Going from Wilson to
Davis: (CALIFORNIA) -- "When candidate Gray Davis promised to end the "era of wedge issues" and reminded voters of his opposition to the Proposition 209 affirmative action ban, most civil rights advocates figured they knew what he meant. After 16 years of Republican governors and nasty initiative battles over illegal immigrants and affirmative action, the state was finally about to elect a Democrat who was on voters' side, needed their support and would listen to their concerns. "And although Davis said he was not about to seek repeal of voter-approved measures limiting programs for minorities and women, at least he would implement and interpret them sympathetically, and take the advocates' side in court cases. Or so the thinking went. "A year later, some feel betrayed, and have even accused Davis of racism for vetoing a bill to require police to track the race of drivers stopped for traffic violations. Others feel vindicated by the bills Davis signed to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination at school, increase their protections in the workplace, offer health benefits to same-sex partners of state employees, and limit employers' ability to fire older workers to save money.
"Immigrant rights groups feel relieved now that Davis has finally dropped the state's
defense of Proposition 187, the initiative eliminating public education and other state
benefits for illegal immigrants. But most are still trying to figure Davis out. It's not
an uncommon reaction to a governor who has seemingly sought a middle ground, however
elusive, on every issue." (Associated Press, via Hotcoco.Com, by AP's Bob
Egelko) Davis Vetoes Racial
Profiling Legislation (09/29/99) "In a veto message, the Democratic governor, who drew support from both the law enforcement establishment and the African American and Latino communities in his election victory last year, said there is evidence of a "few specific" cases where racial profiling has occurred. But he said "there is no evidence that this practice is taking place statewide, requiring sweeping legislation that mandates state scrutiny of every local law enforcement agency in California." "[Calif. Gov.] Davis, however, said he will order the Highway Patrol to create a three-year program, starting Jan. 1, to gather such data from every stop that officers make. That would not affect local police agencies. "…The ACLU of Southern California denounced Davis' action. "The governor, by vetoing this bill, has told the public he doesn't care if minority motorists think they are being treated unfairly," said Elizabeth Schroeder, the group's associate director. "He doesn't care if they really are being treated unfairly. He doesn't want to know."
"Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks had urged Davis to veto the measure,
asserting that highly sensitive issues such as allegations of "harassment and the
propriety of any search cannot and should not be made via a raw statistical
survey." Parks also warned that the analysis of raw statistics does a
"disservice to the community, circumvents the department's disciplinary system"
and poses potential civil liability problems to government agencies." (Los
Angeles Times 09/29/99 by Carl Ingram)
Everybody's Mad at Davis on Prop. 187, LA Times, 04/29/99 "Faced with a decision to either continue California's lawsuit to implement Proposition 187 or to end it, Davis did neither. Forced to choose between the options of either ignoring the will of California voters who passed the initiative or offending the state's Latino community that strongly opposed it, Davis did both. By attempting to craft a solution that would protect him from political harm, Davis tried to split the middle. But Davis' decision to refer the lawsuit to mediation, arguably the domestic policy version of bombing without ground troops, ultimately satisfied no one. "By choosing mediation, Davis is setting up a process in which he will meet with Proposition 187's most outspoken opponents to decide its fate. With no proponent of the anti-illegal immigration initiative at the negotiating table, Proposition 187 will almost certainly die a quiet death.
"Proposition 187's supporters, who believed they were cracking down against illegal
immigration when they voted for it, are understandably angry to see their efforts come to
naught. But the loudest cries of outrage come from the initiative's opponents, who have
argued that the importance of Proposition 187 was at least as symbolic as it was
substantive." (LA Times 04/29/99 by Dan Schnur) Minority Rights Groups Rush to Bustamante's Side, San Francisco Chronicle, 04/29/99 "A coalition of 26 minority civil rights and business groups has lined up behind Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante's stand against fellow Democratic Governor Gray Davis over Proposition 187 -- hinting at a rift with potentially profound implications for the party's future. "In an open letter to Bustamante yesterday, the leaders of major African American, Asian and Latino organizations lauded the lieutenant governor's boldness for ``standing tall for the rights of all Californians'' and expressing a view that ``many other elected officials share but fear to publicly state. ... Had the lieutenant governor and governor of California spoken out in a similar fashion in 1941-42,'' the church and civic leaders wrote, ``our nation might have avoided the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of loyal Japanese American citizens.''
