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At a Dollar Per Signature, Recall Effort Is a Living Davis representatives say Lee's Arizona posse committed fraud by registering to vote here. Recall proponents deny that, while noting that the vast majority of their petition carriers are locals. They also contend that some out-of-staters they did recruit were snatched away by the Davis crowd. That's what happened to Byrd, a personable, fast-talking 31-year-old who dabbles in commercial fishing when not trolling for names. He said he trekked down from Seattle at the invitation of the Republicans targeting Davis, then jumped the fence a week later. Byrd said he switched mainly because he's a Democrat, although he added that the Davis job was more lucrative. "It's been pretty easy too," he said. What made it easy is the anti-recall petition's informal nature. It merely expresses an opinion and cannot thwart an election. Unlike the recall petition, it could be circulated by non-residents and signed by anyone, even minors. "You can be 8 years old," said Byrd, who bagged eight signatures in his first 20 minutes at the Ralphs. He said he considers himself a bona fide resident of California, where he has gathered signatures off and on for seven years. Several weeks ago, he said, he registered to vote, using a Pomona hotel as an address — "the worst I've ever stayed in, $40 a night" — and has since moved to a Hollywood hostel. Byrd's story is fairly typical for his breed of circulator. The rovers tend to be free-spirited, possessed of a casual employment history and saddled by few domestic responsibilities, such as young children or a mortgage. They can gross $800 to $3,000 a week, according to the petition firms. Close to home or not, signature gatherers aren't necessarily choosy about the political causes they help advance. They have been known to simultaneously circulate petitions for and against a given issue or officeholder, and the California recall fight proved no exception. "I'll work on anything," said John Mitchell, 55, a San Diego resident who has gathered signatures since 1985. He handled both the pro- and anti-recall petitions. "They're self-serving mercenaries," said Bill Arno, co-owner of Arno Political Consultants in Sacramento, one of four major petition companies in California. "Most people don't realize there's this core of professionals. Without them, it would be a rare occurrence for an initiative to qualify for the ballot." Like many of his California competitors, Arno does much of his business outside the Golden State. The four California firms are among the top half-dozen or so in the country. Pro-Davis forces signed up all of them to try to fend off the recall. Their dominance is a reflection of the state's quarter-century run as a hothouse for initiative crusades, ranging from 1978's tax-cutting Proposition 13 to 1990s measures that rolled back affirmation action programs and restricted bilingual education. "I've done Arizona, Arkansas, Nevada, Michigan," said Fred Kimball, owner of Kimball Petition Management in Westlake Village. His late father was a pioneer of the modern petitioning-for-profit business. "Some of these professional circulators can make a fortune," Kimball said. Bader and Lee, the recall petition managers, said they haven't made a fortune from the campaign, but they aren't doing badly either. Lee gets a fraction of a dollar for each signature collected in Orange County; Bader, who was enlisted in April by recall leader Ted Costa, is paid another fraction for names culled statewide. Earlier in their careers, Bader and Lee lived and worked in California. They said they intend to establish permanent operations here. Because they don't solicit signatures directly, they do not have to be residents of the state for their current assignment.
"My wife and I have rented a house here," said
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