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Davis' Reelection Team Regroups to Fight Recall "If you've got a guy with deep pockets using the recall to further his own ambition to be governor, you have to assume that you're at another level of seriousness with this," said Bill Carrick, a Democratic campaign consultant. For Davis, the timing of the recall could not be worse: To close a projected $38-billion budget gap, he is pushing higher taxes and vast cuts in popular programs. His job-approval ratings have dropped to record lows — 27% in the latest Times poll. The Davis strategy for confronting Issa's challenge is twofold. First, the Davis committee is trying to stymie the congressman's petition drive. To do that, it has hired crews to circulate its own petition, essentially a stack of paper that makes a public statement against the recall but has no legal weight. Davis supporters acknowledge that it's an aggressive — though traditional — tactic to block California ballot measures. "If these guys want to play hardball, they'd better bring their gloves, because we throw some heat," said Roger Salazar, a consultant to the governor's campaign committee and member of the anti-recall strategy team. Tom Bader, the leader of Issa's petition effort, said Davis forces were trying "to shut us down" by paying circulators a higher price per signature. Issa's team pays 75 cents, but the governor's offers $1. "These guys are shameless," Bader said. The second part of the Davis strategy is running on a parallel track: His allies are moving ahead with a campaign to defeat the recall in case they fail to keep it off the ballot. The opening phase of the campaign entails besmirching Issa. At a meeting last month with the Los Angeles Times editorial board, Davis said it was "shameful that somebody would finance a recall and then say he wants to run." "It's pathetic," Davis said. "Stand up and be a man. Run like most people do." Davis surrogates have echoed those remarks (South called Issa's efforts "an incredibly brazen display of political egomania") and tried to revive negative publicity that haunted Issa in his failed 1998 campaign for the U.S. Senate. The anti-recall committee is also bankrolling a legal complaint accusing Issa of breaking a new federal campaign finance law in raising money for Rescue California; an Issa spokesman has denied the allegation. Overall, the moves against Issa are in keeping with Davis' attack strategy in previous campaigns, most notably his TV ads last year against Republican gubernatorial rivals Richard Riordan and Bill Simon Jr. "It's Gutter Politics 101," said Jonathan Wilcox, communications director for Issa's budding gubernatorial campaign. "I frankly expect a good deal more." But for Davis, the attacks on Issa serve a larger purpose than defining an opponent early and harshly; they also are aimed at casting the recall as an irresponsible Republican power grab. "No matter how much they try to put lipstick on this pig, it's a partisan campaign," said a person familiar with the anti-recall strategy. To discredit the recall, Davis supporters argue that the projected cost of a special election — at least $25 million — would waste scarce taxpayer money. They also highlight the risks of a recall: On the two-part ballot would be an up-or-down vote on Davis, followed by a menu of candidates vying to replace him. In a race that could draw a large crowd of candidates, the one with the most votes would win, no matter how small the victor's share of the electorate.
"This could result in a fringe candidate — either right or left — winning the election with only 10% or 15% of the
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