets that he did not continue. He promised to keep doing them -- at least twice a month -- if he is allowed to remain in office. "I believe to my core that this is a good way to allow people to ask questions directly," Davis said. "I learn a lot ... You get good ideas. And you hear from people directly. Which is what democracy is all about." Chalk one up for the recall. No matter what the result on Oct. 7. sacbee.com