WHO PAYS UP TO HELP DAVIS KEEP HIS JOB?

Byline: Jill Stewart Capitol Punishment

AS the Gray Davis recall heats up, the only way to grasp the baffling phenomenon of people writing $100,000 checks to save our incompetent governor's job is to follow the money.

Why, for example, did spoiled rich kid Stephen Bing fork over $100,000? Why did Zenith Insurance Co. of Woodland Hills hand Davis $100,000?

Why would John and Rebecca Moores, owners of the San Diego Padres, give $100,000; why did three big unions part with $318,000; and why has Jerry Perenchio, CEO of Univision, coughed up $50,000?

Why did Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who derive their riches in part from incredibly garish dust-catchers sold through The Franklin Mint, give $50,000?

For starters, some belong to the Westside money cabal in Los Angeles that created Gray Davis.

``Good God,'' said Shawn Steel, former chairman of the California Republican Party, ``these people previously poured millions into Gray Davis, and as they said in Tammany Hall, 'Once he's bought, he ought to stay bought.'''

Take Jerry Perenchio, chairman of Spanish-language Univision, who a few years ago spent more than $1 million trying to stop English immersion in schools. (Why lose Univision customers by having immigrant kids learn English?)

Perenchio needs help from Davis appointees on the Coastal Commission because he finally got caught by the commission for operating his permit-lacking, illegal nine-hole golf course next to Malibu Lagoon - secretly built for his wife behind 8-foot rock walls.

Filings show Perenchio claimed it was a ``jogging trail.'' But the secret golf course was an inside joke among local rich, who kept mum as the hated commission failed to locate the source of poisons running into Malibu Lagoon.

Wetlands Action Network spokeswoman Marcia Hanscom says Perenchio has spewed heavy pesticides on his greens for two decades while, in the path of his filthy runoff, children romp in coastal tidal pools.

Incredibly, commission staffers wanted to give Perenchio a permit after the fact. But on July 10 the commission delayed its vote indefinitely after Hanscom and the Sierra Club said they would sue.

Hanscom laughs, ``The commission got so embarrassed, I don't believe they will rule on this until after the recall.''

``The reason for $50,000 going from Perenchio to Davis is pretty obvious,'' she said.

Others on the Grease Gray Donor List may also one day need delicate personal intervention from Davis.

Look at the mess facing Moores, a longtime Davis backer whom Davis rewarded with an appointment to the University of California Board of Regents.

Moores' software firm, Peregrine Systems, is under SEC investigation and is in bankruptcy protection after a massive scandal for cooking its books. Moores recently resigned as chairman, and company officials are deciding whether to sue Moores and other directors over a lost fortune.

Congressional Republicans are probing why Moores sold stock worth more than $600 million while Peregrine's financial health was being faked. Peregrine insiders blame former accountants for cooking the books behind their backs.

However, if federal blow-back affects Moores' many business dealings in California, he could use a powerful contact in Sacramento. A governor would be very nice.

Another purely altruistic giver is Zenith Insurance Co., a key provider of workers' compensation insurance in California. Workers' comp is becoming the next big Democratic disaster, with insurance rates up 1,000 percent in some cases even though the care this state provides is among the worst in the nation.

Republicans are fighting to deeply reform workers' compensation with bills like AB 1579, which copies states where workers' comp is inexpensive and yet fully covers the injured.

But ah, the Democrats. The Dems keep gutting the Republican reforms yet are only tinkering with the crisis themselves.

Why? Because true reform is opposed by insurers, unions and health care groups that are bleeding workers' comp dry.

Despite huffy claims by Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi that he will fix workers' comp, I say the Dems lack the guts to stand up to their big campaign donors - the insurers, unions and health care groups.

Yet Stanley Zax, chairman of Zenith Insurance, insisted to The Associated Press that his $100,000 gift to save Davis from recall has nothing to do with state business.

Please. Who else is passionate about Gray Davis? Stephen Bing, the brat New York heir and sometime film producer who keeps impregnating beautiful women and getting mired in weird scandals for doing so.

You may recall Bing's boorish behavior when he insisted that global beauty Elizabeth Hurley have their child paternity-tested, because Bing thought Hurley might be a floozy. Turns out Bing - who is also father of the baby in the Kirk Kirkorian-Lisa Bonder paternity battle - is the real floozy.

Bing bought his way into social circles Washington and Sacramento that require huge donations. With the Democrats out of favor in Washington, California's richest climbers - Bing, the Resnicks and others - are focused like lasers on preserving power in Sacramento.

No doubt these Davis loyalists hope California turns around. But priorities come first.

And the first question clearly is: What about me?