California Governor Gray Davis was in his Sacramento office with four legislative leaders on Jan. 11 when the state went into a Stage 3 power emergency. Blackouts were imminent.
So Davis became a power broker. Literally. He got on the phone and had some juice shifted to the needy north from South California Edison; then he wheedled 133 megawatts from an out-of-state generator, as if he were borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbor. The lights didn't go out that day, but from that moment it became clear that Davis' political future would be calibrated in megawatts--or the lack thereof.
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