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Recall drive nears petition target "The extremists behind the recall want to try to take through the back door what they couldn't win fair and square," said anti-recall campaign manager Steve Smith. "These Californians are telling them loud and clear: You can't steal California's election." Seeking to mobilize Democratic constituencies, recall opponents have begun holding weekly news conferences to attack Issa's congressional voting record on issues such as abortion and gun control. They also have been circulating documentation of a succession of youthful brushes with the law by the wealthy former car alarm entrepreneur. "Issa makes Newt Gingrich look moderate," Lehane said. "He really does provide a face for the recall, and it's not a pretty face. The recall is increasingly becoming identified with someone who holds some outrageous views and has a very questionable background." Issa professes to be unconcerned. "Gray Davis is desperate because he cannot – cannot – provide any answers as to his own failures," he said after greeting petition circulators at the San Diego County Fair recently. Some Republicans fear that while Issa may have the financial wherewithal to make the recall a reality, he will emerge too badly battered to be a competitive candidate. "Issa is like the guy during the Civil War that marched at the front of the regiment holding the banner," said one Republican strategist. "Everyone appreciates what he's done, but he gets so full of bullet holes that he doesn't have much of an impact on the fight." For now, Issa is the only announced Republican successor candidate; other Republican gubernatorial hopefuls appear to be content to let him take all of the bullets until a recall election is official. Simon, the 2002 Republican nominee for governor, is expected to run again even though many Republicans blame his lackluster campaign for Davis' re-election. Another possible Republican contender is state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks, whose crusade against the motor vehicle license fee has made him a favorite on the talk radio circuit. And then there's Schwarzenegger. "We don't know whether he's going to run or not, but I'm pretty sure that he is," said political adviser George Gorton. "He seems to be pretty interested in it and pretty excited about it." There is much speculation that Schwarzenegger's career path may be determined by the box office receipts from "Terminator 3." "Ask me again after the July 4 weekend grosses come in," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at the University of Southern California. "If 'Terminator 3' rakes in $100 million, do you think he can or will be allowed to walk away from that? I don't think so. If, on the other hand, it tubes, he may decide it's time to gracefully find another career." At 55, Schwarzenegger presumably has more movies left in him. But there's no conventional calculation of how many productive years lie ahead for an action hero. "I don't see how he can make 'Terminator 22: The Revenge of the Nursing Home,' " Jeffe said. Gorton said Schwarzenegger's star power and can-do image will be enough to carry him through an abbreviated recall campaign. "Arnold is the message," Gorton said. "He comes across so well with such charisma that people are moved to like him." That won't cut it, said Ken Khachigian, Issa's campaign manager. Schwarzenegger is described as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, but voters are going to want to know more, Khachigian said.
"If he's in the Central Valley, he's going to be asked about agriculture," Khachigian said. "If he's in Imperial, he'll get asked about water. If he's in Orange County, he'll be asked about the El Toro air base. He may have full and complete positions on all those things, but
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