"Robert Gnaizda, policy director of the San Francisco-based Greenlining Institute,
who signed the letter, said Bustamante is seen ``as an alternative leader to express the
growing concerns of the minority community. We saw it as a governor unwilling to fulfill
his responsibility to the natural Democratic constituency.'' (San Francisco
Chronicle, Page A17,04/29/99 by Carla Marinucci) Missteps by Both Strain Ties Between Davis, Bustamante, LA Times, 04/29/99 " ... It wasn't just that Bustamante opposed Davis' decision. It's how he did it--out on the Capitol steps, for reporters, right after the governor's announcement, very articulately. Short and to the point: "During the campaign and in his inaugural ceremony, Gray Davis said he was going to 'end the era of wedge issue politics. . . .' I didn't think he meant 'pending appeal' or 'pending mediation.' " ... Now Davis aides are firing shots. "Here's a guy who could have been the A l Gore of the Davis administration and instead has chosen to be the Jesse Jackson," says one gubernatorial advisor. "Becoming the chief public defender of illegal aliens is a curious way for a self-described moderate to introduce himself to the California electorate."" (LA Times 04/29/99 by George Skelton) [link http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/STATE/t000038462.html ]
Minority groups want action from Davis, Lockyer, AP, posted 2/6/99 "[Pro-quota] organizations such as the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, which assembled the list of cases, felt estranged from state government during 16 Republican years in which California barred benefits to illegal immigrants, eliminated preferences for women and minorities and limited bilingual education. [They say they're] not asking Davis and Lockyer to repudiate the Proposition 209 affirmative action initiative [but they really are], or back away from the ongoing legal defense of propositions 187 and 227, on immigrants' benefits and English-only instruction [but they really are].
Most disturbingly, new attorney general Lockyer is quite clear that he intends to continue
practicing racial-hiring and contracting goals: "He said he would appoint an in-house
affirmative action director to review his office's recruitment, hiring and promotion
practices to identify and eliminate 'barriers to equal employment opportunity.'
" Lockyer was NOT talking about equal employment opportunity for
non-minorities! (AP, via Sacramento Bee, by Bob Egelko)
Wedgie Issue Politics Thrive Over Ron Unz, 02/05/9 (dead link)
"Villaraigosa's unpardonable sin: appointing Ron Unz, who led the anti-bilingual
education initiative that voters passed last year, to the Speaker's Commission on State
and Local Government Finance. Never mind that Villaraigosa's commission has nothing
to do with Proposition 227. Or that many Latino parents happen to agree with Unz's view of
it. Or that Unz has supported some Latino causes, including opposing Proposition 187,
which attempted to deny schooling to children of illegal immigrants." (San Jose
Mercury News, 02/05/99, Opinion)
Davis Administration Moving to
Center Stage, by Dave Lesher, LA Times, 01-04-99 (dead
link) "...as the first Democratic governor in 16 years, Davis still faces significant pressure from traditional elements in his own party to expand government's role in ... worker rights and salaries, assistance for the poor and attention to the disenfranchised.
Davis has not said if he will repeal the executive orders and litigation requiring
California to eliminate racial quotas and preferences in state jobs, contracting and
education. These items were the hallmark of Wilson's previous tenure, and were
overwhelmingly approved by the voters in a quite democratic process which resulted in the
passage of Proposition 209. "Unlike (incoming governor) Davis, (former
governor) Wilson supported (such) measures and actively used the governor's authority to
enforce them".
Davis Courts Minorities,
Disenfranchised at Pre-Inaugural, by
Amy Pyle, LA Times, 01-04-99 (dead link) "... tweed suits to saffron robes told much about the (celebration's) diversity of religions". The executive director of the Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims, Dr. Metwallie B. Amer, virtually chortled when he said "to include, not to exclude" in his joyous celebration of the election of this pro-quota governor. Rev. Bob Oshita of the Sacramento Buddhist Church lauded Gov. Davis for flying in coach class "shoulder to shoulder with we the people".
Rabbi Brad Bloom, head of the Sacramento Interfaith Bureau, publicly prayed that Davis do
his "best to end the ... partisanship and all that divides us in this great
state."
