After listening to former Gov. Gray Davis spend 30 minutes Thursday Night making a strong case for a top-to-bottom reform of state government – including a constitutional convention — the independent columnist Tom Elias, who was among the first to suggest Davis’ recall, was incredulous. Why, he asked, weren’t you for these things when you were governor?
During the Q&A with LA Times columnist Patt Morrison and an audience of about 100 at the California Endowment in Los Angeles, Davis never gave a clear answer to that question, suggesting that he had been for the following ideas when he was governor, but had more freedom to speak his mind. The ideas he’s for?
An open primary. A majority vote to pass a budget (but not for taxes). A spending limit that includes a rainy day fund. “Pay as you go” rules on budgeting. Performance-based budgeting. A two-year budget. Giving local governments more freedom to protect their own funding and to cooperate with each other. Reforming term limits.
And a constitutional convention. Davis was especially impassioned about this last one. He did offer one caveat – he doesn’t want to open up the entire constitution for a rewriting. But a convention that focuses on fiscal issues (and some “governance” issues) would be helpful, in two ways. First, he says, the act of calling a convention could force the legislature to address reform itself. (“We ought to have a constitutional convention as a backstop, if nothing else,” he said). And second, the state needs so many changes that a convention offers the best opportunity to do what’s needed. Instead of voting on reforms piecemeal, a convention could produce a package that would be put to the voters in a single, yes or no vote.
Change, he said, “is not going to happen in Sacramento.”
A few other highlights:
-Davis praised the current governor at several points and resisted opportunities by the audience to criticize him. “Arnold and I – you can’t separate us too much on policy measures.”
-Davis made several references to the energy crisis that undermined him, and said he felt vindicated by revelations in the film, “Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room,” which showed energy traders conspiring to shut down power to drive up prices.
-Davis said that both parties are failing to address the state’s economic problems and help build more successful businesses. “I’m distressed by the lack of interest in both political parties in how business works,” he said.