Calblog

Recall Roundup 4/24

It looks like the money has arrived. First, let's review:

There's a campaign to recall Governor Davis. We are on day 30 of a 160 period in which proponents have to gather approximately 1 million signatures to get the recall on the ballot.

Ted Costa heads the official campaign. (Howard Kaloogian heads the unofficial campaign. The difference has been unimportant in recent days.) Costa has spearheaded 12 propositions to ballot and passage. The recall statute and the proposition statute were put into law together and are structured very similarly.

In previous campaigns, Costa had used professional signature-gathering firms. There were two problems with that in this campaign. First, no CA firm would take it on (accusations of Davis buying them off, yada, yada, yada). Second, there's no money to pay such a firm. Right now, there's a MO firm ready to roll when there's money.

There was speculation that the internet would be a powerful tool in a grassroots effort to raise money and gather signatures. I was part of that speculation and I have been surprised that, while it has helped raise $200,000 and gather 60,000 signatures, the results so far are nowhere near what they need. What they needed was a backer.

US Congressman Daniel Issa, R-Vista, has announced that he will be the guy. Instead of running for Senate, he wants to be the Davis replacement.

Davis supporters attack the announcement on two fronts. First, they point to the fact that Issa is the latest in a string of names that may back the campaign. However, Issa is the first to make a public announcement. Second, they point to the fact that he spent $9.4 million to run for the Senate in 98 and lost. They overlook the fact that he managed to win Congressman and he's pairing with Costa who has a good track record. Davis' biggest problem is the likely scenario that someone like Issa gets the recall on the ballot and someone like Bustamonte runs against Davis, allowing the recall to pass.

There's also a piece in the Fresno Bee.

The Bee article is posted over at Free Republic and there are comments.

Posted by Justene Adamec at April 24, 2003 08:28 AM