On a Saturday, the traffic on Route 101 from San Jose south to Monterey and Carmel is at a standstill. It is no better along scenic Highway 1. Commuting anywhere in the Bay Area during the week is an expected nightmare, but now even the off-season weekends have become obstacle courses, with no relief and only more cars in sight. Housing costs in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley long since passed out of the realm of affordability, and Willie Brown's city is once again besieged by the homeless.
In Los Angeles, the subway is a bust, and the daily commute a complex series of guesses informed by a fleet of traffic-reporter-carrying helicopters. The shadow of rising gang violence is back, and the city is facing a vote on splitting itself into two dysfunctional giants. The new mayor has called for the ouster of the police chief who is almost uniformly supported by the African-American leadership that elected the new mayor, guaranteeing his one term will be marked by the bitter politics of payback.
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Did I mention that the state is about $10 billion in the red give or take two billion? Or that construction of its new and much needed University of California campus in the state's Central Valley is held up by fairy shrimp? Or that its cracker-jack attorney general investigated Enron all of last year and found nothing, but that the state's retirement fund lost $100-plus million in the collapse of the energy giant?
Gray Davis is captain of this ship, and he dresses very nattily. Davis has accumulated more than $30 million in donations to run again for the job he does not do so very well, and he is actually touting his handling of the energy crisis of 2001 as an accomplishment. You will recall that in a deft combination of early inaction followed by frenzied overreaction, Davis turned a minor supply glitch into decades of ruinous debt. But when you have accomplished as little as Davis, you have to make lemonade out of lemons.
Davis is also proud to have signed a bill into law that will severely limit construction of new housing. The bill obliges would-be homebuilders to identify their water supply before construction commences. In the past, water supply followed units, but no more. By the way, California's 33.8 million residents already face an enormous housing shortage. That population is projected by the Census Bureau to hit 45 million in 20 years. Davis' answer to this demographic earthquake is Canute-like: He has decreed they cannot come. At least Canute knew the tide would still advance.
Davis also imposed an exit exam on California's high school seniors. He postponed the effective date until after his re-election, which was wise on his part, as the early returns promise either an academic bloodbath or a repeal of the test. As Davis has fiddled with the energy shortage, the California public schools have burned. Pete Wilson's much praised move towards smaller class-sizes in the lowest grades is everywhere in peril as budget shortfalls send school boards scrambling to hack and cut.
A quarter of California's children live below the poverty-line. Millions are uninsured. The state's network of hospitals are reeling under a variety of Sacramento-inspired mandates, the latest of which – Davis' announcement of mandatory nurse-patient ratios – left administrators speechless. California's nurse shortage is anywhere from a low of 5,000 to north of 10,000. In the face of that fact, Davis has simply issued a decree that there must be more nurses.
It goes on and on. In a little more than three years, Davis has bankrupted the state and signed scores of laws and rules that make meaningful recovery hard to imagine. Like the Queen of Hearts in Alice's adventures – though lacking the charisma – he dashes about, collecting contributions and making announcements, but it all adds up to absurdity.
Gray Davis is simply the worst governor in California history. But for the leaders of the segregationist south, he would be at the top of the list of the worst governors in American history. He lacks even a single redeeming quality. Davis is without vision, boldness, courage or intellect. His advisers are non-entities collecting checks and serving time. The Democrats in the Capitol despise Davis even more than the Republicans do … in a way that only estranged spouses can. The media laugh and laugh at Gov. Clouseau, but dutifully file copy on his latest pronouncements.
Any of the three Republicans seeking the nomination to run against Davis could out-govern him in their sleep. Sam Yorty could outgovern Davis, and Sam's dead. But Davis fears Richard Riordan more than Bill Simon and Bill Jones, because Riordan has demonstrated an ability to garner votes from the third of the California population which is Latino. So Davis opened his re-election bid with a series of ads attacking Riordan on the issue of abortion. That's right, abortion. Riordan's pro-choice. But Davis will not be deterred by inconvenient facts. Why should he start now?
In November of 1998, California took a chance on a bland non-entity who had spent four years as lieutenant governor staying out of sight and raising money. The dot-com economy was booming then. The coffers were full. The country was at peace. What did it matter, after all, who was governor?
It mattered then, and it matters now. It is hard to imagine California re-electing Davis. But it is a state that has always liked a good horror show.
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