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If you go back a month or so when the recall was authorized, the initial strategy of the Gray Davis team (under the instruction of Bill Clinton) was to paint this as a "vast right-wing conspiracy" to "overturn an election."

All that nonsense about right-wing extremism disappeared in a hurry, mainly because it was impossible to paint their opponents as "right-wing" when the most conservative GOP candidate (McClintock) wasn't leading in the polls.

Having McClintock in the race has effectively allowed Schwarzenegger to gain a lot of support from independents and non-political types who would not otherwise have voted for a GOP candidate if there was only one of them in the race.

While I'm not Alberta's Child, I believe this is what is meant:

Many of McClintock's supporters are "my way or the highway" type voters. If he's not in it, they won't vote at all because they believe it would be compromising their principals. This is quite common for candidates and their supporters on both ends of the political spectrum. So be it. Not going to judge the merits or demerits in this post. Now this may be 6% or 10% or 12% of the 18% that McClintock is currently polling, but based on posts to FreeRepublic and other conversations I've had, it's probably a substantial number.

Now if the recall vote is closer than Gallup says (let's say 54-46 for argument's sake) and half of McClintock's supporters stay home because he drops out, well there you have it...Davis stays in office.