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Officials: 400,000 sign recall petitions And, said David Gilliard, director of Rescue California, one of three recall committees, a little less than half that number have been turned in to the county registrar of voters. Gilliard said groups turned in 160,000 names Wednesday night, after turning in 18,590 in mid-May. The Secretary of State could not independently verify Thursday the new filing of 160,000. The claim of 400,000 total signatures overall, if accurate, indicates that the once-fledgling campaign may succeed in getting onto the ballot where dozens of other attempts to recall governors failed. The campaign must certify nearly 900,000 valid signatures of registered voters to force an election, and experts say that will take turning in petitions with at least 1.2 million signatures because typically 25 percent of names are discarded. The campaign was proceeding at a slow pace until North County Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican car-alarm maker from Vista, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars last month. And now 300 paid petition circulators are working the parking lots of grocery and department stores up and down the state, according to Gilliard. The signature-gatherers are leaning heavily on GOP neighborhoods, where people are more likely to be against the newly re-elected Democratic governor. "There are more people in Orange County, San Diego County and the Central Valley than there are in the San Francisco Bay area," Gilliard said from Sacramento. "They are all independent contractors. They can go wherever they want. But they are going to go where they are going to get the most signatures." Gilliard said the recall movement had turned in 43,000 signatures from San Diego County and 6,000 from Riverside County as of Thursday. Still, some signature-gatherers are going into liberal strongholds and having success because of Davis' widespread unpopularity, he said. In April, the Field Poll found that Davis' approval rating among registered voters statewide had plummeted to 27 percent amid the worst state fiscal crisis in history. Roger Salazar, a Davis political consultant, rejects the notion that Democrats are signing in any significant numbers. "There's been no indication from our perspective that they are getting anything other than signatures from their hard-core conservative base," Salazar said. Gilliard said the recall committees are aiming for 1.2 million signatures by July 18, in order to make the ballot in October or November. The groups don't want to wait for the March primary. "The point is to get to the governor as soon as possible," Gilliard said. The campaign needs nearly 900,000 valid signatures to qualify. Once qualified, it will be up to the lieutenant governor to call an election in 60 to 80 days. That would put the timing of a recall election very close to the Nov. 4 local elections in many counties. Gilliard said Rescue California is operating on a $1.6 million budget and has raised $700,000 ---- including $455,000 from Issa, who has declared himself a candidate for governor. Issa has formed a committee to run for governor and opened a temporary campaign office. And on Wednesday, his Issa for Governor Committee took out a full-page ad in a Capitol newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, saying it is time to replace Davis. That ad, said Salazar, showed that Issa's involvement in the recall is only about "his own naked political ambitions." "Darrell Issa is in this for Darrell Issa," he added.
Contact staff writer Dave Downey at
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