'SCRUBBED CLEAN' WILL VOTERS SEE PAST THE IMAGES?

Byline: Jill Stewart Capitol Punishment

WHAT the media observes firsthand during political wars, but often cleans up when it reports the news for public consumption, continually bemuses me.

Everything the opposing campaigns in the Gray Davis recall do from this moment forward will be in order to influence the polls as Davis hurtles toward the first recall vote against a United States governor since the 1920s.

Yet what I observed at a press conference held by Rescue California ... Recall Gray Davis, the group that has now successfully forced the recall vote, was scrubbed clean by most media. Those unsanitized tidbits speak volumes.

After the recent Sacramento news conference, Dave Gilliard of Rescue California was approached by a Latina TV reporter who waved to a microphone, asking, ``Who's giving interviews to the Spanish-language media?''

This question is routine, but I perked up. Polls say Latinos favor recall, making them Davis' worst nightmare.

I wondered: Who did the Republicans persuade to speak? Maybe a rising star, such as the new vice chairman of the California Republican Party, Mario Rodriguez?

Gilliard hesitated. Clearly, it hadn't crossed anyone's mind to have a Spanish speaker. This tells you how the California party still thinks. It's still as white as snow, and as out of it as a comatose patient in intensive care.

``Uh, our Spanish-speaking representative is (Assemblyman) Bob Pacheco,'' Gilliard said. ``You can call him.''

At least Gilliard looked uncomfortable. That's social progress among California Republicans.

I didn't see this tale in the news either, but Bob Mulholland, spokesman for the California Democratic Party, displayed his party's ugly side.

Mulholland stole the show at the same press conference, attacking bad people - like two convicted felons - the Democrats say were paid to gather recall signatures. But what did he really say?

He attacked the homeless.

``Voters should know the kind of people bused in to do the circulating!'' Mulholland boomed. ``... The homeless! And convicted felons!''

Does the Democratic Party condone the notion that petition-circulating jobs, which require no experience, should not be offered to the homeless?

I called Steve Smith, manager of Davis' humorously named Taxpayers Against the Governor's Recall, who never called back.

Was it because the ``two felons'' allegation turned embarrassing after the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the felons worked at Rescue California a short time - and were then promptly hired by the Davis camp to gather signatures for a nonbinding petition?

One delightful gaffe did hit the news. Last Monday, some hard-left members of the Assembly talked near a microphone they didn't know was live about making the budget crisis even worse in order to manipulate the public into welcoming taxes.

Los Angeles-based politicos Jackie Goldberg and Fabian Nunez said rotten things, speculating that by delaying the budget they could make Republicans look awful and win tax concessions.

``Since there's going to be a crisis, the crisis could be this year,'' Goldberg said.

Said Nunez: ``If you don't have a budget, it helps Democrats.''

Goldberg is head Machiavellian in Sacramento. As a Los Angeles city councilwoman, this self-described feminist lesbian used to corner men and cry to get her way. That's right, blubbered. Such schemers have stolen and ruined the once-grand name ``progressive.''

While California Republicans are social Neanderthals, California Democrats are the party of sneaks, who've clearly lost their way under Chief Sneak Gray Davis.

During the recall, both sides will grandly lie and go too far - and in the process inadvertently reveal their true natures. So two questions now present themselves:

First, will the California media give the public telling details that only insiders get to see, or will the media sanitize things?

Second, will the public pick its way through both sides' spin, or will it get snookered?

So far, the public is resisting spin. The Los Angeles Times Poll on July 4 showed startling attitudes - although Times editors chose not to print the most revealing questions.

The final poll question can be no comfort to Democratic spinners like National Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe and Davis strategist Chris Lehane.

The unpublished question asked voters what they believed more: ``The Republicans are attempting to reverse the outcome of the gubernatorial election they lost last November,'' or ``The Republicans honestly believe that Gray Davis has mismanaged the state's finances.''

Far more people believe Republicans think Davis has mismanaged the finances.

One-third of Democrats agreed Republicans are being honest.

``This is just explosive stuff,'' says Democratic pundit and polling expert Pat Caddell of numerous findings the Times didn't publish. ``It tells me the Democrats don't understand what they are facing, recall support is broad, and we may be heading toward a huge turnout.''

Sometimes, voters just know what they know. And that means that even if the media sanitizes the news, voters might finally wise up to the Chief Sneak.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Gov. Gray Davis is dogged by the press at L.A. County Sheriff's Department in Monterey Park.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) Gov. Gray Davis looks over some papers in his Capitol office while supporters of his recall are just a few blocks away at the Secretary of State's Office.

Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press