Davis best of a weak lot

The state is a mess right now, and many Californians want to take it out on Gov. Gray Davis. They have good reason to be angry with him: He’s been a terrible leader, not because he’s directly responsible for the mess—he’s not—but because he hasn’t understood the public’s frustration and responded. He’s appeared to be more concerned with hustling money than serving the citizenry, and voters are furious as a result.

But would California be in a better place with Davis gone and either Arnold Schwarzenegger or Cruz Bustamante—the recall replacement leaders—doing his job? The answer is no.

California’s problems are essentially the same as they were a year ago, when voters re-elected Davis. And the causes of those problems—a national economy in free fall; a severely polarized Legislature unable to agree on state budgets; the hangover from the Enron-style gaming of the state’s energy markets—are also the same.

And Davis has had notable successes on some fronts. He’s increased both school spending and school accountability. He’s signed important legislation protecting car buyers, children, HMO patients, nursing home patients and car buyers. On most issues important to Californians, he has taken positions with which they agree.

His potential Democratic replacement, Lt. Gov. Bustamante, is a likeable but mediocre politician who shares both Davis’ core values and his plasticity when it comes to fund-raising. His election wouldn’t be a disaster, and it certainly would be gratifying to the millions of Latinos in the state, but there’s no point in trading Davis for him.

The only other serious challenger, Schwarzenegger, has been worse than a disappointment. Not only has he ducked most opportunities to share his views with the public, in the only debate he attended he was painfully vague and ill-informed. He seems to have no idea how to solve the state’s budget crisis beyond “doing an audit” and “bringing back business.” And his alliance with former Gov. Pete Wilson suggests that Arnold isn’t as independent as he’d like us to believe.

We have no recommendation when it comes to voting for the replacement candidates. Of the other three in the top tier, only Arianna Huffington has tried to deal with the root causes of California’s malaise, but she has dropped out of the race. The Green Party’s Peter Camejo has many good ideas but is simply too far left for California. And state Sen. Tom McClintock, whose straight-forwardness is admirable, is far too conservative for the state.