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State GOP strongly endorses recall Sundheim's Democratic counterpart, Art Torres, was out of the country Wednesday, but Bob Mulholland, the party's campaign adviser, said Sundheim is pursuing an impossible goal in trying to winnow the field. "There will be three or at least five Republican candidates," he said, and they won't step aside for each other. "The knives are being pulled out even as we speak." Sundheim, who was in Washington for meetings with leaders of President Bush's re-election campaign and White House political operatives, also claimed that the recall and the budget stalemate in Sacramento have given new energy to his party. He said anecdotal evidence from five of the state's 58 counties shows that 20 percent of those registering to vote as Republicans in June were changing over from the Democratic Party. He also said that in San Bernardino County, 6,300 people registered as Republican, an unusually high number for June in a nonpresidential election year. So far, all the state's major Democratic officeholders have stood behind Davis, and said they won't run in the election to replace him that will be held on the same ballot as the recall. But Sundheim predicted that one or more big-name Democrats will get on the ballot. "I would be very wary of any politician who says they don't intend to do anything," he said. Mulholland scoffed at claims of increased Republican registration. "Every election cycle, every Republican chairman says the same thing, and at the end of the cycle we end up with about 1.5 million more Democrats than Republicans." Mulholland said Sundheim was wrong when he said some major Democrats will break ranks, once the recall qualifies for the ballot in the fall or next March, and run for governor. "There won't be any. They've all made it very clear," he said.
E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein@sfchronicle.com.
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