EDITORIAL SIMPLY, SIMON DEFEATING DAVIS WILL TAKE A VERY DIFFERENT SORT OF CAMPAIGN.

GOV. Gray Davis seemed almost jubilant on election night at the prospect of tearing into Republican Bill Simon, who pulled off a stunning upset in the GOP gubernatorial race.

Having derailed former Mayor Richard Riordan's campaign with a $10 million negative advertising blitz, Davis thinks he has found the ideal opponent for this November's election: a conservative who can't win.

Simon once had another such opponent, one who considered him easily beatable - Riordan.

Forget the conventional wisdom. Simon is a stronger, better campaigner than anyone gave him credit for, and he's going up against a governor with billions, not millions, of negatives due to his costly bungling of the energy crisis.

Davis has been ineffective in actually governing California but remains a disciplined campaigner and awesome fund-raiser. He clearly intends to pound at Simon's pro-life, anti-gun control views, and unlike Riordan, he doesn't make many political mistakes.

For Simon to upset Davis, he has to run a campaign as focused and well- put-together as the one that won him the primary - yet one that's also very different.

Simon struck gold in the primary by convincing Republicans that Riordan, who had given money to various Democratic politicians and embraced several liberal positions, was never really their man. Simon, on the other hand, was the real deal, a genuine conservative Republican.

That worked fine in a primary, where voters tend to be the most hard- bound partisans, but it will go nowhere in the general election.

Throughout the campaign, Davis will beat the drum on the old social issues that tend most to divide the public.

These are red herrings, largely settled legal matters that the governor of California can scarcely affect. (Nothing short of a Supreme Court decision or a constitutional amendment, for example, can change the legality of abortion.)

But Davis knows that he can't win on the issues that most directly touch on Californians' lives, such as the state's power mess, Sacramento's busted budget or the failing public school system. That's why he will try to raise as many distractions as he can.

For Simon, the key to winning the election will be to focus on the real issues Davis is scared to face. He will need to continue to be the ``candidate of ideas,'' as he has called himself, and steer clear of the tiresome political debates that sank Riordan.

Simon would be wise to emulate his hero, Ronald Reagan, the last Republican governor who was able to work with Democrats and appeal to moderate voters. Reagan never compromised his ideals, but was also willing to work with those who disagreed with him, and not pursue an agenda that the public was unprepared to accept.

Simon's best hope is to convince Californians that his campaign is not an ideological crusade, but a practical attempt to solve the problems Davis has either ignored, created or exacerbated.

California desperately needs a real public debate on its future direction, not a reprise of worn-out arguments on issues that have long been resolved.