Gov. Gray Davis once famously said it was legislators' job to implement his vision.
Now, as he reveals a massive makeover of his state spending plan, Davis is bending over backward to try to carry out theirs.

The Democratic governor and his financial team acknowledged Wednesday that they remolded major pieces of the Davis budget to reflect the specific wants of Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

The revised spending plan, they say, is designed to gain quick approval in the Legislature, satisfy skittish Wall Street lenders, and prevent a fiscal catastrophe.

"I learned a long time ago that part of leadership is listening," Davis said. "I believe this plan will result in a responsible, timely budget."

The centerpiece -- a $10.7 billion loan to be paid off over five years -- was a Republican idea.

But Davis' effort to win over the GOP wasn't immediately successful -- and not only because Republicans object to securing the loan with a half-cent sales tax increase.

Some said they suspect a different, or at least added, motivation behind his changes: staving off an effort to toss him out of office and mollifying Democratic-leaning interests whose support he would need in a recall battle.

"The governor clearly today in his release of the May revise has moved to his left to try to shore up his base. He has got both eyes focused on this recall," said Assembly Republican leader Dave Cox of Fair Oaks.

Davis, a career politician, persistently has been accused of concentrating too much on his political fortunes and currying favor with campaign supporters as he governs.

For a brief time, the accusations quieted this winter. Davis was painted as a "new man," free of the distractions of campaign fund-raising, ready to tackle the budget. He warned early of a dire budget crunch that would leave the state with tens of billions of dollars in red ink. And the state's independent legislative analyst said he had proposed a credible, if fragile, plan to attack the deficit in one year with painful cuts and tax increases.

Then came talk of a recall.

Now the rumblings that have clung to Davis through most of his tenure are back in full swing -- along with a recall effort that is gaining signatures, financial backing and notice from the governor and his political operatives.

Davis denies that politics played a part in how he drew up his budget sequel.

"Difficult times force us to re-examine our priorities and make difficult choices," he said. "I have done that, and my choices reflect my values."

Davis said he had tried to sell the "bitter medicine" his January budget prescribed, but reluctantly concluded that he couldn't.

"Republicans don't come up here to raise taxes, and Democrats don't come up here to cut programs, so for differing reasons, nobody wanted to get this done in one year," he said.

Davis' top financial adviser, the fiery former lawmaker Steve Peace, was characteristically more blunt: The governor folded legislative requests into the new plan because "there is no choice" but to enact a budget by the July 1 start of the next fiscal year.

"They need to stay focused on the imperative of being on time," said Peace, who argued the confidence of Wall Street investors would be shaken by any delay. "There was never before ... a circumstance in which being on time is not a choice."

Still, as Davis stood flanked by three dozen educators, police officials and firefighters Wednesday, the unveiling of his budget revisions took on the trappings of a campaign stop.

School teachers nodded approval as he revealed that he would pump $700 million more than previously planned into schools -- spending made possible by his decision to embrace a Republican-driven proposal to delay payment of more than $10 billion in state debt

Badges gleamed as law officers in full uniform stood at the ready to back the plan -- and the embattled governor who has always embraced a tough-on-crime stance and counted on police and fire unions to help finance his political races.

Democratic lawmakers quickly hailed the revised plan that scrapped most of an unpopular proposal to "realign" government services by shifting about $8 billion worth of duties to cities and counties, and kept the tax increase that they have insisted a budget agreement include.

And the governor and Peace made clear that the budget assumes that the wildly unpopular vehicle license fee will be increased, but not by the governor's choice. Instead, an automatic "trigger" likely will be pulled sometime soon.

"It's good policy, so if it's good politics, so much the better," said Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

At least some of those who stand to gain from the new budget were quick to agree.

"He just can't lose when he focuses his attention on that issue," said Kevin Gordon, executive director of the California Association of School Business Officials. "I think he's leaning back on that issue as the centerpiece of his budget, and that works very well from a policy standpoint and political standpoint."