Sweet!!!Aye, but we do NOT (yet) have confirmation.
confirmation is sweet!
See also THIS update, from usnewswire:
The Hill: California Recall Effort Heads Into New Phase
7/22/03 7:34:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: Peter Savodnik of The Hill, 202-628-8507; 202-460-1524
WASHINGTON, July 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The unusual effort to recall California Gov. Gray Davis (D) heads into a new phase Wednesday as county officials from around the state are expected to announce that enough signatures have been gathered to set the recall election process in motion. Staff writer Peter Savodnik reports in the July 23, 2003, issue of The Hill that the move will have an impact from California to Washington, D.C. Observers are watching to see whether the unpopular Davis's travails will help or hurt President Bush's reelection prospects. "This is California," said Phil Eisenberg, a former Democratic state assemblyman who now works as a lobbyist in Sacramento. "We go through political theater every 35 minutes. We have bizarre things happen to us."
Calif. Recall Gets Real; Election to Oust Davis Coming This Fall
By Peter Savodnik
Today, California's 58 counties will report to the secretary of state that a statewide effort to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis has more than enough signatures to get on the ballot. Recall backers need 897,158; they submitted 1.65 million.
Tomorrow, almost everyone predicts, the secretary of state, Kevin Shelley, also a Democrat, will step before the cameras and microphones in Sacramento to announce that California will hold its first recall election since adopting the initiative in 1911.
Shelley's announcement is likely to trigger a political frenzy from the Pacific to the Potomac, where the president's political advisors have been monitoring the recall and its potential impact on George W. Bush's prospects on the "left coast" in 2004.
In Washington, no one knows quite how the historic campaign to oust Davis will affect the president's reelection. Some Republicans say the White House would prefer running in California with a black and blue Democratic governor than with a Republican who has inherited a $38 billion deficit and widespread voter antipathy.
Other Republicans counter that a successful recall could galvanize conservative activists into giving more money to the president and building a get-out-the-vote effort. They add that it could aid whoever challenges Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer next year.
In California, the recall certification will certainly trigger frenzied backroom politicking.
After Shelley makes his announcement, Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante must set an election date that falls within 60-80 days. Candidates then must file within 59 days of the election.
This means that if Bustamante calls the election for Sept. 23, as many Republicans expect, candidates would have 24 hours, beginning tomorrow, to jump into the race.
It takes $3,500 and 65 signatures to become a candidate for governor of California, which has roughly 35 million people and the world's fifth largest economy. Candidates may file to run in Sacramento or in the counties where they are registered to vote.
"The Republican side is pretty well set," said John Stoos of People's Advocate, the group that launched the recall effort earlier this year. "You've got five or six people who have been pretty serious."
These include Rep. Darrell Issa, who has largely funded the recall effort and has already launched his gubernatorial bid; movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger; state Sen. Tom McClintock; and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who has indicated he won't run if Schwarzenegger does.
Stoos added: "The drama on Friday will be what are the Democrats going to do?" Referring to Terry McAuliffe, head of the Democratic National Committee, he said, "Does McAuliffe clear the field? Do they put up a caretaker? The real circus thing would be what if Bustamante or (Democratic state Attorney General Bill) Lockyer files? Then the Democrats have a real mess."
The Democrats' strategy has shifted in the past month. First Democrats sought to play down the recall, saying the ballot initiative was hardly a fait accompli. Then, when it became clear that it was, they began arguing that even though the recall could qualify, Davis would ultimately prevail.
The Democrats' plan revolves around the recall ballot itself. When voters go into the polling booths, they must answer two questions: First, should Davis be kicked out of office? If they answer yes, then voters must pick his successor.
Democrats hope that if they keep any of their own off the list of successors, Democratic voters -- who dominate in California -- will oppose recalling Davis to ensure that a Republican doesn't become governor.
The big question is whether the party can maintain its discipline between now and the filing deadline -- which explains, perhaps, why the Democratic lieutenant governor would want to set the election sooner instead of later.
Many of California's 33 congressional Democrats, among others, have privately said they would support Sen. Dianne Feinstein's replacing Davis. Other names that have been floated by Democrats are former Clinton Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, Lockyer; Bustamante; state Treasurer Phil Angelides; Rep. Jane Harman, who lost a gubernatorial primary in 1998; and even Bill Clinton.
Harman's spokesman said the five-term congresswoman from the Los Angeles suburbs has no plans to run for governor. Clinton spokesman Jim Kennedy said of the former president: "He's too busy not running for mayor of New York City to be not running for governor of California."
While congressional Democrats have publicly backed the governor, there were signs last week that the united front was becoming a bit frayed.
Saying Davis needs to fight back more aggressively, Democratic Rep. Cal Dooley noted that "patience is growing thin." Dooley said his "highest priority" is making sure a Democrat is governor.
Other congressional Democrats privately acknowledged that they don't much like Davis, widely regarded as a canny tactician who has, however, done a poor job governing the state.
Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio said the reason so many people don't like his boss is that Davis is "passionately moderate."
"You don't find a lot of Democrats in elected positions who are like that in the California legislature," Maviglio said. "They tend to be far more progressive than him and want more. He's tapped into the mainstream politics of California voters."
Tom Bader doesn't quite see things that way.
Bader, who ran the recall's signature-gathering operation, said the "circulators" collecting them at shopping malls and supermarkets sensed a deep-rooted frustration with the status quo.
There were 1,000 circulators "in the field" at any one time, Bader said. The whole endeavor included 3,000 to 4,000 signature collectors and 25 coordinators.
Circulators focused on Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties, Bader said. But they unearthed deep pockets of support in liberal areas, too, gathering 300,000-plus signatures in Los Angeles County alone.
Chris Wysocki of Rescue California, which worked with People's Advocate, asked: "Are we excited? No, awed is more like it. We're not happy that we have to be here, but we have to recall this governor."
Phil Eisenberg, a former Democratic state assemblyman who now works as a lobbyist in Sacramento, said it is impossible to predict how the recall will go, although he suspects Davis will emerge victorious.
"This is California," Eisenberg said. "We go through political theater every 35 minutes. We have bizarre things happen to us. We have movie stars running all the time, and celebrities and rich guys, and campaigns out here cost tens of millions of dollars. People are used to political theater. Not that they like it very much. They're used to it."
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/© 2003 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/