SAN JOSE -- As the new millennium dawned, San Jose was bursting with boundless civic pride as the center of a booming high-technology industry and as an emerging urban powerhouse with a new sports arena, forests of new high-rise hotels and office buildings, new museums and other civic amenities.

Just months later, however, San Jose saw dozens of companies and tens of thousands of jobs vaporize in the collapse of the high-tech bubble. And that makes it a fitting locale for the annual convention of California's once-dominant Democrats, who have seen their governor thrown out of office and a Democratic-dominated Legislature plummet to sub-20 percent voter approval ratings.

The ouster of Gray Davis (who appeared briefly at the convention) and the landslide election of Republican movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger have clearly befuddled Democrats. They don't know whether to cozy up to the popular -- and somewhat unpredictable -- new governor or challenge him, and their bewilderment is reflected in the sharp-elbowed jousting among Democratic politicians for the 2006 gubernatorial nomination.

The effect of Schwarzenegger's election on the once-dominant Democrats was voiced by state Treasurer Phil Angelides, one of the aspiring governors. "This year is different," Angelides reminded delegates. "This convention is different. Why? Because there is an elephant in the room. Last March, we gathered in Sacramento to celebrate the first Democratic sweep of statewide offices in over a century. Yet, a short year later, we Democrats find ourselves on the outside looking in. Reeling from the outcome of Oct. 7, still struggling to find some meaning in the turmoil of the recall."

Most affected, and most damaged, by the Schwarzenegger phenomenon has been Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who astounded California political circles a few weeks after the election by revealing that he had voted for Schwarzenegger and dismissing sexual harassment allegations against the new governor as "frat boy behavior."

Lockyer was hammered by women's rights advocates within his party and tried to recoup by calling for an investigation into the allegations, but the issue has continued to haunt him, undercutting his position as the presumptive front-runner for 2006.

Lockyer tried to recover again Friday by appearing before a Democratic women's group and apologizing for his "frat boy behavior remark."

"It was the wrong choice of words and I recognize that," Lockyer said. But he was booed by many of the women at the meeting when he described them as "cranky" and received a very tepid reception Saturday when he appeared at the convention, ignoring state politics and concentrating his rhetoric on the Bush White House.

Lockyer's aides were afraid he might be booed again, but the boos didn't come until later, when Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante pointedly brought up the attorney general's vote for Schwarzenegger in his convention address, and made a series of cutting observations about Lockyer's motives. It was payback for Lockyer's dismissive remarks about Bustamante -- the Democratic alternative to Schwarzenegger on the recall ballot -- when Lockyer was explaining his Schwarzenegger vote.

The dust-up between Lockyer and Bustamante was matched by the duel between two other gubernatorial hopefuls, Angelides and state Controller Steve Westly. While Angelides has been an increasingly strident critic of Schwarzenegger, especially on the state's budget crisis, Westly has often supported the new governor -- only to get heat from party activists.

Westly is trying to get back on partisan track and on Saturday sharply criticized Schwarzenegger's new budget for its cuts in health, social welfare and education spending. "The governor's honeymoon ended when he cheated on his campaign promises, and it's time to serve him with divorce papers in 2006," he said.

But Westly still supports the $15 billion debt refinancing bond issue that is a cornerstone of Schwarzenegger's budget plan, while Angelides has become the bond's most vociferous opponent and took a couple of indirect shots at Westly in his speech and in later remarks to reporters. "Democrats are on shaky ground if they are weak-kneed," Angelides said in a thinly veiled reference to Westly.