Rescue California

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Desperation drives Davis to another unprecedented tactic

June 18, 2003

Page 2

of our carriers will be nonconfrontational and professional."

Of course, if contratemps should arise, they can benefit only Davis, so long as no one ever pins the blame on his people. For if both sides get kicked out of a shopping center, that's one less place people can sign recall petitions.

Such conflicts have never occurred in the 33 years of the modern initiative movement even though carriers for initiatives and counterinitiatives have operated side by side a few times.

But rivals never before operated on the same turf during a recall drive, even though every governor of the last 50 years has faced recall attempts.

The bottom line on the new Davis tactic is not yet in. If it works, the governor may be hailed as inventive and ingenious. Keep watching.

-- Thomas D. Elias is the author of "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign to Squelch It." His e-mail address is tdelias@aol.com.