Posted on 03/25/2002 8:57:00 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Gray Davis has a little problem facing him in his race to win a second term as California's governor: the voters don't like him.
"He's not exactly 'Mr. Congeniality.' A lot of Californians just don't like the guy," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle's political writer Carla Marinucci.
"Even some people who should like Gray Davis -- like Susan Barnes, a small businesswoman, a Democrat -- are turned off," she adds. 'What's alienating, for me, is his naked ambition,' says Barnes, who has a public relations consulting firm in Cotati. 'That prevails over everything. He's not out to solve problems. His first issue is: How much money are you going to give me?' "
Marinucci quotes San Francisco Democrat loyalist Marc O'Hara as telling her "Gray Davis wants to be president of the United States. He's lost me. And I voted for (Michael) Dukakis. Twice."
Just how deadly these opinions are to Davis's re-election hopes is illustrated by the fact that both Barnes and O'Hara are not only members of his party but also members of the American Association of Political Consultants -- "people who make their living selling political candidates and causes to the unwashed masses. These two are in business to elect Democrats."
The two were attending a convention of political consultants is San Diego where much of the talk was about the difficulty of selling the man Marinucci called "Mr. Un- Congeniality" to the voters in November.
That the task is daunting is reflected by Davis' poll numbers, which are dismal for a man with a four years term as governor under his belt.
Thanks to the state's $14 billion defect racked up under Davis, and his miserable response to the energy crisis that wracked California last year an astonishing 53 percent of Californians say they disapprove of Davis' performance. "Worse, the governor's approval has waned with Democrats," Marinucci reports. "A year ago, three-quarters of them liked the job he was doing. Now, it's about half, and his disapproval ratings among his own party have tripled.
Susan Pinkus, who directs the Los Angeles Times Poll, told Marinucci that Californians "don't like Davis because they don't think he's improved education, energy and the economy."
"Energy is really a bad thing for him," Pinkus added. "People blame him for the crisis."
Davis strategy for dealing with the fact that voters don't like him will be to go after Bill Simon, the GOP candidate hammer and tong.
Said Davis attack dog Garry South: "I guarantee you, by the time we're done with this guy, there are going to be a lot of people who don't like Bill Simon," he told Marinucci.
"It doesn't matter what a nice smile he has, or what a nice wife or how many sisters he has. That does not tell the voters where he stands on the issues. . . . Bill Simon is an unelectable extremist."
To date that strategy hasn't worked, and experts, noting that Simon, unlike Davis, is both genial and likeable, say it could backfire and cause even more voters to turn their backs on Davis than now express their dislike of the governor.
Noted Susan Barnes, that even with exceptionally low voter turnout in the March 5 primary, "grassroots GOP conservatives were motivated to go to the polls for Simon. Davis didn't get that kind of passion." "Democrats may not want to get actively involved. They could sit on their hands," says Barnes. "And that could make the difference."
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This is going to be a long, tough race. Davis is not going to be that easy to beat.
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