Davis Seeks to Shift Focus to Recall Backers

With the drive to oust him scrambling the state’s political landscape, Gov. Gray Davis is mounting a campaign to shift voters’ focus from himself to the Republicans who want to kick him out of office.

In a CNN interview on Monday, Davis denounced the recall campaign as “partisan mischief by the right wing.”

His first appearance on national television to discuss the recall effort was a sign that Davis has begun to follow the advice of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a fellow Democrat who has urged him to fight back more aggressively, said a person familiar with the matter.

Feinstein survived a bitter recall election in 1983 when she was mayor of San Francisco. Earlier this month, she called Davis and offered to help unite the Democratic Party behind his campaign against the recall. After phone calls from the senator, statewide officeholders -- all Democrats -- last week publicly backed Davis and denounced the recall. Feinstein did the same on Saturday.

On CNN, Davis, whose advisors have studied the attempted Feinstein recall, compared his fight for survival to the one that she waged 20 years ago.

“She overcame a recall financed by the right wing as I will overcome this one,” Davis said.

Davis and his allies are trying to keep the measure off the ballot -- a longshot, even his supporters say -- while moving ahead toward a full-scale campaign. In the last several weeks, the recall effort has evolved from plodding petition-gathering into a national television spectacle -- featuring appearances by potential candidates Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rob Reiner, among others.

Davis aides concede privately that he could have a tough time surviving a recall if it is framed as a referendum on the unpopular governor.

So, before the recall has even qualified for the ballot, the campaign is shaping up as a struggle between supporters and opponents to define it for voters. Recall sponsors want the battle to be a referendum on the governor; Davis wants it to be a referendum on them -- by his telling, Republicans whose conservative politics are too far out of step with mainstream California to prevail in a regular election.

“It’s very much a contest between those two strategic imperatives,” said Clint Reilly, who oversaw Feinstein’s campaign against the recall in San Francisco.

In that campaign, Feinstein questioned the use of the recall process to challenge an official who was not accused of corruption or incompetence. A fringe group, the White Panthers, had launched the recall drive in anger over her approval of a ban on handguns. Feinstein won more than 80% of the vote.

With California potentially facing the first statewide recall election in its history, the stakes are far more important.

For now, few Californians are even familiar with the state’s system for ousting elected officials. The state Constitution allows the Assembly to impeach a governor for “misconduct in office.” If convicted by a two-thirds vote in the Senate, the governor is removed from office.

But it sets no standard for the conduct that would warrant a recall. If recall sponsors submit a petition with 897,158 valid signatures of registered voters by Sept. 2, it will qualify for a ballot. In deciding whether Davis deserves removal from office, voters can apply any standard they want.

Recall organizers have submitted several hundred thousand signatures; the California secretary of state plans to update the official count today. The recall organization led by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from Vista, is pressing for a fall election; the recall also could be consolidated with the March presidential and state primaries.

While petition circulators ply the parking lots of Target and Home Depot for signatures, potential gubernatorial hopefuls are vying for attention.

Schwarzenegger’s potential bid has lent the recall story enough Hollywood pizazz to make it a fixture on national television.

But Schwarzenegger has kept the political world guessing about whether his flirtation with a gubernatorial candidacy is genuine -- or an angle to promote his new movie, “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” Its release is scheduled for July 2.

On Monday, Schwarzenegger, a Davis recall supporter, said he expects the measure to qualify for the ballot.

“I’m staying out of it at this point,” he said in an interview to plug the “Terminator” sequel on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I’m thinking about the movie right now.

“You have to stay on message. That is very important in the political arena, and also when you promote a movie.”

Another celebrity fueling television interest in the recall is director Rob Reiner, a Democrat best known for playing Michael -- whom Archie Bunker called Meathead -- in the sitcom “All in the Family.”

“Everybody likes the idea of the Terminator versus the Meathead,” Reiner said Wednesday in his own appearance on “Good Morning America.” (He was touting his own new movie, “Alex & Emma.”)

Reiner acknowledged that he has thought about running for governor, but he ruled out a candidacy on a recall ballot. He called it a misguided attempt by Republicans to “steal an election.”

So far, the boldest gubernatorial hopeful in positioning for the recall campaign has been Issa. He has invested $1.15 million in the petition effort.

But competition for the loyalty of conservative Republicans has already begun between Issa and businessman Bill Simon Jr. Simon, who lost to Davis in November, has campaigned for the recall and hinted at his interest in running to replace the governor. “This time, we will succeed,” Simon said.

In legislative districts across the state, Republicans running in the March primary are trying to outdo one another in showing support for dumping the governor. In Orange County, Assemblyman John Campbell, a state Senate candidate, is raising money for the recall petition effort; his opponent, Assemblyman Ken Maddox, invited the media to watch him submit petitions Friday to elections officials.

Elsewhere, the recall effort has sparked speculation on whether Democrats may give up on Davis. On MSNBC last week, former Gov. Jerry Brown said: “If a Republican looks overwhelmingly like they’re going to win, then you have got to look around for a Democrat” to run on the recall ballot to replace Davis.

Brown later issued a statement criticizing the recall and voicing support for Davis.

But Davis has continued to face questions, including Monday on CNN, about whether he may eventually resign. He told CNN: “Absolutely not.”