Garry South, Gray Davis’s principal political adviser, is
usually cocky and unflappable — serenely and satirically mocking
Republicans from a position of strategic superiority. But the
wheels on the Gray Davis re-election bus are beginning to wobble,
and South sounds scared.
With Bill Simon ahead in several polls and Davis widely
disliked, South is frantically spitting out slander about Simon to
reporters. Nothing is off-limits to the Lee Atwater of the
California Democratic Party, not Simon’s deceased father, not his
business or bank account, not even his posture. South says that he
has been studying Simon’s supposedly stiff mannerisms — this from
the campaign manager to the most mortician-like politician in
America.
Now come reports in the San Francisco Chronicle and
Los Angeles Times about South’s foul-mouthed attack on an
official at COPS, a California police and sheriffs organization
which has defected from Davis to Simon. The group endorsed the
Republican candidate last week.
“What is this horse s—-?!” South wrote to COPS political
director Kelley Moran several months ago after he learned that the
7,000-member group was planning to switch its endorsement from
Davis to Simon. “[COPS executive director] Monty Holden declaring
war through COPS on the governor of California — who only
appointed him to POST [a state police commission] — and pimping
for Simon, using your name and [COPS’ legal advocate Bill] Hemby’s
name in the process?”
“Has Holden lost his mind?” South continued. “If this reflects
his sentiments, he needs to lose his job!”
South’s remarks express perfectly the modus operandi of the
Davis administration: Support Davis and he will use state
government to your advantage; oppose him and say goodbye to your
perks and position.
Holden’s appointment to POST “is up in July,” reports the
Times. South denies that he threatened COPS and Holden’s
state appointment, but now calls the group a “basically
insignificant, if not laughable organization,” reports the
Chronicle.
Why then did he bother to freak out about Davis losing the
group’s endorsement? Because it is the second largest police group
in the state, and South knows that Democratic governors in
California are particularly vulnerable on law-and-order issues.
Accordingly, Davis brags in campaign ads about his support for the
death penalty. This former chief of staff to Jerry Brown wants us
all to understand that he is no left-wing wimp on crime.
But South’s dismissive comments about COPS expose all of this as
political posturing. Police officers statewide should remember when
they go to the voting booth that Davis’s campaign manager considers
one of their main groups “laughable.”
One of the reasons COPS endorsed Simon over Davis is that the
group recognized the fraudulence of Davis’s tough-on-crime
rhetoric. Crime has risen in the state for two years in a row, and
Davis’s budgetary ineptitude will make it harder for police
departments to fight it.
COPS noted that 80% of California police officers vote
Republican and “don’t appreciate how the police unions always seem
to endorse the Democrats.” COPS sees no return on such support for
Davis. As the Times reported, “Kelly Moran, on COPS’ board
of directors, said the group had bailed on Davis because of a
general want of leadership, massive budget problems affecting local
public safety issues, and a rising crime rate.” The group also sees
an advantage for it in a Republican governor working with a
Republican president. “If we go with Simon in the general
[election], there’s a very good chance the board will get the
chance to meet the president,” says a COPS memo.
South is supposed to put out political fires like this one.
Instead, he is fanning them.
George Neumayr is a frequent contributor to The
American Prowler and the California Political
Review.
