Rescue California

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Darrell Issa — AP Photo

Issa drops out of recall race

August 07, 2003

Gov. Gray Davis' firewall collapsed Thursday as two prominent Democrats joined the race to replace him in the Oct. 7 recall election, and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican who helped make the recall a reality, dropped out one day after actor Arnold Schwarzenegger made himself the leading Republican candidate. The rapid-fire series of events began Thursday morning in Sacramento, where Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat who had repeatedly denounced the recall election, unveiled a campaign theme calling on voters to vote "no" on recalling Davis but vote "yes" on having Bustamante replace him.

"I came to this reluctantly," Bustamante said. "I did not want to get involved in this."

But, he added, he felt he had no choice after private polling showed Davis has little hope of surviving the recall. As a result, he said, he felt obligated to give voters a Democratic alternative to the long list of Republicans expected to be on the ballot.

Davis and leading Democrats have held firm in the hope that no Democrats of stature would enter the race, a strategy designed to encourage voters to reject the recall. As late as Wednesday, when U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she would not run and urged voters to retain Davis, that appeared to have a chance of holding.

But once Bustamante got in, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi jumped in as well, saying he felt "the floodgates opened" once another Democrat joined the race.

Meanwhile, the man who funded the recall drive and hoped to use it to become governor, dropped out, a move observers say was driven by the entry of Schwarzenegger and Bustamante.

Rescue California, the group that headed the recall drive, saw Issa's support as "critical to the sucess of putting this measure on the ballot," spokesman Chris Wysocki said.

"We are tremendously thankful for his support and leadership and look forward to working with him in the coming months," Wysocki said, adding, "I'm not floored, but I was surprised" by the move.