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Governor losing budget battle A politician must be able to marshal votes to pass laws and to calculate how much cash he needs to win the next campaign. As the victor in five statewide elections, Gray Davis is one of the best political counters in California history. Yet as the state girds for another long budget stalemate, the Democratic governor seems to have lost the formula for success. Since November's election, Davis has known his budget equation must include eight Republican lawmakers. So far, just one GOP lawmaker has stepped forward. It could be that the governor is too distracted by the campaign to oust him from office to have rounded up the other seven. It could be that his failure to build chummy relationships has finally caught up with him. Or it could be that Davis continues to struggle with how to lead in bad times. ``The governor is not leading the charge'' on budget negotiations, said Sen. Bruce McPherson, a moderate Santa Cruz Republican whom Davis needs to count in his column if he has any chance of enacting a budget plan before the leaves fall. Some Democrats are just as frustrated that Davis has failed to broker a deal with the Republicans. Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Martinez, said Davis needs to deploy the stature of his office, possibly in a statewide TV address that would pressure the Republicans. ``Ultimately, it needs to come from the governor's office. They need to really lay down the law at some point and bring in the leadership and keep them there until something is worked out,'' asserted Canciamilla, who has sought to craft his own bipartisan budget proposal. No such meeting was planned for this weekend, the last chance to hammer out a budget deal before the constitutional deadline Monday. Davis out of state Thursday, Davis flew to New York for the wedding of a niece and his mother's 80th birthday. His office says the governor, who plans to return today, is staying in close contact with legislative leaders. Few would begrudge Davis his family time, but his departure from the state, however brief, can't help but foster the perception that California's leaders are in no rush to solve the $32.2 billion shortfall. Last year, the stalemate dragged out a record two months. Unlike then, this time state officials predict widespread financial consequences. They are poised to cut off payments for community colleges and summer-school programs. The governor's view is that he has met his obligation. ``I want to make this clear; I have done my job,'' the governor told a Los Angeles radio station earlier this week. ``I put a responsible budget on the table on May 15th.'' Davis has offered a package of cuts, taxes and deficit spending to bridge the differences between revenues and spending. To make his case, he has been on national TV news shows, met with editorial writers and talked to various interest groups. Now, the governor says, he's at the mercy of the political deadlock. ``Both parties have to be flexible,'' he said in the same interview. ``We're paying the salaries of Republicans and Democrats alike, and it's incumbent upon everyone in Sacramento to realize we need to serve the interests of the people.'' His critics say Davis has failed to show a more human profile, as he promised after his narrow victory last fall -- the jeans-and-boots side of this typically well-pressed and well-coiffed politician. Despite his 30 years in politics, he's something of a stranger to Democrats and Republicans, remaining distant, making few strong friends among lawmakers.
Unlike some governors, he's not known for sharing a drink with legislative leaders and
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