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County at epicenter of recall rumblings Recall advocates contend the counter petition drive is an effort to confuse voters. "They are employing deceit and deception and they are not explaining that this isn't the recall petition," fumed Kaloogian. "They are getting people who want to recall Gray Davis thinking they are signing the recall." There's no deceit and deception going on outside Home Depot on Sports Arena Boulevard, where Talen James is gathering signatures. "Circulators don't have much of an ideology, so they'll work when they can make a buck," said Jerry Mailhot, San Diego coordinator for the Issa-financed petition drive. James is pitching recall petitions to Davis opponents, and anti-recall petitions to Davis supporters. For good measure, he has a financial privacy initiative and a petition to raise tobacco taxes as well. "Would you like to sign a petition to recall the governor?" barks James. "How about one to keep him in? How about one to make it illegal for banks to sell your personal information? Are you a smoker? No? You can sign this to raise the tobacco tax." Before letting someone sign, James fires off more questions: "Are you a registered voter in San Diego County? Have you moved since the last time you voted? Are you a convicted felon out on parole?" James used to be a car salesman – by all indications a good one. He prevailed upon a man who had just signed the Davis recall petition to sign the anti-recall petition as well. "Basically, all it does is take a buck out of his pocket and put it into my pocket," he said. James is part of a network of people who supplement their incomes or earn their living collecting signatures for one cause or another. Some travel the state in search of petition drives, some the entire country. "It's definitely a subculture," Mailhot said. "I have people who've gone to Texas and New York, Oregon, Ohio and Washington." Davis has become the most unpopular California governor in modern history. The approval rating of the governor, who was narrowly re-elected last November over Republican political novice Bill Simon, has eroded as the state's fiscal troubles have deepened. A statewide public opinion survey conducted late last month by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that only 21 percent of the state's likely voters approved of the job Davis is doing. Still, it remains unclear whether a recall election would result in Davis' ouster. The poll indicated that 51 percent of likely voters would vote to remove Davis, while 43 percent would vote to retain him. Voters signing recall petitions expressed all manner of reasons. Some cited the official rationale of the recall – that Davis covered up the magnitude of the state's fiscal problems to win re-election. "Davis is very dishonest," said Keith Rodda, a mortgage lender. "I think he had to know what was going on with the budget." Channing Booth, a music teacher at Miramar College, said he believes community colleges have taken a disproportionate budgetary hit. "Build new jails so we can handle all of this because we've cut funding for the community colleges," he said. Gas station owner Bob Stivens complained that his workers' compensation premiums have doubled. Most drew a blank on the second half of the recall equation: who they thought should replace Davis. There is a growing pact among Democratic office-holders not to run for governor on a recall ballot. But the Republican field figures to grow. Issa has said he would run. Simon is expected to run. State Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks has said he is interested; so has actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Several voters found Schwarzenegger
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