{"id":235678,"date":"2026-03-25T10:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T10:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235678\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T10:45:07","slug":"upset-winner-gray-davis-on-californias-last-wide-open-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235678\/","title":{"rendered":"Upset winner Gray Davis on California’s last wide-open governor’s race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The year was 1998. Bill Clinton was in the White House<\/a>, Titanic was packing movie theaters<\/a> and a startup with a funny name, Google<\/a>, was just launching.<\/p>\n

In California, voters were choosing their next governor.<\/p>\n

There was great anticipation surrounding a political heavyweight<\/a> and whether she\u2019d jump into the race. There was a rich businessman whose free-spending ad blitz<\/a> made him inescapable on the airwaves. And an underdog who stayed in the contest<\/a> in defiance of steep odds and, seemingly, common sense.<\/p>\n

Those elements could very well describe the current gubernatorial race<\/a>, which, as it happens, is the most wide-open <\/a>since that volatile campaign a generation ago.<\/p>\n

The outcome was one few anticipated<\/a>, with Gray Davis romping to victory in the Democratic primary, then winning the governorship in a landslide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Less than three months before the June primary, Davis had been running dead last, behind two well-heeled Democrats and the eventual GOP nominee. The number of people who told him to quit would have filled the L.A. Coliseum, Davis recalled this week. But he never considered dropping out; the pressure only made him more determined.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it\u2019s meant to be. Sometimes you get every break,\u201d Davis said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s not meant to be and you get no breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n

His bottom line: \u201cAnything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, no two campaigns are the same.<\/p>\n

This gubernatorial contest is being conducted under a system in which the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will advance to a November runoff. In 1998, California held an \u201copen primary,<\/a>\u201d under rules later voided by the Supreme Court<\/a>. All candidates appeared on the same ballot, with the top finishers in each party guaranteed a spot in November.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, the world has vastly changed: politically, socially, culturally. (Google is now one of the most valuable companies<\/a> on the planet, pulling in a record $403 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025.)<\/p>\n

Voter attitudes are different. One of Davis\u2019 greatest assets was his position as lieutenant governor; that currency \u2014 incumbency and government know-how \u2014 no longer trade at the same high value<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The media landscape has fractured \u2014 back then newspapers set the political agenda, fewer than half of voters were online and streaming was something mostly done by water. Californians aren\u2019t nearly as tuned in to the governor\u2019s race as they were then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sideshow going on internationally and nationally and people are like, \u2018Oh, right, there\u2019s a governor\u2019s race happening,\u2019\u201d said Paul Maslin, who was Davis\u2019 pollster<\/a> and is now working for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Betty Yee<\/a>. \u201cWhereas in \u201898, that was clearly the big act in town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having said all that, luck and an opportune break or two are still key ingredients to political success, as Davis suggested.<\/p>\n

In his case, the first stroke of good fortune was Dianne Feinstein\u2019s decision to not run<\/a>. (This go-round, it was former Vice President Kamala Harris <\/a>who held the race in suspension<\/a> until she finally opted out.)<\/a><\/p>\n

Feinstein, the state\u2019s senior U.S. senator, had nearly been elected governor in 1990 and her lengthy deliberations froze out other potentially strong contenders. Had Feinstein run, she very probably would have blown away the field and made history by becoming the state\u2019s first female governor.<\/p>\n

Davis also greatly benefited when a federal court tossed out strict contribution limits, allowing him to go from collecting bite-size donations to much greater sums. Though he was vastly outspent by his two rich Democratic opponents, multimillionaire Al Checchi<\/a> and then-Rep. Jane Harman<\/a>, the decision allowed Davis to remain competitive and eventually pay for the statewide ad blitz that is indispensable in California.<\/p>\n

Checchi, in particular, barraged voters with an unrelenting flood of ads.<\/a> (Shades of the omnipresent Tom Steyer.)<\/a> In one of them, a spot attacking Harman, Checchi included a photo of the lieutenant governor \u2014 and not a bad-looking one at that. The glimpse reminded voters that Davis, who was husbanding his resources for a late advertising push, was still in the race. He enjoyed a significant boost in polls.<\/p>\n

Still, Checchi and Harman saw each other as the main opponent and their strategists acted \u2014 and tailored their advertising and campaign messaging \u2014 accordingly. The result was \u201ca murder-suicide<\/a>, as the term went at the time,\u201d said Garry South<\/a>, who managed Davis\u2019 campaign. \u201cThey decided to focus so much fire on each other and ignore us that we simply slipped through the hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis can well relate to those gubernatorial hopefuls in the position he once was \u2014 dissed, dismissed and bumping along near the bottom of horse-race polls. Speaking from his law office in Century City, he had this simple advice:<\/p>\n

\u201cFollow your heart,\u201d he said. \u201cDo what you think is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fine for someone else to tell you you should get out, but that\u2019s not their business,\u201d Davis said. \u201cYou\u2019re the candidate, and if you think for whatever reason you want to stay in the race, you should stay in the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ex-governor, who was recalled in 2003<\/a> and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger<\/a>, acknowledged his comments won\u2019t please Democrats worried about the party\u2019s large field <\/a>splintering support, resulting in two Republicans advancing to the November runoff<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But Davis isn\u2019t too worried about that happening. Moreover, he said, it\u2019s easy for those watching from the sidelines to take potshots and offer unsolicited \u2014 and not particularly empathetic \u2014 advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not running for office,\u201d he said. \u201cOther people are putting themselves on the line. … [If] people have the wherewithal, the courage and the dedication it takes to put themselves in a position to run for office, if they really believe it\u2019s the right thing to do, they should. They should follow their dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides which, you never know what might happen come June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year was 1998. Bill Clinton was in the White House, Titanic was packing movie theaters and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[106525,17817,7,9,8,3705,6848,23962,943,13867,106526,86065,24696,592,16975,2211,1522],"class_list":["post-235678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-al-checchi","tag-break","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-campaign","tag-decision","tag-dianne-feinstein","tag-governor","tag-gray-davis","tag-jane-harman","tag-november-runoff","tag-party","tag-people","tag-position","tag-race","tag-voter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}