During a typical winter on the east coast, it snows. And it's cold. Yet here it is a week into December -- in upstate New York -- and we haven't seen the first snowfall. Sure, it's overcast today, but it's been sunny the last few days and warm enough that I've seen some people strutting around in shorts. I only recall one night this "winter," if one can call it that, when it was cold enough to make the grass frost over. What's going on? Where's all the snow?

Ironic as it may sound, I can't wait until I get home to California in just over a week so that I can drive to Tahoe and frolic in the snow. My e-mail weather and ski reports inform me that there's plenty of snow in Tahoe and that the skiing is great. Somehow I doubt the same can be said for Vermont, where usually there's too much snow to handle.

Blame it on El Nino or on a late-blooming season, but all I know is that when I return to school in mid-January I sure hope to see some snow on the ground.

I think the squirrels are getting confused.

-Gabe

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That's not an easy task, but Capitol Action Weekly is undaunted: We, too, have something to contribute.

The Republican Wilson came to Sacramento in 1991 with the credentials of a pragmatic moderate. His 11 years as mayor of San Diego earned him the reputation of a capable, cautious administrator who refined the technique of forming advisory groups and task forces to address problems, then adopted the result as his own solution. Clearly, in San Diego, he was generally successful: He managed to steer a moderate course through the perils of explosive population growth and economic development, and to this day political observers of both major parties believe he showed himself to be capable and creative, particularly during his first term.

In 1983, he won election to the U.S. Senate by defeating Jerry Brown. He promptly disappeared for eight years, a back-bencher among the Senate's stars, waiting for his chance to run for governor. When he beat Dianne Feinstein for the governorship in 1990, even many Democrats were hopeful that his governorship would be better than that of his predecessor George Deukmejian, a conservative, doctrinaire Republican who based his political career on the public's fear of crime. Despite his handlers' attempts to portray Deukmejian as a prudent fiscal manager, he failed to deal with the danger signals of looming economic woes, and it fell to Wilson to reap the whirlwind of Deukmejian's inaction.

The defining moment of Wilson's governorship occurred early on, when he faced a $14 billion-plus budget shortfall, and he took action in the classic Wilson fashion that had served him well in San Diego: He took a middle course, covering half of the shortage by cutting programs, and covering the other half by raising taxes.

But Republicans were outraged at the taxes and never trusted him again; Democrats were outraged at the cuts and never forgave him. Even though history is likely to judge his action favorably, his contemporaries viewed him with suspicion. That suspicion lingers to this day.

Wilson believed he had been outfoxed by the Democratic-ruled Legislature led by then-Speaker Willie Brown, and he may have been right. But the result was that Wilson, the moderate, spent the remaining years of both terms of his governorship moving to the right, knowing that he would have to satisfy the state GOP's right wing if he was to mount a credible run for the presidency. But he never quite made it into the right's good graces, and his inept campaign for president in 1995 -- he aborted it after only 30 days on the campaign trail -- reflected that lack of support and the conservatives' distrust.

Moreover, Wilson's innate moderation never really got a chance to show itself. The state for most of his governorship was caught in the grip of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. But he justifiably can claim credit, or at least partial credit, for a number of achievements, such as the push to ease classroom crowding and the multibillion-dollar reform of California's workers' compensation insurance program.

If Wilson's high mark was his fiscal stewardship, his low mark was his use of race for political gain.

He won the 1994 gubernatorial campaign -- a campaign managed brilliantly by longtime adviser George Gorton -- by focusing on illegal immigration. He supported the anti-illegal immigration initiative Proposition 187 that Latinos believed was a thinly veiled effort to attack them. Two years later, he supported Proposition 209 to dismantle affirmative action programs. Again, Wilson was perceived as a politician who would stoop to exploiting race for political purposes.

With less than a month left in office, Wilson appears to be at the end of his political career. He plans to run for president in 2000, but it is unlikely -- given the other potential GOP contenders, such as Texas Gov. George Bush Jr. -- that Wilson's campaign will get off the ground.

But Wilson, 65, is a focused, tenacious politician who has learned from most of his mistakes. And as he leaves Sacramento, it's possible, just possible, that it is too early to write the legacy story after all.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Mr. Meral [in his 11.30.98 letter to the editor] is not quite correct. Anytime the legislature passes a bill that would change statutes that were established by the voters (e.g. via an Initiative Statute), those changes MUST go before the voters on the ballot for confirmation unless the original initiative explicitly allowed amendment by the legislature directly.

See Article II Section 10 of the Constitution for details.

-Alan Denney

To the Editor,

Thanks again the thought-provoking newsletter. The no-fault insurance issue is a critical one for motorcyclists. While most auto/motorcycle collisions are caused by the auto driver, the motorcyclist and motorcycle always receive the majority of injury and damage. Some states which already have no-fault insurance systems have made exceptions where motorcyclists are concerned. Unrestricted no-fault places an unreasonable burden on the motorcycling community which suffers the heaviest damage.

I hope CAW will keep us in mind when researching and reporting on no-fault insurance for California.

Thanks again.

-Rich Gierak

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