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State GOP strongly endorses recall Duf Sundheim of Palo Alto expressed confidence that the recall will qualify for the ballot and that voters will recall Davis. Although his party has several attractive candidates to replace Davis, Sundheim said, too many GOP contenders could help him survive a recall or elect a Democrat to replace him. "We'll sit down with the candidates and come up with a viable strategy that makes sense," Sundheim told California reporters in Washington. "If we could agree on one candidate, it would be optimal." "We will work actively to get out the vote," Sundheim said in the party's clearest indication yet of all-out support for the recall effort. The party had endorsed the gathering of recall petition signatures, but Sundheim and many GOP leaders had kept the recall at arm's length. The effort to put the recall on the ballot has been fueled by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), who has spent about $1.28 million of his own money to finance the signature-gathering effort. Sundheim's comments are likely to intensify the criticism of the recall from Democrats, who have attacked it as a purely partisan effort by Republicans upset they were defeated last November by Davis and every other Democratic candidate for statewide office. Davis, who has sounded increasingly resigned to facing a recall, pursued that argument Wednesday, telling KGO Radio the recall is an "effort by the right wing to overthrow the legitimate results of an election last November." Still, the governor added, "I don't fear it. I've been elected five times statewide." SUNDHEIM ATTACKS DAVIS But Sundheim was blunt on Wednesday in attacking Davis, saying California "can't afford three more years of this person." "We've had five years of mismanagement, increased deficits, increased taxes and broken promises," he said. Sundheim said the recall is a legitimate expression of the voters' anger because the governor "misrepresented the size and scope" of the $38 billion state budget deficit. Sundheim said private donors have already paid for the party to hold two focus groups with voters to gauge their support for a recall and their attitudes toward Davis and the Democrat-controlled Legislature. "The story from those people is a fundamental thing. . . . People are fed up with what's going on California," he said. "It's unlike anything I've seen in California since Proposition 13," the anti-tax measure that passed in 1978. Recall proponents said they have gathered at least 1.2 million valid signatures -- many more than the 897,158 needed to make the ballot. County and state elections officials are reviewing the signatures to decide whether the recall has qualified. Issa has already declared his candidacy for governor. Movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is mulling a run, as is the party's unsuccessful 2002 candidate for governor, Bill Simon, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks (Ventura County). Sundheim said factors for the party and the candidates to consider include name recognition, proven leadership and their ability to pay for their campaigns. If a recall makes the ballot, there won't be party primaries to narrow the field, and the Republicans don't plan a convention to hold a straw poll.
INFORMAL PROCESS
That leaves Sundheim's plan for an informal process to produce a single candidate. Rob Stutzman, an adviser to the party, said, "No legal endorsement can occur. Any quasi-endorsement would be
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