Monday June 21, 1999 -- As the California state legislature works to pass a state budget before June 30th, the traditional jousting between Sacramento Republicans and Democrats is as cantankerous as it has ever been -- or at least as it's been for most of the past 8 years, under former Governor Pete Wilson.

That is, the Democrats are bent out of shape about it.

When Gray Davis won a decisive victory over Republican challenger Dan Lundgren last November, Democrats partied hard. It was a good night all around, as Senator Barbara Boxer, considered to be extremely vulnerable as recent as two weeks before, was also winning easily. And Davis had coattails, as Democrats nearly swept all of the top legislative offices up for election.

The 16 years that George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson enjoyed as Governor made Gray Davis' twenty point victory in November all that much sweeter. At last, a Democrat was back in charge of the world's 7th biggest economy.

But after less than 6 months in office, Davis has already alienated a significant portion of those Democrats. Then again, Davis has emphasized since he won election that he isn't working just for Democrats -- liberal or otherwise.

State Democrats have been feuding with Davis over the past couple of weeks about his request for funding to build a state prison. The Democrats have said the budget has too much money for prisons, and not enough for health and welfare programs.

Davis says that he will do more on health care and the environment -- later in his term. He told a radio station last week that money that is available right now in California (due to a surplus) should be spent now.

"We're at 195% capacity in our prisons. We're running a risk that a federal judge will order us to release prisoners to add new prisoners. I do not want that to happen on my watch".

Democrats are annoyed, but they really shouldn't be. Didn't they watch the debate last year during which Davis -- running to the right, it seemed, of the official "Law & Order Candidate," Attorney General Dan Lundgren -- said that his model for a criminal justice system "would be based on a model of Singapore".

Statements like that helped Davis convince the California electorate -- like Bill Clinton did for the country in 1992 -- that this Democrat would not be soft on crime. Then again, after 16 years of Republicans running the show in Sacramento, especially the past 8 with Pete Wilson, many pundits thought that it simply was the Democrats time.

Davis ran a solid campaign. He ran on two priorities -- to return the public schools back to the esteem they formally possessed in the state, and to minimize the wedge issues (i.e., Propositions 187 and 209) that he said Pete Wilson had fostered, thus dividing the state.

All well and good -- but the extremely cautious Davis can only ride the centrist train for so long before he has to start committing to some core beliefs.

A case in point is the aforementioned Proposition 187, the 1994 state initiative that denied education and health care to immigrants. That issue was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge after it was passed by the California electorate.

Many people, not just the state's Latino population, thought that Proposition 187 was, if not outright racist, just plain mean-spirited. A sluggish economy and frustration and the failure of federal border policies led to the perception -- promoted and manipulated by Pete Wilson -- that immigrants (Latinos) were an "unstable burden."

Davis received some of his biggest cheers on the campaign trail when he slammed Wilson for "the politics of division".

However, one of the items on his plate as Governor was to appeal the ruling of that federal judge on 187. Davis has had to contend with some of the state's top Latino leaders telling him to drop the 187 appeal -- while other organizations, such as the Pacific Legal Foundation -- have been in his face not to drop the appeal, but instead to go to the wall for the California electorate that voted for the initiative back in 1994.

So what did the Governor do? He's tried the way of least confrontation, by asking for a federal mediator to decide the case.

This move has angered Latinos, who feel betrayed. But a reporter who covers Sacramento believes that Davis is actually giving himself political cover. The representatives for the state in this case, Davis and Attorney General Bill Lockyer, both personally are opposed to 187. Their "opponent" in the mediation is the ACLU. Deep down, nobody in this mediation process is actually in favor of 187!

The theory is that Davis is going the mediation route to placate the right wing of the state. But California Democrats don't believe that.

And after seeing Davis reject two clemency appeals for Death Row Inmates in his first 5 months in office, they realize that Davis, like the centrist politician that he no doubt emulates on a certain level, can be counted on to go with where the poll numbers are -- and still claim that it's what he stands for.