Rescue California

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Issa may run after giving to Davis recall

May 10, 2003

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said former Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar. Salazar called it "the height of arrogance . . . that (Issa) has not even tried to hide the fact he wants to undermine the will of the people" to benefit his own career.

Gilliard said Issa's committee wants to gather 1 million signatures by July.

That way, state law mandates "there's no way the election can be delayed until next year," he said, adding it would probably be scheduled sometime between October and early December.

Russo said Friday he welcomed Issa's actions, which he said can only help Republicans statewide.

"Darrell changes the dynamic," he said. "We have 300,000-500,000 petitions out there just from our Web site alone. . . . Now we're seeing a much greater interest from a lot of people."

Other Republicans who have been mentioned as possible candidates for governor, should the recall effort make the ballot, include state Sen. Tom McClintock, 2002 GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon, and even actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The recall efforts have apparently created some nervousness among Davis' advisers, who this week met to talk about ways to counter the GOP recall effort.

E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com

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