California's Down-to-Earth Duke

Facing a bare till, a tightfisted Governor builds a surplus

Ronald Reagan would have picked Lester Lanin and Dom Perignon. Jerry Brown might have insisted on box lunches in a Sacramento park. George Deukmejian celebrated his first year in office at a Holiday Inn serving steak, salad and below-the-Borscht Belt Comedian Shecky Greene. When it comes to suavity and symbolic gestures, the current Governor of California is no match for his two famous predecessors. But it hardly seemed to matter last week. Describing the budget-priced dinner as "a little bit offence mending and a...

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