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Candidates Ready for Sprint Consider Options if Race Becomes a Marathon He added that Mr. Davis and Mr. Bustamante, because they hold the two top posts in state government, would receive a fair amount of free news media coverage over the next several months just for doing their jobs. Their incumbency would also be helpful in fund-raising, he said. Mr. Davis has already raised more than $10 million to fight the recall. Mr. Bustamante's chief strategist, Richie Ross, said he was putting all his chips on an Oct. 7 election date. The Bustamante campaign bought nearly $2 million in radio and television broadcast time over the next week to run commercials pushing Mr. Bustamante's candidacy and opposing Proposition 54, which would outlaw the collecting of some types of data on race and ethnicity. Mr. Ross said that if the election was delayed, he might regret having spent the money now, but he decided that the most prudent thing was to assume the election would be held as scheduled. He said he did not even want to think about how he would retool the campaign if the election was pushed to March. "Don't torture me," he said. "I have very little hair left and then I'll have none." Arianna Huffington, the columnist and television commentator who is running as a left-of-center independent, has already suffered one casualty from the uncertainty caused by the court. Her chief spokesman, Parker Blackman, citing the court-ordered delay, has returned to San Francisco to tend to his public relations business. Mr. Blackman said that if the court ruling was reversed, he would return for the final two weeks of campaigning. Senator McClintock, who reacted with fury to the appeals court's ruling, vowed to stay in the race until election day, whenever that might be. "I'm in the race until the finish line," Mr. McClintock said, adding that he preferred that it be on Oct. 7. But John Stoos, Mr. McClintock's deputy campaign manager, suggested that his candidate had the least to lose from a delay. State law permits Mr. McClintock to run for re-election to the State Senate while also seeking the governor's office. Mr. McClintock has already raised $250,000 for the Senate race, which he can use to keep his name before the public if the campaign drags on for months, Mr. Stoos said. Mr. Stoos said Mr. Bustamante would come under increasing pressure from fellow Democrats to drop out to strengthen Mr. Davis's chances of defeating the recall. And he said that there was no way that Mr. Schwarzenegger could maintain his costly and bloated staff for six months more.
"In a 60-day campaign, the advantage is to the millionaires, who can simply write themselves checks if they need money," Mr. Stoos said. "But if you give somebody who has to raise money in small contributions a five-and-a-half month campaign, advantage us."
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