Gray Davis's Hispanic Lt. Governor: Cruz Bustamante, based on story by Mike Lewis, The Fresno Bee, 01-05-99)
UC
diversity plan backed by governor (Gov. Gray Davis), by John Ritter, USA Today 01-04-99 Opponents of this newest end-run around Prop. 209, "including Ward Connerly, a UC regent and the author of Proposition 209, say that automatically admitting a percentage of students from poor-performing high schools would deny admission to scores of high-achieving students elsewhere."
"The 26-member Board of Regents, which has three vacancies Davis will fill, could
consider the proposal as soon as next month. Davis sits on the board."
Wilson
Leaves Calif. a Mixed Legacy, by Doug Willis, AP
writer, Jan. 2, 1999
"Wilson has insisted he had fairness, not racism, on his mind when he backed
Proposition 187. He also said he wanted to end racial discrimination -- not
perpetuate it -- when he sponsored Proposition 209 in 1996 to abolish racial preferences
in state jobs, contracts and college admissions. But Hispanics, a growing political
force in California, remain alienated by what Democratic Gov.-elect Gray Davis describes
as Wilson's ``divisive eight-year era of wedge-issue politics.'' And overwhelming
Democratic victories this past year in California are a result." Gov. Wilson Lifted State, Sank Party - by Lou Cannon and William Booth Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, January 2, 1999; Page A01 (dead link) SACRAMENTO—"As Pete Wilson steps down after eight turbulent years as governor of the most populous state and turns his gaze toward another possible run for the White House, he leaves a legacy as complex and riddled with contradiction as California itself. During the Wilson years, all the fault lines in California revealed themselves, and it sometimes seemed that the Golden State, and Wilson, were lurching from one crisis to the next.
"Wilson, a Republican, is credited, even by his enemies, with helping to rescue the
state from fiscal meltdown in the early 1990s. He changed the state's regulations and
attitudes toward business development. He worked hard reforming faltering public education
and was tough on crime.
Peter Schrag: From Wilson to
Davis -- The more things change... Published Dec. 30,
1998, Sacramento Bee (dead link)
"He will not try to undo the history of the past two decades or reverse the measures
put in place by the voters during an era when the initiative has become a more important
policy instrument than the conventional institutions of government. He is not a liberal on
poverty or welfare or civil liberties, words that were hardly mentioned during his
campaign, or on crime, which was. All through his career he has been a disciplined,
poll-driven politician of calculation, not of passion. For better or worse, he is
probably the ultimate President Clinton-era New Democrat.
Gov. Gray Davis Can Continue Racial
Admissions by Stacking the UC Board (dead link) Patrick Callan, head of the pro-quota National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in San Jose, said "Gray Davis probably has a greater opportunity than any governor in his first year to 'shape' the character of the board by having this many appointments." Callan virtually chortled when he said "(This current) board is collectively out of touch with the reality of what California is", meaning the current board nominally supports Prop. 209, which Callan's organization opposes. Callan, and other quota supporters, are quite hopeful that this Democratic Governor will appoint board members who are willing to spit in the eye of the voters in California who approved Prop. 209. (By Emily Bazar, Sacramento Bee, published 12/21/98) Gov. Davis' Attorney General
Promises More Resistance to Prop. 209 (dead link)
The following quote, from the Associated Press, emphasizes the new attorney general's
philosophy: "As attorney general I will reverse the politics of division and
exclusion [Davis eupemism for opposing Prop. 209] which characterized the last
administration [meaning Gov. Wilson's support of Prop. 209], and I will instead resume the
fight to end illegal discrimination [will emphasize racial quotas and set-asides] and
racism in California." The attorney general was speaking at Cesar Chavez Elementary
School on Martin Luther King’s birthday. Lockyer’s aide-de-camp in
re-instating racial quotas and set-asides in California government will be Louis Verdugo,
who will head a whole new division in Lockyer’s office, with a whole, new, bigger
budget devoted to re-instating and enforcing racial quotas and set-asides in
California. (LA Times - AP, 01/17/99)
Education: Davis' Four Percent Non-Solution (dead link) "Take, for example, Davis’ plan to increase the number of certain minorities at University of California campuses. Currently, the top 12.5 percent of high school graduates statewide are eligible for admission to the UC system. In his inaugural speech, Davis pledged to "seek to ensure diversity and fair play" by guaranteeing UC admission for all students who finish in the top four percent of each California high school. This plan is nearly a carbon copy of SCA 7, a state constitutional amendment introduced last year by State Senator Teresa Hughes (D-Los Angeles).
