Davis shifts gears, goes into attack mode

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein was asked last month why she supported Gov. Gray Davis in his recall fight, when a decade ago Davis compared her to the jailed tax evader Leona Helmsley in a widely criticized campaign commercial.

"Lesson learned," Feinstein said of Davis on the NBC News program "Meet the Press." Pressed further, she added: "I hope so. I believe so."

Feinstein, who defeated Davis in the 1992 Democratic Senate primary, now speaks confidently of him as a changed man, someone who has seen the error of his ways both as a candidate and as governor. But with the Oct. 7 recall election just around the corner, this new Davis is being put to the test.

Trailing in the polls with time running short, the Davis campaign has shifted tactics, making Arnold Schwarzenegger, the leading Republican on the recall ballot, its target. Davis' challenge on Friday to debate Schwarzenegger, and a new television commercial raising doubts about the actor-turned-politician's competence to run the state, are telltale marks of the new aggressiveness.

The strategy is intended to rally the Democratic faithful around Davis and raise doubts among undecided voters about Schwarzenegger, who public opinion polls show is locked in a neck-and-neck battle with Lt. Gov. Cruz M. Bustamante, a Democrat, to succeed Davis should he lose the recall vote.

The question is whether Davis can take on Schwarzenegger without resorting to what many Californians regard as his natural political reflex -- an unseemly knack for the underhanded.

"People's perceptions are that he is a nasty man who fights dirty," said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at California State University at Sacramento. "The strategy has been to deflect that and show a kinder, gentler Gray Davis. The decision now to challenge and attack Arnold is a markedly different strategy. It is risky."

So far it is Schwarzenegger who has managed to stay above the fray, though his campaign staff has taken some joy in poking fun at Davis for what they characterize as a madcap shift in tactics.

"Desperate men will say desperate things," said Sean Walsh, a Schwarzenegger spokesman, of Davis' sudden interest in debating.

If Davis' own polls show him likely to lose his job, some people expect that caution will be abandoned. Robert L. Gnaizda, the policy director at the Greenlining Institute, a San Francisco-based group that promotes services for low-income and minority communities, said a strong argument could be made that Davis would have nothing to lose by throwing his best punch at Schwarzenegger.

"There is a glowing lack of respect for Schwarzenegger, and that includes many of those who are going to vote for him," Gnaizda said. "People are voting for Schwarzenegger to get Davis out. This is not like the Reagan revolution."

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