Rohrabacher Leads Charge on Allen’s Recall

Outraged Republican activists, led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), moved quickly Tuesday to oust newly elected Assembly Speaker Doris Allen, gathering signatures on a recall petition they vowed to serve on the Cypress assemblywoman at the state Capitol today.

Jim Righeimer, Rohrabacher’s campaign chairman and an announced candidate for the seat Allen will vacate in 1996, was in Sacramento on Tuesday awaiting arrival of the petitions bearing at least 40 signatures necessary to launch a recall of Allen.

A copy of the petition will also be filed with the secretary of state’s office, he said.

“When the people find out we had a chance to finally take back state government from Willie Brown . . . and that she sold all of her friends out, the outrage is going to sweep her out” of office, Rohrabacher said.

Rohrabacher called Allen’s deal with legislative Democrats, which made her the Assembly’s first female speaker, “treachery.” He predicted that “every elected official in [Orange] County” would back the recall campaign.

But despite the derision heaped on Allen by Rohrabacher and others, the prospects of a successful recall were unclear Tuesday. Some local Republicans praised Allen and her service to the district.

“I’m ecstatic,” Cypress Mayor Cecilia L. Age said Monday, after Allen ascended to the Assembly’s top post. “I think she is great. . . . She is a dynamic leader, and she will lead California into the best possible solution.”

Allen’s election also brought praise from Seal Beach Mayor Marilyn Bruce Hastings.

“She has backed us whenever we have needed her,” said Hastings, who is also a member of a national Republican women’s group. “I’m sorry other Republicans are upset over it, but you can’t please all the people all the time.”

Noting that the “full impact [of Allen’s election] hasn’t settled in yet,” Buck Johns, a Republican activist and board member of the conservative Lincoln Club of Orange County, called the Rohrabacher campaign a bit premature.

“I think that Dana is well-meaning, but I think we ought to let the dust settle for a couple of days and get a plan established,” Johns said. “It is a little bit quick to initiate that. Obviously, Willie has made his play, and now we have to assess what that means and what the alternatives are.”

Talk of recalling Allen began Monday, almost as soon as she was elected Speaker in a dramatic 40-38 vote engineered by outgoing Speaker Willie Brown. Brown cast the lone Republican vote for herself and was joined by the Assembly’s 39 Democrats.

The move effectively continued Brown’s hold on the legislative body.

In Orange County, where Republicans have tried to discredit GOP primary challengers by linking them to Brown, Rohrabacher forecast Allen’s political demise.

While Brown has a reputation as a master campaign fund-raiser for his political allies, Rohrabacher said that “all the money Willie Brown can muster isn’t going to be enough” to keep Allen in office.

“Gathering signatures to recall someone who has betrayed every one of her Republican friends is not going to be difficult in Orange County,” Rohrabacher added. “Betraying her friends to keep Willie Brown in power is about as bad as it gets.”

Haydee Tillotson, another announced candidate for the seat Allen must vacate next year under the state’s term-limit law, also is a member of the Committee to Recall Doris Allen.

Once Allen is officially served with a recall notice and files her response, petitioners have 160 days to collect signatures of 28,378 voters in Allen’s district--20% of the number of votes cast in her reelection last November. Republicans and Democrats would vote in a recall election.

The Orange County legislative caucus--Republicans all--Tuesday announced its condemnation of the new Speaker, who in her seventh term is the caucus’ senior member.

Delegation members said they were angered by Allen’s move, and that their offices had been peppered with calls from angry constituents.

Martinez reported from Washington and Warren reported from Orange County.