HERE'S HOW THE GOVERNOR BECAME SO UNPOPULAR 'BEST-TRAINED' GOVERNOR IS NOW STATE'S MOST HATED.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

When he first ran for the state's top job, Gray Davis called himself the ``best-trained governor-in-waiting'' the state had ever seen, and today his resume boasts five elections to statewide office, two terms in the Assembly, and chief of staff to a governor.

So how did Gray Davis become so unpopular?

Recall backers say it's a failure of leadership as crisis after crisis rocked California. The economy, energy, state finances, workers' compensation - just about everything went wrong - and instead of providing solutions, they say, Davis was looking after special interests.

Nonsense, Davis responded, recall is part of a right-wing power grab that goes back to the Clinton impeachment and Florida election flap, an abuse of a recall process that should only be used for serious wrongdoing.

And he argued the major problems weren't his fault - the recession was a national problem, the energy crisis was triggered by price-gouging companies, the budget stalemate caused by recalcitrant Republican legislators.

Polls say Davis has largely lost the argument in the court of public opinion.

``Our polling indicates that both on the issue of likability and policy effectiveness that the public has expressed their disappointment in the governor,'' said Mark Baldassare, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.

``A very substantial number of voters are telling us they don't like the governor and they don't like his policies.''

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, who financed the recall petition drive, recently made the case against Davis:

``Gray Davis is a uniquely failed governor. He failed to act when California was faced with an energy crisis. He signed energy contracts that have locked us in to the highest prices for electricity in the nation. He tripled your car tax and he signed legislation that has forced businesses to leave California. He lied about the budget crisis.

``And in five years in office (the state) has gone from the largest surplus in California history to the largest deficit in the nation's history. For the first time in our history, people are leaving California for a better life.''

Davis has conceded he has not done everything right but minimized his mistakes and campaigned against recall by very publicly going about the business of being governor by signing legislation and carrying out official duties while holding town hall meetings with friendly audiences.

``Voters are mad about what's happening to them,'' Davis said in a recent interview on ABC's ``Good Morning America.''

``I understand it. I don't believe it's my fault, certainly not entirely, although I admit I haven't done everything perfectly, and I have made some mistakes. But we are part of the United States of America - when they're in a recession, when the whole country is losing 3 million jobs, some of them are going to come from California.''

Here are some of the key issues and the how the recall and Davis camps see them:

--Budget crisis: As the economy continued to languish, declines in state revenues were expected, but the scope and release of information about them have subjected Davis to perhaps his harshest criticism.

Critics say he failed to manage the state's finances and hid the scope of the problem until after his re-election. He has said he released the information he had at the time and Republicans deserve much of the blame for the difficulty in addressing the problem.

When last year's budget was passed in September 2002, officials warned that a $5 billion to $7 billion deficit could be expected in the next budget. Prior to Davis' re-election he said he didn't know how big it might get. Then two weeks after the election, the state legislative analyst estimated the deficit at $21 billion. Eventually, the figure ballooned up to $38 billion.

The state government was virtually paralyzed as the deadline for passing a budget passed and Republicans refused to accept any deal that raised taxes.

The recall gained steam as voters grew increasingly frustrated with the gridlock and focused on Davis as the cause, even though the budget was in the Legislature's hands, perhaps because he was unsuccessful in winning support for his own proposals.

A budget deal was eventually passed which relied on a tripling of the vehicle license fee by administrative action and a rollover of at least $8 billion in debt to next year's budget. Some of the deal, however, is now in danger of falling apart in court because of legal challenges from Republicans and taxpayer groups challenging the validity of the borrowing plans.

Recall supporters blame Davis for not foreseeing the problem and clamping down harder on spending in earlier years as the state economy slowed down.

``He totally mismanaged the finances of this state,'' said Ted Costa, the anti-tax activist who played a key role in the recall drive. ``He spent more money than he brought in. It isn't something that happened this year. It progressively got worse.''

Davis has blamed the budget gridlock on the legislative Republicans and said he is still being blamed for a problem that has been resolved.

``Mr. (Arnold) Schwarzenegger wants you to throw me out because of past problems,'' Davis said in a Sept. 30 campaign speech. ``He says we have a $38 billion deficit. He's got the tense wrong. We had a $38 billion deficit. Had. That's a big difference. We have a balanced budget this year, with a reserve close to $2 billion.''

--Energy crisis: Critics concede that Davis may not have triggered the crisis because electricity deregulation was started under his predecessor, Gov. Pete Wilson, but they say Davis' response was slow and inadequate once the problem became apparent.

``All of the experts were warning that our supply was down, we needed more capacity, and he waited until the lights went out to start doing anything about it,'' said Chris Wysocki, a spokesman for Rescue California, one of the main groups pushing the recall.

State Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, one of the candidates seeking to replace Davis, has faulted him for signing long-term contracts with energy companies at high prices during the height of the crisis and said he would have the contracts thrown out in court if he is elected.

Davis has conceded he was slow to act on the energy crisis, but said he deserves credit for resisting the stiff rate increases sought by energy companies and for keeping the lights on.

He blames the companies for manipulating the market and says he was vindicated during the Enron scandal two years later. He also pushed for the quick construction of 24 new power plants, which have helped the state avoid rolling blackouts for the last two years.

``I smelled that something was wrong,'' Davis said in a campaign appearance on Sept. 30. ``Both utilities and the Enrons of the world wanted me to raise your rates 400 percent. You were promised (with deregulation) your rates would go down. I didn't want to break that promise even though it was made by my predecessor.''

He has argued that the problem was solved properly and has frequently noted that ``when the lights went out for 50 million Americans last month on the East Coast, they did not flicker in California.''

--Car tax: As one of several steps to solve the state budget crisis, Davis decided in June to triple the vehicle license fee administratively, raising it back to the amount it was in 1998. The increase, which took effect Oct. 1, is expected to raise about $4 billion. The original deal to decrease it was struck under Wilson as the state's coffers were full from a flush economy and was intended to allow an increase if the state ran out of money, Davis said.

Republicans denounced the move, calling it illegal to raise the vehicle license fee without approval by the Legislature. Davis contended that the increase was automatically triggered by the budget crunch under the terms of the 1998 deal.

Harrison Sheppard, [phone]

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Governor Gray Davis says recall is part of a right-wing power grab that goes back to the Clinton impeachment and Florida election flap.

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press