Posted on 06/24/2003 2:17:34 PM PDT by heleny
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:42:50 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Backers of a Republican-led campaign to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis collected 376,008 signatures as of June 16, the secretary of state reported Tuesday, close to half the signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot.
The Associated Press surveyed 55 of California's 58 counties on Monday and found 389,337 signatures were being submitted. The sources of discrepancies in some counties' tallies were not immediately clear.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
They gave no reason for the discrepancy. Anybody know? My guess is that either somebody can't add, or some counties reported numbers from different dates.
The dumpdavis.net charts show a little under 400,000 submitted to the counties by June 15, which pretty much matches the AP-reported numbers.
Recent news reports showed that Contra Costa County sampled the signatures it received and found about 90% were valid; that is much higher than the usual rate of around 65-75%, and shows that the recall organizers are doing a great job of weeding out bad signatures. Unfortunately, that process takes some time, and so many signatures haven't been turned in to the counties yet. I hope they turn in all the signatures before the July report.
Thanks AP, that old line. Last time I checked we were all alone in this grass roots effort until it got "cool". Why don't you tell the feckless RINO that heads the party, Parsky that. I'm sure you could actually get an arguement out of him for that.
Other potential candidates on the Republican side are actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon, who lost to Davis in November Hello? What about Tom McClintock the highest ranking Republican actually holding office. How can the AP and Pacifica Radio keep ignoring him in this? Oh yeah, they're hard core liberals. I just keep expecting honest reporting.
Contra Costa County got an 88% validation rate for a sample of the signatures it received as of June 16 (and they got 91% for an earlier sample). Many signers are genuinely interested in dumping Davis, so I doubt there are many double signers; democrats wouldn't do it intentionally, since a higher number lends more credence and popularity to the cause.
He hasn't declared candidacy yet, and he will probably wait until the recall qualifies. For some people, such as Issa, the election date (November 2003 vs. March 2004) may make a difference. I'm not sure what you mean by highest ranking Republican, since Jim Brulte is the Minority Leader in the state senate, but McClintock is more likely to run than Brulte, and McClintock may make a better candidate because of his work in the car tax reduction and initiative for repeal of the car tax. Go Tom!
I wasn't aware of that, does one officially have to declare in this free-for-all? What you said certainly matters to the AP, but I guess since Arnold isn't official either, I'm sick of hearing about that red herring of a candidate.
since Jim Brulte is the Minority Leader in the state senate
I was not aware of that either, thank you! I have never once even heard of this Brulte, RINO? Must not be that bad if he is holding them in line about not going along with ANY tax increases(except for that one idiot from here in valley, but thats ok), one of the unsung stories in all this battling is the GOP taking a stand and not going along with their tax increases.
I used to think that too, but I have a theory...
First, in the DNC perspective-holding serve in this recall effort is tremendous mud in their eye. Most people across the US don't have a clue who Gray Davis is, but they will when this recall goes through.
So a "recall" is the worst case scenerio. What's more, from a Democratic philosophy, how the HELL do you get out of a -$39 bill debt? Raise tax. Really Raise Taxes. Now the trick is that Democrates know that is a death sentence for most politicians and avoid doing it at all costs. In their reality, this is the only way out, we know better, but what am I-their d@mn teacher? So if you are going to have to balloon taxes, do you want to be the person stepping in to deliver the death sentence? No, so Democrates like Feinstein and Bustamante are only too willing to "agree" with the DNC because Gray can "fix" what he started. If he goes down in infamy, so be it, at least the "Budget Crisis" isn't linked to the Democratic Party.
So I think you are going to see a concerted effort by the DNC, once it gets on the ballot (if they don't focus on recounting the ballots over and over-the irony. Where is THAT FR theory? That's probably their next move) to trash every Republican on the ballot against him. They've already started big time with Issa, and fools like Safire and Ruddy from Newsmax have picked up on the "wealthy businessman buying the govenorship" talking point. They'll try to do the same thing they did to Simon and defend against the recall. Only this time, it isn't going to work.
Brulte told all the GOP state senators to hold firm against tax increases recently; otherwise, he would go to the home districts of the turncoats and actively campaign against them in the next election. In response, the democrats are demonizing Brulte for not cooperating with the democrat tax increases.
does one officially have to declare in this free-for-all?
Yes. After the recall qualifies for the ballot, you have to get a few thousand signatures or pay a fee to enter the election. I heard it was 10,000 signatures or $3500, but I may be mistaken.
What you said certainly matters to the AP, but I guess since Arnold isn't official either, I'm sick of hearing about that red herring of a candidate.
Me, too. Nobody is an official candidate yet because there is no election yet. Schwarzenegger is a media darling, though, so that's why he always gets mentioned, although the PPIC poll demonstrated that he would lose by a huge landslide if paired against Condoleezza Rice (who has relatively very little name recognition among regular Californians). Issa gets mentioned a lot, too, because he has contributed significant amounts of money to the recall.
Yeah, I guess an order like that comes from the top, certainly not from Parsky. The California Republicans in the Senate deserve alot of credit.
Schwarzenegger is a media darling, though, so that's why he always gets mentioned, although the PPIC poll demonstrated that he would lose by a huge landslide if paired against Condoleezza Rice (who has relatively very little name recognition among regular Californians).
Meaning they have no support, just "sports talk" kind of fan theorizing about popular people from out-of-state-ers. Personally, I'm more against Rice than I am Arnold, because I know even less politically that she stands for than him. These dream-team theorizers make me sick.
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