"Under Hughes’ amendment, students who ranked in the upper four percent of their
graduating high-school class at their particular high school, based mostly on grade-point
average, would have been automatically entitled to admission to the University of
California. Hughes eventually amended the plan so that the top 12.5 percent, rather than
the top four percent, of a high school’s graduating class would have been designated
eligible for UC, while the top four percent of the class would have been guaranteed
admission to their first choice of UC campuses. (Real Mensch, posted 01/29/99, by Lance
Izumi)
Immigration: Jan. 17, 1999: Davis's press machine is working overtime these days. The gushing press coverage from California uses virtually ALL of Davis's favorite PR buzz words. Their favorite, which appears over, and over, and over again is the phrase: "Former Gov. Pete Wilson's Divisiveness". This generally refers to Wilson's campaign to end the use of racial quotas, as well as his efforts to limit the flow of tax dollars and state services to illegal immigrants in the state. This LA Times story is no exception. Davis's obvious pandering for minority votes has most recently resulted in his budgeting $60 million of California tax dollars to provide prenatal care for illegal immigrant women. He and his press cronies freely use the phrase "illegal immigrant women" because they know that it is a vote getter.
This LA Times article could have been written by a Davis press aide on drugs:
Using tortured logic, the article slams former Gov. Wilson for trying to protect the
interests of its tax-paying citizens while also encouraging illegals to become, well,
legal. This, in the view of the LA Times, represents the worst of Wilson's Evil
Empire out to wage war on the state's poorest and most defenseless. Of course, the
"defenseless" argument falls rather flat when one realizes what a huge, and
malleable, political force the so-called 'minority' voting blocs represent -- and it was
they who elected Davis. Writer Frank Del Olmo reaches even farther afield by citing
alleged Arizona border patrol abuses of Latinos. Was Gov. Wilson responsible for
that alleged evil as well? (Based on LA Times, 01/17/99, by Frank Del Olmo)
Mexico / Free Trade / NAFTA: Governor's
Trip to Mexico Sets State for 2000 "And can he match or exceed Texan Governor George W. Bush's highly effective economic relationship with Latinos and Mexico, a relationship that has helped propel Governor Bush to the forefront of the 2000 presidential race?
"For eight years, California's former governor attacked Mexico's most valuable
economic resource, its hardworking immigrants. These attacks fueled hostility so great
that Texan Governor Bush, through his courtship of Texas' Latinos and his overtures of
friendship with Mexico, has thrust Texas into first place in exports to Mexico. Today,
Texas, with a 50 percent smaller population and business base, exports to Mexico twice as
much as California ($19 billion for 1997, compared with less than $10 billion for
California)." (San Francisco Chronicle, 01/27/99, by John Gamboa)
Mexico trade stats belie Davis claims "Nevertheless, while the Republican Wilson was [allegedly] ignoring Mexican officials and [allegedly] bashing illegal immigrants in vivid 1994 campaign ads, California's trade relationship with its southern neighbor was booming to record levels. "Davis is scheduled to travel to Mexico City next week in hopes of developing the same warm relationship that Mexico shares with Texas Gov. George W. Bush. California, Davis said in a July gubernatorial debate, probably lost 20 percent of its potential investment from Mexico because other states, particularly Texas, have better trading relationships. "The numbers, however, paint a more positive picture. In the past few years, California has seen faster growth than Texas in nearly every trading market to Mexico —from computers to agriculture, electronics and light manufacturing, according to statistics from the U.S. Commerce Department and the Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research. "California exports to Mexico support about 126,000 jobs in the state, according to state Trade and Commerce Agency officials, with 20 percent of the new jobs coming in 1996, when trade jumped from $9 billion to $12.1 billion.
"Although Texas always has sold more goods to Mexico than any other state, trade from
California to Mexico increased 84.5 percent between 1992 and 1997 — the central years
of the Wilson administration. In Texas, the growth was 65.4 percent during the same
period, trade figures show. 'We kicked Texas' butt,' said Sean Walsh, a
spokesman for the former governor." (San Francisco Examiner, 01/27/99, by
Robert Salladay) Davis
woos Mexicans, Hispanics back home with trip
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