Davis Has No First-Term Regrets -- Well, Maybe Just One

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. Gray Davis said Thursday that he’s finishing his first term in office with no regrets. But he would like to purge one remark from public memory: his prickly suggestion nearly four years ago that the Legislature exists to implement his vision.

Davis made the confession in a good-humored chat with reporters, during which he reflected on his first-term achievements and laid out his aims as California confronts a daunting financial crisis.

The 55-minute session, a day after the governor announced that California’s budget shortfall had soared to $34.8 billion, was billed as a year-end round-table with reporters.

At times serious and contemplative and at other times lighthearted, Davis defended his most debated decisions, including his handling of the energy crisis and his decision to use a number of one-time fixes in addressing a budget shortfall earlier this year.

He said the one-time fixes -- rather than massive program cuts -- made sense earlier this year because experts were forecasting a more rapid economic recovery.

His critics have suggested that the Democratic governor was putting off difficult decisions until after the Nov. 5 election.

“If you ask me if I would have done anything different the last four years, the answer is no,” he said.

“I wish I could have been able to communicate more clearly to people why we were doing things,” he said -- “why the energy crisis, for example, was so difficult to deal with.”

Davis challenged a suggestion that he had been “shocked” by his shaky, five-point victory in November over Republican challenger Bill Simon Jr.

“I never said that,” Davis said, provoking laughter when he playfully suggested that the questioner was quoting himself.

The governor cited progress in public education as his proudest achievement in his first term.

And as he confronts the state’s growing budget deficit, he said, he is exploring a way for future governors to set aside money during times of surplus to avoid cycles of fiscal feast or famine.

Davis later mined one of his most quoted verbal missteps for more laughs when he was asked to discuss the unfinished business from his first four years in the governor’s office.

“Well,” he deadpanned, “despite my efforts, the Legislature still will not implement my will!”

Afterward, he hosted about two dozen children from the St. Patrick’s Home for Children in Sacramento.

Davis had been scheduled to continue a Capitol holiday tradition by delivering gifts to children at the home.

But Msgr. Edward Kavanagh, director of St. Patrick’s, demanded that Davis and his aides first sign a vow expressing their opposition to abortion and “begging for mercy” for their “sinful deeds.”

Davis arranged for the children to receive the gifts at the Capitol.

“He’s entitled to his point of view, and I’m entitled to mine,” he said in response to Kavanagh’s criticism.

“I’m unapologetically pro-choice, and I’m not changing my position. I don’t want the children to be disappointed, so I invited them here,” the governor added.