Davis Spurns Cruz Control for Remote Control

SACRAMENTO — With Gov. Gray Davis out of the country, meeting foreign leaders, golfing in Scotland, is his second in command getting a chance to run California?

The California Constitution says that when the governor crosses state lines, the lieutenant governor--in this case Cruz Bustamante--takes charge. But Davis, a famously fierce micro-manager who not long ago was second in command himself, shows no signs of letting go as he travels in Europe and the Middle East through the end of the month.

Between receptions and meetings with business chiefs, Davis has been flooding the Capitol media with pronouncements, declarations and executive acts, all delivered as if he had never left home.

Dateline: London--Davis announces emergency medical-service funding for 22 counties. Davis offers disaster relief to Mexico. Davis orders the Department of Motor Vehicles to stop collecting smog fees on out-of-state cars. Davis announces a staff reorganization, making San Diego attorney Lynn Schenk his sole chief of staff after the departure of her partner in the job.

Dateline: Dublin--Davis appoints new members of the Boating and Waterways Commission, the Commission on State Mandates, the Mining and Geology Board.

Davis even held his weekly media briefing--which he normally delegates to his press secretary--via toll-free conference call.

Meanwhile, back in Sacramento, Bustamante--the first Latino to act as governor since 1874--has made no move to flex his constitutional muscle. “I don’t think that’s productive,” Bustamante said.

With fires still burning through Northern California, one of Bustamante’s worries last week was whether to head out of state Friday night--to Las Vegas for a speech to the National Latino Peace Officers Assn. that was set up before he knew Davis would be gone. That would’ve left Senate President Pro Tem John Burton in charge for a few hours. Bustamante decided not to go, though he insisted it had nothing to do with what happened the last time.

Burton piloted the ship of state while Bustamante accompanied Davis on a goodwill trip to Mexico in February--and California celebrated its first Keely Smith Appreciation Day. Burton, a longtime admirer of the singer, said he had been waiting for his chance to issue the proclamation.

Bustamante apparently has no such pent-up desire.

He ordered the state flag dropped to half-staff after a volunteer firefighter was killed and again when a former state Supreme Court justice died. He issued his first proclamation, declaring a state of emergency for seven counties devastated by recent fires (Bustamante also felt the need to note in his news release that he had “worked closely with Gov. Gray Davis in coordinating the emergency action”).

For the lieutenant governor, stepping gingerly has everything to do with history, ancient and recent.

In 1979, while Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown was away, Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Curb appointed a conservative judge and lifted pollution controls--actions Brown reversed on his return.

Curb was an extreme example of the shenanigans that can occur when lieutenant and governor hail from opposite parties. The feistiest Democrat Davis ever got during his four years as understudy to Republican Gov. Pete Wilson was holding a news conference imploring Wilson to “Come Home!” when he was away campaigning for president while California’s budget languished.

Bustamante is a Democrat but nonetheless got punished in April for openly opposing the governor’s mediation of Proposition 187, the anti-illegal immigration initiative. Davis took away his staffs’ parking spaces (the governor’s staff said the timing was coincidental).

The spat seemed to undermine Davis’ promise while campaigning for governor that “trabajaremos juntos”--we will work together.

And indeed, soon after taking office, Davis asked Bustamante to head a new commission on “Building for the 21st Century.” Bustamante opened the first meeting in March by acknowledging that although nothing may prove more important to California’s future than a sound infrastructure, it’s “not a sexy issue.”

Later, when Davis passed on a rally for torched Sacramento synagogues in favor of a political fund-raiser, Bustamante was asked to stand in for him. Soon after, Bustamante established the Commission for One California, which promptly attacked the dearth of minorities in television’s fall season.

But last week, when it came time to write President Clinton asking for an emergency declaration for California’s fire zones, it was Davis who penned the letter. From London.