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Issa stakes his future on timely Davis recall "If I cannot make this recall a success in a timely fashion so that we have a fall election, then I would not consider being on the ballot – period," Issa told the Register on Wednesday at his congressional office. Issa, who this week is setting up offices in San Diego and Newport Beach to run his 2006 campaign for governor, said he will give up his gubernatorial ambition if he fails to get the recall on the ballot. "If someone says they want to be governor, they ought to at least be able to qualify something under the initiative process," Issa said. "I've staked my reputation on being able to get this qualified." He's also invested a lot of money in this effort. Issa has put in $645,000 of the $773,000 raised thus far for the recall. What started out as a far-fetched idea has just now begun to take hold in Republican circles, and party officials are beginning to believe that the nearly 900,000 signatures needed to force a recall will be gathered. And Issa is at the center of this effort. The Vista Republican, who was elected to Congress in 2000 and then represented part of south Orange County, spends his weekends working on the effort, determined to get enough signatures qualified by July so the election can be held in November. In the process, Issa has become the target for Davis and others opposed to the recall. "Look, this recall from the beginning has been pushed by people who lost the last election," Davis said Wednesday on a San Francisco radio show. "I won that election fair and square; most Californians believe in fundamental fairness. The person financing it is a right-winger, Congressman Darrell Issa. He just wants to run for governor on the cheap." Issa, who made his millions from a car-alarm business, brushes off accusations that he's trying to buy the governorship or that his bankrolling the effort calls into question the depth of feeling around the state for recalling Davis. "The depth is measured in the number of signatures," Issa said. "We have people standing 30 deep to sign petitions. We have over 100,000 people who have downloaded it completely on their own and mailed in those signatures." Issa said that the "Rescue California Recall Gray Davis" effort is getting $20,000 to $30,00 a day in small contributions from supporters. "If at the end of the day, half the money is mine, that's fine," Issa said. "It's not about money. It's about giving people an opportunity to vote on the governor's misconduct." Issa said he wishes some of the other Republicans who have been mentioned as possible candidates on a recall ballot – former L.A. Mayor Dick Riordan, state Sen. Tom McClintock or Davis' 2002 opponent Bill Simon – would join him publicly in the recall effort. But he knows that just because he may end up being responsible for getting the initiative qualified doesn't mean the GOP would gather around him as their anointed candidate. Issa did not rule out running in 2006 if he were to lose in a recall election. While he is hoping Republicans will coalesce around one candidate to succeed a recalled Davis and hopes that candidate will be him, so far there's no evidence such an agreement will happen. "There is a concern that we are able to coordinate together in order to ensure that we elect a Republican governor," said California Republican Party spokesman Rob Stutzman.
Among Republicans, many are waiting to see whether Arnold Schwarzenegger
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