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(California's Modern Indian War)
San Diego Union-Tribune
By Scott Lindlaw
ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 31, 1998
SAN DIEGO -- In their first one-on-one debate, gubernatorial candidates Dan Lungren and Gray Davis agreed California's budget should be delivered on time, but disagreed on how to make it happen.
Davis, the Democratic lieutenant governor, said he would fight for a constitutional amendment to force lawmakers to come up with a budget or forfeit a day's pay for every day it's late.
"There's one thing worse than a late budget and that's a bad budget," countered Dan Lungren, Republican state attorney general. He said he would present the administration's budget proposal early, then pressure the Legislature to act.
The 1998-99 budget is a month overdue as lawmakers argue over how to use a $4 billion surplus.
As state controller in 1992, Davis said he refused to pay the people who caused the problem when the budget was 64 days late, but Lungren said there were plenty of rich people in the Legislature "and it wouldn't mean a darn thing to them."
Davis pointed out the differences in the candidates in his opening remarks, noting his pro-choice stand on abortion, his opposition to offshore oil drilling, his support of an assault weapons ban and his endorsement of affordable college education.
Lungren responded that there were differences -- in education, crime, taxes, government and regulation. "There is a world of difference, not just on those divisive, divisive liberal wedge issues he just mentioned, but on those essential issues that I think this election is going to be involved in."
The candidates tangled over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and California's relationship with Mexico. Lungren said he wholeheartedly supported the pact, while Davis refused a sweeping endorsement.
He claimed Davis was absent at an October 1996 California World Trade Commission meeting in Mexico.
"Where were you in the one official opportunity you had to represent the state of California as its Lieutenant Governor. You were in New York on a fund-raising mission when we needed you in Mexico City. Are you going to do the same thing if you have the chance to be governor? ... But we could have used your help in Mexico City," Lungren challenged.
"Well we could have used your help in Mexico City. I don't hear you saying you've been to Mexico City," Davis rebutted.
Asked if he would pledge to eliminate attack ads, Lungren said he favored the idea of withholding such ads until the subject is first broached in face-to-face confrontation. Davis said he once supported a law that required attack ads to be turned over to opponents 24 hours before they are published.
Asked about an initiative that would allow widespread Indian gambling, Lungren said he opposed it and Davis refused to take a stand.
Instead of talking to the camera or delivering well-rehearsed answers to questions from a panel of reporters, the format of the debate allowed the candidates to engage in freewheeling exchanges. Both men seemed at ease, but Lungren was visibly sweating.
Davis is cautious by nature, but began to break out of that image by lashing out at fellow Democrat Al Checchi during the first debate of the primary campaign.
Lungren is glib, a powerful orator and given to sarcastic one-liners.
Like President Clinton, Davis sees government as an instrument of social change, and believes it has an important role to play in such issues as education, the environment and gun control. Like President Reagan, Lungren favors tax cuts and less government regulation of business.
The challenge for the candidates -- both lawyers by training -- was to distinguish themselves for voters just tuning in to the gubernatorial campaign and who see, at first blush, two buttoned-down political veterans.
A poll this week suggested a significant chunk of the electorate -- 13 percent -- remains undecided.
Lungren trailed Davis in the Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research Inc. poll, 48-39 percent. The margin of error was 3.5 percent.
Lungren aides brush off such surveys as too early to be meaningful. But at the very least, Lungren is striving to retain his core GOP base. Exit polls showed many Republicans crossed over in California's first-ever blanket primary last month to vote for Democrats.
While Lungren and Davis have appeared together as dignitaries and even debated as gubernatorial candidates during the primary, Friday was the first time they faced off one-on-one. The debate comes after a summer in which the candidates have been on the campaign and fund-raising trails, but largely off news media radar.
The debate launched an unusually early start to the gubernatorial campaign,
which traditionally begins after Labor Day. Many broadcast outlets around the
state aired the debate live.