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Davis tries to shift focus to Issa in effort to beat recall Just as he did when he became governor in 1998 and won re-election last year, the Democrat is seeking to shift the focus from himself and onto his Republican opponent, portraying him as too conservative for California and unfit to lead. "Darrell Issa is a right-winger," Davis said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition." "He's against gun control. He won't support a moratorium on offshore drilling, and he's not for a woman's right to choose. He is a right-winger." Issa, 49, a congressman from Vista, has spent $1.5 million to finance the recall campaign and is the only Republican so far to announce plans to run if the measure makes the ballot. He insisted the tactics that helped Davis to victory in the past won't work in this unconventional campaign. "It doesn't matter how much he attacks me," Issa said. "On election day the voters will decide whether he has done a good job." Recall proponents claim they've collected more than the 900,000 signatures needed to qualify the measure and expect a recall election to take place this fall. On a recall ballot, voters would be asked to vote yes or no on ousting Davis and would choose from a list of candidates to replace him. If Davis lost, the candidate who got the most votes would immediately become governor. A Los Angeles Times poll Friday found 51 percent of respondents in favor of recalling the governor, and 42 percent opposed. The poll also found Davis' approval rating at 22 percent, a dismal showing that helps explain why Davis and his allies are on the offensive, analysts said. Taxpayers Against the Governor's Recall, the group of Davis backers formed to fight the recall, staged a series of press conferences and conference calls in recent days focusing on Issa's conservative record on abortion, gun control and gay rights. At a Sacramento press conference to highlight the congressman's record on guns -- which earned him an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association last year -- they showed a video in which an Issa campaign stand from his failed 1998 U.S. Senate bid is shown at the entrance to a gun show where another exhibit displays a flag with a Nazi swastika. Davis allies have drawn reporters' attention to embarrassing chapters from Issa's past, including a 1980 prosecution for allegedly faking the theft of his car. (The charges were dropped and Issa blamed the episode on his brother.) Issa campaign manager Scott Taylor decried the approach as "tactics befitting a goon squad." Issa also accused Davis of focusing on ideological issues over which he said a governor has little control, while ignoring the major problems facing the state, including the economy and $38 billion budget deficit. However, Steve Smith, campaign manager for Taxpayers Against the Governor's Recall, said Issa made himself fair game by financing the recall and announcing his candidacy. "He's become one of the issues in this whole recall process, and so we are making sure folks understand that as a candidate he has a set of views," Smith said. The same hardball treatment awaits any other candidate who gets in the race, strategists said, including Republican actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The tactics are familiar from Davis' re-election campaign. Davis fiercely attacked conservative Bill Simon's business record and ideological stances, after spending some $10 million on ads to knock a potentially stronger candidate, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, out of the Republican primary.
"It's same-old same-old. They're
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