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State Democrats recall lessons of Florida Over the past two weeks, Davis and his supporters have become more organized and focused, and unafraid of ground-level skirmishes. They have settled on a simple message -- that the recall is a right-wing coup attempt -- and started preparing a long-range public relations assault. The Florida recount and the California recall have many differences in both scope and detail. But the parallels are sharp in some ways -- both are untested political events with sometimes vague rules and few historic guideposts. In times like these, tactical advantage can be the key to winning public and legal support. "What I noticed in Florida was the apparatus of the Democrats was very timid," said the decidedly untimid California Democratic operative Bob Mulholland, who flew to Florida during the 2000 recount. "I think Democrats nationally have learned a lesson. But clearly we have done that for years here, which is if you see a 250-pound Republican coming toward you, trip him." Davis is being advised on the recall by two Democratic operatives, Chris Lehane and Peter Ragone, both of whom spent weeks in Florida battling Republicans during the complicated and intense ballot recount that eventually elected President Bush. Lehane, the former campaign spokesman for Vice President Al Gore, said Democrats in Florida could have made a bigger show about disenfranchised African American or Jewish voters, but took a more complicated route through the courts. Democrats were overwhelmed, he said, when Republican operatives flooded county election offices. "We made a conscientious decision that it was important to handle this within the framework of the legal system," said Lehane, now working with Stand for California, an anti-recall coalition. "The Republicans clearly decided to take a different route." DEMOCRATS' SINGLE MESSAGE Most significantly in the recall battle, Democrats and their supporters are using a single message to force recall organizers into a corner, just as Republicans attempted to paint Gore as the sour-grapes loser during the Florida recount. All the major Democratic politicians in California, along with significant labor and environmental groups, are now in lockstep with an anti-recall message. At the same time, Davis is amping up his rhetoric against recall organizers by appearing on more national news shows, while attempting to stay focused on the budget crisis and general government business. Working on state business, in fact, is essential because it keeps the image of Davis as gubernatorial -- and legitimately in power -- at a time when voters may be weary of another major campaign so soon after the last. "His view is you have to focus on the work and on the governing, and if you do that, the politics will take care of itself," said Daniel Zingale, Davis' cabinet secretary and one of his longest-serving aides. "It's not the conventional campaign situation." As a parallel, Bush attempted during the Florida recount to purposely look presidential even though his election had not been certified. He formed a transition team and talked about making White House appointments, and Gore soon followed with similar tactics. Both comically kept adding more and more American flags as backdrops at press availabilities.
Recall organizers have until Sept. 2 to turn in about 1.2 million signatures to force the election. Recall supporters say Davis lied to the public by failing to disclose the size of the state's budget deficit before they re-elected him eight months ago. Unlike
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