Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 until he was recalled and removed from office in 2003.

A member of the Democratic Party, Davis holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from Stanford University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School.

Among other allegations raised by Campbell were disclosures that Davis had received campaign contributions from Eugene LaPietra, a candidate for the West Hollywood City Council who was convicted on federal pornography charges.

[16] In 1986, Davis ran against six other contenders in the race for State Controller; several of those candidates, including Democrat John Garamendi and Republican Bill Campbell, were arguably better known at the time.

As California's chief fiscal officer, he saved taxpayers more than half a billion dollars by cracking down on Medi-Cal fraud, rooting out government waste and inefficiency and exposing the misuse of public funds.

Davis aimed to portray himself as a moderate centrist Democrat and to label Lungren a Republican too conservative for California and out of touch with its views on issues like guns and abortion.

Davis's first official act as governor was to call a special session of the state legislature to address his plan for all California children to be able to read by age 9.

Davis signed into law legislation that began the Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC) program that guaranteed admission to a University of California institution to students that finished in the top 4% of their high school class.

[28] Another early act of Davis's was the reversal of his predecessor Republican Governor Pete Wilson's alteration of California's eight-hour overtime pay rule for wage earners.

In 1999, the CalPERS board proposed a benefits expansion that would allow public employees to retire at age 55 and collect more than half their highest salary for life (pension spiking).

The benefits expansion bill, SB 400, passed with unanimous backing by California State Assembly Democrats and was signed into law by Governor Gray Davis.

CalPERS then produced a video promoting the legislation with Chairman Crist promising greater benefits "without imposing any additional cost on the taxpayers" and the California State Employees Association president praising it as "the biggest thing since sliced bread".

Governor Jerry Brown worked on trying to fix this retirement system for years, but CalPERS is still underfunded in 2022 and could end up costing state tax payers hundreds of billions in bailouts.

Additionally, he signed a bill allowing employees to use family leave to care for a domestic partner, though he did not make good on a campaign promise to convene a task force on civil unions.

In 1999, he denied his first clemency request from Thai national Jaturun Siripongs, stating, "Model behavior cannot bring back the lives of the two innocent murder victims."

[26][better source needed] Davis signed legislation that provided HMO patients a bill of rights, including a help-line to resolve disputes and independent medical review of claims.

[27] While Davis's record is generally considered pro-environmental due to increases in spending for land acquisition, maintenance of the state's park system, signing legislation that attempts to cut greenhouse gas emissions by having automakers produce more efficient vehicles, cutting fees to state parks and opposing offshore drilling, he was criticized for not backing tougher restrictions on timber companies as some environmentalists desired.

The law required the California Air Resources Board to obtain the "maximum feasible" cuts in greenhouse gases emitted by all non-commercial vehicles in 2009 and beyond.

Speculators, led by Enron Corporation, were collectively making large profits while the state teetered on the edge for weeks and finally suffered rolling blackouts on January 17 and 18.

[42] During the electricity crisis, the Davis administration implemented a power conservation program that included television ads and financial incentives to reduce energy consumption.

In addition, the Democratic-controlled legislature would sometimes push Davis to act decisively by taking over power plants which were known to have been gamed and place them back under control of the utilities.

Restoring the vehicle licensing fees to pre tax cut levels to close the budget gap and stabilize the state's credit rating became unpopular.

[63] Arnoldwatch.org, a project of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, which is a nonpartisan organization that is critical of both Democrats and Republicans, called Davis a "pay to play" politician and a "sellout".

[71] Davis was re-elected in the November 2002 general election following a long and bitter campaign against Simon, marked by accusations of ethical lapses on both sides and widespread voter apathy.

[73] Davis's campaign touted California's improving test scores, environmental protection, health insurance coverage for children and lower prescription drug costs for seniors.

However, the Simon-Davis race led in the lowest turnout percentage in modern gubernatorial history, allowing a lower than normal number of signatures required for a recall.

He was widely criticized for responding to the budget crisis by reversing a decade of fee reductions on motor vehicles, a decision which his opponents repeatedly referenced.

[80] Not long after Davis signed a law allowing the Department of Motor Vehicles to grant driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, he was challenged to a recall election.

In a CNN interview on August 5, 2005, Davis expressed that he felt vindicated because of the revelation that Enron manipulated the California energy market and because of Schwarzenegger's then-low approval ratings.

The newspaper claimed that he lacked vision, allowed the legislature and its policies to define his tenure and had a "robotic governing style" that focused on fundraising instead of personal relationships.