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Recall booster finds fuel Something to talk about The radio waves were burning. Issa bankrolled the nuts-and-bolts campaign, but some recall backers say it owes early momentum to talk radio and the Internet. Backers have posted the recall petition on the Web -- copies can be downloaded -- and hit conservative talk radio. They liked what they heard. "People were not completely listening to the anger that's out there," said Kaloogian. "Talk radio hosts have heard from their listeners and have heard the anger and emotion. They understand." Melanie Morgan, a morning co-host on conservative talk radio station KSFO in the Bay Area, launched her on-air campaign Dec. 30, when she prodded Steel to push a Davis recall. "All my political friends expressed skepticism, but I absolutely knew it would work. There's such a well of resentment," said Morgan, who, like others, claims she spawned the recall. Morgan dismisses the idea that Issa was the "white knight" who saved a foundering recall movement. "It wasn't foundering, it was just under the political radar. If it hadn't been Issa, somebody else would have stepped in." Eight years ago, Morgan launched a successful, two-year campaign over the airwaves to help sell lawmakers on the dangers of MTBE, a poisonous gasoline additive. "People are so surprised with the connection between the Internet, talk radio and (the) grass roots. People are talking about how it's the new paradigm and changed California politics. This is the same model I used (against MTBE)." If it is the same model, it is on a much larger political scale, and a much quicker timetable. The groups officially started the signature drive on March 25 and had 160 days to draw 897,158 valid signatures. Issa jumped in a month later. In early May, organizers claimed to have collected 100,000 signatures. By mid-June, state officials said 376,008 signatures had been turned in. Paying little heed to the liberal Bay Area, the campaigns now say they have turned in 925,000 signatures. Meanwhile, Davis' poll numbers are scraping bottom. A recent statewide poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 51 percent of likely California voters would jettison Davis. Only 43 percent want him to stay. A recent Los Angeles Times poll showed similar results, though it found that if no other Democrat appeared on the ballot to replace Davis, voters would keep him. Recall backers say talk radio and the Internet helped them tap into a populist movement. The Internet may help lower the difficulty of reaching the threshold to qualify a recall, "but it doesn't create movements. It just makes it easier for them to grow," said Jack Pitney, government professor at Claremont McKenna College. "There was just considerable dissatisfaction with Gov. Davis," he said. To most political observers, however, the role of the Internet, talk radio and most every other factor pales under the green glow of Darrell Issa's fat wallet. His cash bought an army of paid signature gatherers and drew sideline Republican forces into the game like nothing else could, said Rob Stutzman, spokesman for the state Republican Party. "It's a matter of, are you going to put a lot of time and effort into something that isn't going to make the ballot, unless an angel comes along," said Stutzman.
"Issa provided what this effort needed."
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