A YEAR AGO, Stan Statham was California’s answer to the Maytag repairman. As president of the California Broadcasters Association, he sat by in frustration while his planned gubernatorial debate in Sacramento failed to materialize (Governor Gray Davis, ahead in the polls, didn’t want to risk a direct encounter with the Republican challenger, Bill Simon). Last night, as he moderated CBA’s recall debate–five candidates, gathered on the CSU-Sacramento campus–Statham went from the outhouse to the political penthouse. About 500 journalists asked for working credentials; 200-or-so actually attended (many of them found out the hard way that their cell phones were inoperable and there were no available phone jacks or power outlets inside the campus auditorium). In San Francisco alone, the debate ran live and uninterrupted for 90 minutes on all four local news stations. In Los Angeles, the 6:00 p.m. broadcast also ran on four local stations, not to mention C-SPAN 2, Telemundo, and three national cable news networks. Normally, the earth has to quake for that kind of live interest from West Coast media.

No one’s going to confuse the five performers on the Sacramento stage with Frank Sinatra’s “rat pack” (except for possibly Green party chairman Peter Camejo, who, like Peter Lawford, came across as a poser). Still, the debate did have the feel of a Vegas lounge act–complete with a little comedy and a lot of heckling, and plenty of entertainment value.