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Davis Calls Recall a Bid to Hijack Government The governor's accusations echoed a lawsuit filed on behalf of the campaign committee that his political team has set up to fight the recall. But at the first court hearing in the case on Wednesday, Davis forces suffered a setback: Judge Carl J. West of Los Angeles County Superior Court rejected their request for an immediate start to the interrogation of petition circulators they have accused of breaking state election laws. "I think this is being rushed," West said. He also questioned the propriety of pursuing the matter in the form of a class-action lawsuit, as the Davis forces have done. One of the lawsuit's apparent goals is to delay the proposed election so that it would take place at the same time as the Democratic presidential primary in March. Many political strategists have said more supporters of the Democratic governor are apt to come to the polls then, rather than in a special fall election that could draw a proportionately heavier Republican turnout. But the judge set the next court hearing in the case for Aug. 8; by then, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley could well have certified that the recall qualifies for a special fall election. A Times survey of California's 58 county election registrars on Wednesday found that recall supporters have submitted nearly 1.6 million petition signatures. To qualify the recall for the ballot, they need 897,158 valid voter signatures. For weeks, the registrars have been verifying whether people who signed the petitions were indeed registered voters. For the most part, they have used a random sampling technique mandated by the state. By Wednesday, the samplings had found that the petitions were roughly 85% valid. That suggests that the backers have enough signatures to reach the ballot, although the timing of the election hinges on when the valid signatures are reported to the secretary of state. The lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Davis-backed Taxpayers Against the Governor's Recall committee accuses the petition circulators of widespread illegal conduct outside grocery stores and gathering spots in Southern California. Davis, speaking with unusual passion, trumpeted the allegations in radio interviews during the Wednesday morning rush hour. He zeroed in on the charge that recall supporters hired petition circulators who had certified falsely that they were California residents registered to vote in the state. "Hundreds of people came over the borders from other states, lived in motels and said they were residents," Davis said in an interview on KGO-AM in San Francisco. "Residence is a matter of intent. Do you intend to live here? And just being in a hotel for six weeks, not getting a California driver's license and leaving town after you got the signatures does not fulfill the requirements." Davis said the state Legislature had good reason to require petition circulators to be registered California voters. On KFWB-AM in Los Angeles, Davis said: "The Legislature does not want outside people hijacking our government. Californians can elect people in California. We don't want outsiders hijacking the process." The governor also focused on an argument that his advisors expect to be a central theme of his campaign: that a special recall election is a waste of money at a time when California faces a $38-billion budget shortfall and needs the money for teachers and health care.
"I think when people hear that, they're going to be hopping mad, and they're going to send a message to the proponents of this recall: Stop busing in people from out
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