August 03, 2003

The Davis dirt begins to fly:

.. the Davis team is ready to go on the offensive. The governor's opposition research team is led by Ace Smith, a San Francisco-based consultant who worked on Riordan's 1997 re-election campaign and is well-versed in the mayor's weaknesses.

Riordan may be ready to paint himself as a turnaround artist who rescued Los Angeles, but the Davis team is set to cast him as a bumbler who left the city in worse shape.

If Riordan runs, Democrats would dredge up a plan to home in on the city's divisive police scandal, focus attention on the companies Riordan shut down as an aggressive businessman, and depict him as an imperial leader with a short attention span.

``He was not a person who worked well with other people, and that would be a huge problem up here,'' said Democratic Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, who repeatedly clashed with Riordan when she served on the Los Angeles City Council.

Davis' allies sent a warning shot across the bow last week by suggesting to the San Francisco Chronicle's political gossip columnists that Democrats would imply that Riordan is losing his mind.

Heads up for Bill Lockyer -- better check to make sure that lifevest is going to work ...

Posted by Greg Ransom