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Why California's Gov. Davis may be facing historic recall - by Eric Hogue Last Monday, May 5, the combined efforts of the state's two main recall organizations announced the collection of over 100,000 signatures – well over 10 percent of those needed to recall Gov. Gray Davis. Since California's creation of a "Constitutional Recall" in 1911, this is the first time a recall campaign aimed at a statewide elected official has reached even 10 percent of the needed signatures, elevating it to a historical event. Now, under California law, the secretary of state has to "officially offer the count each month" to the citizens and media alike – a new reality for California's most despised governor in state history. Combine this news with evidence that additional 200,000-plus signatures are in the pipeline headed for Sacramento's "belly of the beast" and you have a nervous governor's office and state Capitol. One must now remember, all of this outrage has been orchestrated by the grassroots, volunteer efforts of simple taxpayers and the common citizens of California through talk radio and the Internet. The question that has been begging for an answer is: "What would happen if some 'serious money' could help the cause?" It appears that this question will soon be answered. Last month, on my morning talk show (1380 KTKZ, Sacramento), U.S. Congressman Darrell Issa, R-Vista, announced his interest in supporting the recall effort. Freshly back from his journey to Syria for the Bush administration, Congressman Issa told me he was concerned about the current status of his home state. He arrived in Sacramento after leaving Syria and decided he wanted to help the cause and rescue California. As of last Thursday, Congressman Darrell Issa has created a third recall organization in Sacramento called Rescue California. Issa has also contributed $100,000 of his own money to begin the process of putting full-time signature gatherers on the street up and down the state of California for the recall campaign. Congressman Issa is also planning for nearly 2 million pieces of mail, sending petitions directly to registered voters in the coming weeks. This, in conjunction with the two ever-growing grassroots efforts of Davis Recall and Recall Gray Davis, could mean that the recall effort will reach the magical number of 1.2 million signatures by Independence Day 2003 – a new independence for California. (Remember – the legal drop dead date for this recall campaign is not until Sept. 2, 2003.) With this new synergy, the propaganda of "Baghdad Bob" has surfaced in the Golden State in the form of something we have labeled "Save Gray Sam." We have witnessed this in prior times – while American troops stormed Baghdad, the Iraqi minister of information, "Baghdad Bob," gave unfounded and false reports. The same type of "fictional-journalism" is being offered by the liberal media and Davis cronies in California. Now, most of us have come to expect the "spin" from the state's Democrat Party. Their anti-recall rhetoric of lack of money, slow speed in gathering signatures and confusion among the volunteer recall campaigns has been redundant over the past two months. With the addition of Congressman Issa, the Democrats brought out the old talking-points memo of "politics of personal destruction," drudging up Issa's "assumed dirt" in an attempt to make the issue Darrell Issa and not Gov. Gray Davis and the recall.
While Gov. Davis has released the attack hounds, he has also held numerous "secret" meetings in Sacramento. Just last week, the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle began
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