Governors show different styles

Jace Radke

Monday, March 25, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

A press conference Thursday to announce how Nevada and California are working together to improve Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Los Angeles also underscored the different styles of the neighboring states' governors.

California Gov. Gray Davis' entourage included a black sedan, two huge black sport utility vehicles, several staffers and a handful of security guards equipped with dark glasses and earpieces.

Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn arrived in a California Department of Transportation truck with a lone Nevada Highway Patrol trooper.

While Davis wiped melting makeup from his brow and gave a prepared statement to reporters, Guinn chatted with a group of women from California's Inland Empire.

"I grew up in California, but I never got a chance to meet a governor of the state," Guinn told the women. "I had to go to Nevada to become a governor to get a chance to meet a California governor."

Though Guinn is easily accessible, Davis, who is in the middle of a campaign for re-election, is constantly flanked by staffers. Guinn so far has no major-party contender for the fall election.

Despite the differences in the way the two executives work, they have still been able to come together on such issues as transportation and Lake Tahoe, which they want to keep pristine.

On Thursday the pair announced a $140 million project to add north and south lanes to Interstate 15 between Barstow and Victorville, Calif. Nevada is putting $20 million toward the project.

Guinn said Thursday that on a previous trip he had met Davis at Lake Tahoe, where he got first-hand evidence of the differences.

Guinn noticed that one of Davis' SUVs was following within five feet of the car in which Davis was riding. When the motorcade stopped, Guinn jokingly told the California Highway Patrol trooper who was driving the SUV that he could get a ticket for following so close to a car in Nevada.

"I asked him why he was doing that, and he said it was in case a car attempted to ram the governor's car," Guinn said.

If that were to happen, the driver of the governor's sedan would speed away, and the SUV would move in to take on the collision, the trooper told Guinn.

"He thought that the troopers here would do that, too," Guinn said. "I told him our troopers are smarter than that. They'd just sit there and say, 'Time to get a new governor.' "