CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: GOVERNOR AND LAWMAKERS RIDE ACCLAIM TRAIN.

Byline: Terri Hardy and Dorothy Korber

PRESS conferences are normally dreary affairs. Sometimes actual information will be imparted, but usually they are heavy on spin and bluster.

The very worst are known among reporters as ``dog and pony shows,'' where participants trot before the cameras and microphones and spend way too much of everyone's time with self-promoting blather.

Even among the jaded crew of the Sacramento press corps, though, no one was prepared for the circus last week. In that press briefing, Gov. Gray Davis and a group of merry legislators celebrated passing a state budget nearly on time.

Senators made their June 15 deadline and the Assembly came in only 17 hours late - which the governor said was ``good enough for government.''

All aboard

Davis likes using the children's story ``The Little Engine that Could'' as a metaphor for his administration. He cited the tale again Thursday to describe how persevering lawmakers could break the mold and complete a budget without the usual long delays. Disbelieving reporters watched as Davis pulled out engineer hats for the politicians surrounding him, then donned his own baseball cap emblazoned with the words ``The Gov.''

Sen. Steve Peace, D-La Mesa, chairman of the Senate budget committee, jumped up and down behind the governor, mugging for the camera.

The Sacramento Bee carried a front-page picture Friday of the governor next to grinning Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles, whose too-small engineer's cap perched atop his head like a striped mushroom cloud. With them was Assemblywoman Carole ``The General'' Migden, D-San Francisco, wearing a goofy smile, her hat half-cocked.

Now it's clear why Davis' press office doesn't have answers to all our questions - they're busy dreaming up nifty uses for props.

The Barbecue King

One of the most interesting moments in all the self-congratulation was the Democrats' mysterious acknowledgment that Republican George Runner, an Assemblyman from Lancaster, ``played a very important and key role to close the budget.''

We think we know why.

We were curious when Runner angrily refused to give us the list of budget requests for his district (Daily News, ``Pork barrel polka,'' June 7). Now we get it. When it comes to pork, he's the Barbecue King.

Getting a juicy piece of pork into the budget takes finesse, luck and clout. These one-of-a-kind items, projects aimed for a legislator's home turf, are easy targets for the budget ax. So cagey Assembly members devise their own tricks for greasing the skids a bit.

Democrat Alan Lowenthal, for example, wanted $540,000 for the Museum of Latin American Art in his Long Beach district. But it's hard for a freshman member to pull off a big request like that. So Lowenthal appealed to Speaker Villaraigosa to put the museum on his list. Bingo.

Another angle is to pick a heart-rending social issue. It worked for Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Panorama City. Only a brute would have turned down Cardenas' request for $150,000 for a child care center for battered women in the San Fernando Valley. Bingo.

But these guys are minor leaguers compared to Runner, who knows the best way to spear pork: Serve as the only Assembly Republican on the Legislature's Budget Conference Committee.

Runner's pork barrel runneth over: Lancaster horse arena - $1 million; Antelope Valley Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall - $800,000; Antelope Valley High School agricultural center - $350,000; Palmdale library - $200,000; and Lancaster soccer center - $200,000.

In all, $3.6 million for 12 district projects. BINGO.

Still, it ain't over 'til the skinny governor sings. Blue pencil in hand, Davis can veto anything in the state budget - and The Gov doesn't look like a man who relishes pork.