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Analysis: Recall foes fit Issa for horns For that strategy to work, Davis' team needed to be sure other Democrats wouldn't get in the way. "The strategy would completely fall apart with other Democrats on the ballot," said Republican consultant Jeff Flint, who was involved in a successful recall of former Assembly Speaker Doris Allen, a Republican who crossed her own party's leaders in the mid-1990s. The state's Democratic constitutional officers say the unions never told them to withdraw their names from consideration. But days after a weekend strategy session to which union leaders invited those Democrats, four constitutional officers and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein stated publicly that they did not intend to run on a recall ballot. Next, news conferences sponsored by the anti-recall group began to include other organizations that appeal to the traditional Davis constituency, including Planned Parenthood and gun control advocates. The anti-recall campaign has gone beyond ideological issues, however. Democratic operatives urge reporters to write about Issa's past encounters with the law, episodes he has been reluctant to discuss. A high school dropout, he sometimes ran into trouble when he hung out with his brother, whose record included car theft. Issa was indicted in 1972 in a suspected car theft involving his brother, but the case was ultimately dropped. During that period, Issa also paid a $100 fine on a citation involving possession of an unregistered gun. Then, in 1980, Issa and his brother were arrested on suspicion of car theft in San Jose. Issa said he was inadvertently caught up in that car-theft case when his brother stole Darrell's car and sold it to a dealer. That case, too, was ultimately dismissed for lack of evidence. Democrats also point to a suspicious fire more than 20 years ago involving one of Issa's businesses. No charges were brought in that case. Last week, the anti-recall group showed reporters video footage from a gun show five years ago at which Issa's failed U.S. Senate campaign set up an outdoor booth. The camera panned repeatedly to an unrelated indoor booth where flags with swastikas were displayed with World War II memorabilia. Davis supporters denied trying to portray Issa as anti-Semitic but said he should answer for what sort of voters he was trying to court at such an event. "As far as I can tell, their strategy is to call Darrell Issa a Nazi," Khachigian said. "They're trying to elevate 30-year-old events into some sort of major, huge crime." Khachigian and others note that in the years that followed, protecting cars from theft made Issa a millionaire. In the early 1980s, he bought into an electronics company and in two decades turned Directed Electronics Inc. into a leading international seller of automobile security systems. Wills, of the anti-recall group, says the scrutiny of Issa's past is legitimate. "He has an obligation to let the public know what's in his past. People can make the judgment about whether he's been able to move beyond it ... but the public has a right to know." How voters pass judgment on Davis, Issa or anyone else -- actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who bills himself as a moderate Republican is among those considering a gubernatorial bid -- could have a lot to do with timing.
Republicans want a recall election in October or November. They charge that part of the Democratic strategy is to pressure Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to slow the signature validation process, pushing the election back to March, when a presidential primary might boost Democratic turnout. Shelley says he is making a good-faith effort to interpret the state constitution, following the advice
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