Lawsuit Will Fight Davis Recall Bid

The campaign committee fighting the proposed recall of Gov. Gray Davis plans to file a lawsuit today, alleging illegal conduct in the gathering of signatures on the petition for a special election.

Lawyers for the committee, Taxpayers Against the Governor’s Recall, said the suit to be filed in Los Angeles Superior Court would charge that recall supporters illegally employed out-of-state residents to gather signatures. By law, circulators of petitions for statewide ballot measures must be registered California voters.

The class-action lawsuit would seek an injunction to force county election officers to confirm that legally qualified petition circulators had collected the signatures properly, committee lawyers said.

One of the lawyers, Wylie Aitken of Santa Ana, said recall supporters had hauled out-of-state “bounty hunters” into California by the busload to circulate petitions at a rate of $1 per signature. He called them “paid mercenaries” and “petition vigilantes” who were not California residents. Some, he said, listed motels as their local residences.

“We have every reason to believe that this assault on the integrity of the process is clearly only the tip of the iceberg,” Aitken said.

He said at least two petition circulators had signed declarations acknowledging that they were convicted felons.

But according to the secretary of state’s office, the only requirement for recall petition circulators is that they be registered California voters, and convicted felons can register to vote as long as they are not on probation or parole.

It could be difficult to enforce the requirement that circulators be registered to vote in California. The United States Supreme Court struck down a similar requirement by Colorado; California’s provision has never been challenged and remains on the books.

Dave Gilliard, director of Rescue California, a pro-recall group founded and financed by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), called the lawsuit “a slap in the face” to the voters who signed the petition.

“Gray Davis can’t explain or defend his dismal record, so he has resorted to a cynical, frivolous lawsuit to try to thwart the will of the people,” he said.

Rescue California spokesman Chris Wysocki said the group had gone “strictly by the book” in hiring petition circulators. It has become common practice in California to pay professional petition circulators to gather signatures for statewide ballot measures. Issa has put more than $1.5 million into the Davis recall drive.

Davis allies announced the lawsuit a few hours after recall supporters gathered on the state Capitol steps and declared they had collected more than 1.6 million signatures. They need 897,158 signatures from registered voters to qualify the proposal for the ballot.

Although recall supporters have until Sept. 2 to circulate the petition, they hope that Secretary of State Kevin Shelley will be forced to certify as soon as next week that the recall has qualified for a fall election. Davis allies have sought to slow down the signature gathering -- and now the counting -- in an effort to consolidate the recall election with the March presidential primary, which could draw a heavy Democratic turnout.

For weeks, county election registrars have been verifying the validity of signatures. The counties must give Shelley their latest 30-day progress report by July 23. If they report that recall supporters have submitted at least 110% of the number of valid signatures needed, Shelley must certify that an election will be held. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante would set the date.

The lawsuit, however, could slow the momentum toward a fall election and help delay the recall election until March.

Paul R. Kiesel, a lawyer for the anti-recall committee, said the suit would seek a court order requiring Shelley to issue guidelines laying out the duties of county registrars to validate the petitions.

Shelley, a San Francisco Democrat, said in a statement: “I will continue to provide guidance based on the law, not the interests of one side or the other.”

The full scope of the suit’s allegations was unclear, because leaders of the anti-recall committee declined to release their court filings before the case is filed today. In addition to the residency allegations, lawyers said, the suit will also allege that paid petition circulators lied when they claimed to have witnessed each signature. They said they had videotape showing people signing petitions with no witness in sight.

The lawsuit is the second one stemming from the recall effort. Last week, a faction of recall supporters broke with Rescue California and filed a suit seeking court intervention to speed up the counting of signatures. The suit filed by former GOP Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian of San Diego County angered Rescue California leaders, who fear the legal action could backfire and stall the calling of an election.

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Times staff writer Rhashad Pittman contributed to this report.