Rescue California

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2 boosts for drive to recall governor

May 06, 2003

Advisers to Rep. Darrell Issa said Monday that the wealthy Republican congressman and gubernatorial hopeful has agreed to put up enough "seed money" to begin the professional signature-gathering effort deemed necessary to wage a successful recall effort against Gov. Gray Davis. In conjunction with Issa's pledge, associates on Monday filed paperwork with elections officials establishing a new recall fund-raising committee, Rescue California, which will be led by political consultant Dave Gilliard. More details are expected to be released Wednesday.

Issa's political consultant, Scott Taylor, declined to say how much Issa has pledged to the effort.

"We will provide initial seed money to the committee that should enable them to retain a professional petition signature-gatherer and get them on the street this weekend," Taylor said. "I think when donors see Congressman Issa is involved, they'll have a comfort level that this thing might get done now."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two Republican sources familiar with the San Diego-area congressman's plans said Issa is expected to put up a sum in the low six figures. Issa was traveling Monday and could not be reached for comment.

Issa last month said he supported a recall drive put in motion earlier this year by anti-tax activist Ted Costa of People's Advocate and a conservative former state assemblyman, Howard Kaloogian. They blame Davis for the state's estimated $34.6 billion budget shortfall, while Davis blames a national recession.

Issa also said he was interested in becoming a candidate to replace Davis should a recall be successful. However, Issa also said last month that he would not contribute money to Costa's or Kaloogian's campaigns, neither of which seemed sufficiently organized to raise the money needed to wage an effort to collect nearly 900,000 voter signatures required under state law to put the recall on the ballot.

On Monday, however, Kaloogian and Costa announced a milestone of sorts. They said they had submitted 100,000 voter signatures to elections officials in California's 58 counties. By exceeding 10 percent of the needed signatures, they trigger a requirement that county election officials begin checking the validity of signatures and reporting monthly counts to the California Secretary of State's Office -- effectively taking the effort seriously.

"Momentum is picking up," Costa told a crowd of about 150 people joining him at a rally outside the Capitol. Davis supporters pointed out that at the rate petitions are being collected recall backers would miss the September signature-gathering deadline by several months.

None of 31 previous attempts to recall a California governor has been successful. The 10 percent trigger was put into law in 1996, elections officials said, and was not a factor in efforts to recall previous California governors.