Petition firm shuns Davis recall role

An attack on a sitting governor could hurt business, owner says.

By Margaret Talev -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Thursday, March 6, 2003

In a blow to the fledgling campaign to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, California's pre-eminent Republican signature-gathering firm will not help sign up voters for fear of poisoning its relationships with other clients.

"We had to make a very difficult business decision," Michael Arno, president of Arno Political Consultants in Rancho Cordova, said Wednesday.

"The people who hire petition companies are going to support a seated governor no matter who he is," Arno said of large corporations and special-interest groups that bankroll many ballot initiative campaigns.

"When push comes to shove and they have to choose between us and another petition firm, they're not going to choose us if we're attached to the recall effort," Arno said. "We would have been radioactive."

One such group is the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, which on Wednesday announced it would petition lawmakers to make it easier to raise local transportation sales taxes. The Arno firm was tapped by a consultant representing the manufacturers group to help collect signatures for that effort, said Arno's brother William, the company's vice president.

At the same time, William Arno said discussions about signature gathering for the transportation tax has been in the pipeline for months. He said there were no discussions of the Davis recall in connection with that deal.

Arno's decision came as a surprise to many Republicans and was the first of two setbacks dealt to the recall campaign led by anti-tax activist Ted Costa of Sacramento-based watchdog group People's Advocate.

In the second development, lawyers for California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley told Costa that he must make at least 23 revisions to his proposed recall documents before he can begin collecting the 900,000 voter signatures needed to hold a special election to determine Davis' fate.

Those adjustments range from correcting spelling and punctuation errors in proposed signature-gathering petitions to issuing a new newspaper advertisement notifying the public of the recall campaign.

Costa has 10 days under state law to make those changes. Shelley's office then has 10 days to review the new submission. All told, it will likely be April before Costa can begin collecting signatures.

To Democrats, the two developments suggested the recall campaign -- which was announced in early February but has yet to garner significant financial backing or bipartisan support -- is fizzling.

"Some extremist with $2 million could put some oxygen in it," said campaign adviser Bob Mulholland. "But so far, the recall effort seems to be on life support."

Experts say a recall campaign would cost $2 million to $3 million. Republicans vying to replace Davis would need millions more to campaign.

Costa was determined to press on despite both disappointments.

"Whether it's now or in another 10 days, we're going get the petition going," he said of the delay from Shelley's office. Regarding Arno's decision, Costa said, "We can go direct to these people on the streets. We can find another signature gatherer."

But his next step is unclear. Of the state's six major signature-gathering firms, half consistently support Democratic causes. The owners of two of those companies said they would not assist in the effort. Two other companies could not be reached.

National Petition Management, based in Roseville, supports Republican-led ballot initiatives. Asked Wednesday whether he would gather signatures for a Davis recall, however, company owner Lee Albright said, "I haven't decided" and added that Arno's concerns about negative effects on business "would be anyone's concerns."

Costa suggested Arno and other signature gatherers had either been scared off by Davis backers or promised lucrative work if they stayed away from the recall.

"We've heard from lobbyists downtown that the governor has sewed up all the signature gatherers," he said.

Costa said Arno and his firm were initially "ecstatic" about the idea and even made follow-up calls to him to inform him about building support.

Then Arno's firm turned a cold shoulder. His phone calls were not returned, Costa said. When he finally made contact with the firm this week, he was told abruptly to look elsewhere. "It was too hot to handle for them," he said.

Arno denied being threatened or wooed by anyone connected with Davis.

Instead, he said, the "final straw" came at the state Republican Party convention two weeks ago. While a majority of delegates supported a Davis recall, leaders voiced concerns that the effort would fail or detract from Republican campaigns for the U.S. Senate in 2004 or for the governorship in 2006.

"I went to the convention and got so much feedback from Republicans not thinking this was the greatest idea," Arno said.

A 24-year veteran of the ballot initiative signature-gathering business, Arno has on occasion worked on recall campaigns, including the successful ouster of former Assembly Speaker Doris Allen, who angered fellow Republicans by aligning with Democrats in 1995.

Republican consultant Sal Russo, who supports a Davis recall, said backers should be able to collect sufficient signatures through the Internet and grass-roots efforts.

But most political consultants say recall proponents will need the services of a professional signature-gathering team to collect at least one-third of the signatures needed.

Jeff Flint, a Republican consultant who managed the Allen recall effort eight years ago, said it's too soon to write off a grass-roots campaign against Davis.

"If there is at least a solid base of people who feel passionately about the issue, which I think there is in this case, you can go a long way not only toward getting high signature return rates, but also a lot of checks that help it pay for itself," he said.

That, in turn, could translate to major financial support. And that could attract a professional signature gatherers and consultants to help close the deal. But Flint said he won't be among them. "It's not where I want to go with my business," he said.

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